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Hi there, since you are receiving this first newsletter, you probably bought my terroir champagne book at some point. I am writing to you today to let you know about my new terroir champagne project. I am looking to build a community of sustainable champagne lovers – as in people who love champagne, and who want it the wine and the region to flourish economically, ecologically and ethically.
For those of you who do not know me personally, hi, I am Caroline Henry, a wine writer who has been writing on champagne since 2011 for on and off line magazines such as Wine-Searcher, Palate Press, Decanter… In December 2011 I moved to Hautvillers, the village of Dom Perignon, in the heart of Champagne because the project I had been working on for a big corporation went under, and rather than transfer within the company, I took the garden leave option, and decided to learn more about terroir in Champagne. I was missing the wine world, and decided to use my six-month payed leave to find out why everywhere in the wine world (including in the ‘new world’), terroir was at the heart of the conversation, while in Champagne it was hardly mentioned outside the “champagne can only come from Champagne’ notion.
Upon moving, one look at the scorched vine-scape was all it took to understand the Champenois’ take on terroir. At the end of fall in 2011, the vineyards’ soils looked dead. They had been freshly blanket sprayed with herbicides, a practice which was repeated several times during the year to make sure vineyards remained void of grass and life. In those conditions, it is indeed complicated to talk about terroir – for if the rain water struggles to enter the extremely compacted soil, there is little to no chance that groundwater will make it up to the vine.
However, even if most champagne’s vineyards looked dead, there were those rare exceptions that were teaming with life. And here, unlike in the rest of the region, producers were looking to create more terroir driven wines. They inspired me to write my first book, Terroir Champagne: the luxury of sustainable, organic and biodynamic cuvees which I self-published in 2017. The book focused on a selection of producers who had opted to nourish the soil, rather than destroy it with herbicides, and told their journey from conventional to (real) sustainable farming. I have never wanted to write an updated version of the book, because history does not tend to change, and re-publishing a book just to update the cuvees, or even add some other growers, is a very unsustainable practice.
Nevertheless I have continued to learn and talk about de the terroir in champagne, and, in case you wondered, yes I still oppose herbicides. Over the years I have written several articles, often published on Wine-Searcher, where I expose Champagne’s habit of nuking the soil and I have upped my game significantly since December 2018, after Champagne’s two co-presidents, Jean-Marie Barillère and Maxime Toubart, committed to a zero-herbicide in Champagne policy by 2025 without ever providing a blue print to drive this transition. Unsurprisingly, this decision was walked back as soon as it seemed glyphosate – the pet-chemical of most Champenois – would not be banned in the EU and thus France. The EU’s green ambitions faced several setbacks in the aftermath of the Covid-crisis and the geopolitical and economic threats resulting from the Ukrainian war.
And today, it seems that the Syndicat Général des Vignerons (SGV) is very much determined to prevent further ecological restrictions being imposed by the EU as well as any liberalizations of current regulations – whether they regard wines outside of AOP regulations, or as can be deducted from the recent vote to impose the neck foil in the Cahier des Charges – rules regarding more ecological packaging. They even went as far as handing out leaflets on the importance of the upcoming EU vote and organizing a debate on EU viticultural politics in their last AGM on April 11th. All of this is very much in-line with the AREV recommendations which were sent out earlier this year: in short the SGV wants the status quo: they want to hang on to continuous economic support, want as little if any ecological restrictions (so they have been celebrating the reauthorization of glyphosate and the canning of the SUR regulations in November last year), want commercial support to encourage wine consumption again, and they want to maintain the plantation regulations linked to the AOP rules.
And while they have been shifting the focus on the need to exert more control in Brussels, glyphosate has been making its come-back in a big way. In fact, this year, in many vineyards, it was applied outside the regulations set out by the ANSES. In plain English, a lot of vineyards have been illegally blanket sprayed. Even the tech team of the CIVC has admitted that today’s use is worse than it has been in the last few years, even if they are quick to stress that the region has made a lot of progress since the turn of the century. Still, people in high places have admitted that it seems that the appellation has reached a plateau in its fight to eradicate herbicides. The same plateau can be observed in organic conversions and the uptake of sustainable certifications. In other words, progress has been made but now it’s come to a screeching halt and ways have to be found to incite producers to further advance their ecological commitments, if further setbacks are to be avoided. And in this capitalist world, there is no better pressure than consumer pressure to force change. This is where I hope this community (via this newsletter) will play a role.
All revolution requires information. And information of what really happens in Champagne – at least on a large scale from an ecological point of view – is very scarce. Most writers live outside of the region, and are restricted by what they can write either by editors or - more often – by the desire to keep great relations and the invitations, dinners and perks that come with that. I live here, and besides writing I am teaching English so I am a lot less worried about invitations. Moreover, last year I was already designated Champagne Enemy Number 1 – by none other than Toubart himself. Whether he meant it or not is not important, but it shows that I have not really that much to lose by writing the unfiltered truth. Lastly, after 12.5 years in Champagne, I know the Champenois system, in all of its intricacies, and most importantly – I know when I need more information and I know where I can get it. I have an academic mind and background, and I enjoy fact checking, which I think is very important to structure an argument soundly and truthfully.
This newsletter will have its share of non-savory information – whether this regards soil management, plant management, or dubious harvest practices often resulting in sub-quality wines. However, it will also focus on what is done well, on people who invest in innovation and who continue to push the ecological and qualitative boundaries. Because for all the bad, there is its counterpart in good, but often this is outside the current Champagne ‘mainstream Grandes Marques Cuvees Prestige TikTok/Instagram/lifestyle magazine buzz… But then Revolution – which by the way contains the word evolution – has never been a mainstream activity J
I will continue to write for Wine-Searcher, where my tone will be more neutral and slightly less militant – while this will be my pet-project hoping to raise the right questions to help the region break through its plateaus that today are keeping it back. In case you do not believe me, check the latest Champagne sales figures which clearly show that innovation is very much needed.
And for it to happen the sad truth behind the glitzy champagne image needs to come out. I have opted for a pay wall as this is the only way to stay truthful. Moreover, it also means that no-one can accuse me of wishing for the region’s demise as I disclose information many stakeholders would prefer to see unwritten. Wine-Searcher’s audience is too big for the unfiltered truth and most importantly, it is on the CIVC’s radar. So a niche newsletter is a much better fit to build this sustainable champagne community.
Hence if you want to learn more about what really goes on in Champagne – the good, the bad and the ugly – I will be very happy to share weekly updates on various champagne related subjects (generally analyzed from an ecological angle). There will also be pre-views of my upcoming book on organic champagne, portraits of the good guys, sales analysis, cahier des charges changes, frost updates, growing seasons updates, harvest reports, snippets of life in Hautvillers etc etc .
However, if you are looking for tasting notes, big cuvee reviews or fancy pictures this is not the right newsletter and or community for you. At that time I would recommend subscribing to Six Atmospheres, where my fried Tom Hewson serves up a wider champagne menu, still written through a critical lens;-)
I sincerely hope to get some momentum behind a more sustainable champagne (R)evolution !
With kindness,
Caroline