Champagne What lies beneath

Roederer's watery wine cellar
27 August, 2008
Page 50 

Lovers of champagne, snorkeling and scuba diving will be interested in Louis Roederer's latest experiment.

The Champagne house has submerged several dozen bottles of its Brut Premier in 15 m of water off the Saint Malo coast , to test the suitability for storing wine.



The reasoning is that a constant temperature of 10°C, the gentle movement of water and lack of light may make the sea bed a perfect cellar. The plan is to retrieve the bottles in a year, taste and compare with those from its traditional cellars. The remainder will then be sold off at auction and the money donated to charity.

Maybe for any budding Jacques Cousteau types, Roederer should organise a dive-a-thon. We could have a shoal of sommeliers, a pod of publicans, a dosage of divers, a school of MWs even. If successful could we see the Court of Master Sommeliers demanding candidates do a PADI scuba diving course?

It would be a positive field day for Roederer's PR - we could have a wave of excitement, a sea change in cellaring, people musseling in on the experiment, Roederer round the bend? And finally, the name of Roederer's UK PR? Pike PR (OK so it's a freshwater fish).



Digital Edition

Drinks International digital edition is available ahead of the printed magazine. Don’t miss out, make sure you subscribe today to access the digital edition and all archived editions of Drinks International as part of your subscription.

Comment

La'Mel Clarke

Service isn’t servitude: the skill of hosting

La’Mel Clarke, front of house at London’s Seed Library, looks at the forgotten art of hosting and why it deserves the same respect as bartending.

Instagram

Facebook