I have attended many food parings and tastings with wine, bourbon, tequila, and scotch, but not with champagne. Of course, champagne is the choice to enjoy at weddings and other celebrations, but what about for every-day situations?

I was invited for a tasting of Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte’s five rose champagnes in the beautiful new Vdara Hotel, in City Center. What a perfect setting for this very special champagne.

Recognized around the world for their fresh approach to champagne, in just over 30 years Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte has grown into the #1 brand in France for years and ranks as #4 in the world. This is incredible because they are in competition with other brands which are over 200-300 years old.

One man who has been instrumental in their success is Jean-Pierre Vincent, the Chef de Cave/ Chief Winemaker. I had a chance to interview Jean-Pierre for the secret of his success. Jean-Pierre explained, “The difference about champagne is the climate and the fact that we don’t have ideal growing conditions. One of specificities of this region, it is located in one of the northern- most parts of Europe, at the northern limit of where grapes are grown. The temperatures really get cold there. In France, the more the wine suffers, the better the grapes.

Second but really important is the chalk which gives specificity to the wine later, the elegance. Because of the consequences of the weather, the wine is grown, in the vineyards, very low to ground to benefit from the chalk which gives back heat and protects against the cold temperatures.”

CO-OPERATIVE PROCESS

Champagne Nicolas’ co-operative process of 5,000 growers is unique! Jean-Pierre was proud of his accomplishments. “It is rare to benefit from the knowhow of 5,000 growers, not many companies can say that. One of first advantages of the co-operative system is to benefit from these relationships. These 5,000 growers are located all over the champagne region which covers over 200 square kilometers, 110 square miles. It also helps for us to use grapes from regions that are varied. If one region is destroyed from some climate problem which unfortunately is frequent in this region, it can always compensate with grapes from other regions that had not suffered.

Our brand’s strength is to be able to produce that much wine in that many caves and obtain such a wide variety of different tastes. This allows us an advantage of consistent champagne from year to year, which is the objective. Also vintage after vintage expresses the aspects of one particular year. Having 5,000 growers represents a 1/3 of all growers in the champagne region. These are huge numbers.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte began protecting the environment earlier than most of the others thought about doing it. Jean-Pierre has developed programs for protecting the environment and the champagne. First is the production of the grapes themselves, and second is making wine. He has one full-time person working with the 5,000 growers holding meetings on a regular basis. The objective is to catch problems early in the vineyard and work instantly to have more control to do anything that has to be done. The more you wait the more problems become large. For example, during the first year of a big attack of mildew, they were unable to catch the problem soon enough and had to treat the vineyards several times. Today they are dedicated to utilizing certain measures early to catch the problems.

Working with weather forecasts closely and a new system of planting grass between the vines, they force the roots of the vineyard to grow deeper which is a much better way to handle the vineyards. Jean-Pierre tries to protect the soil as much as possible.

He is active in the conservation of energy. Jean-Pierre not only looks at the wines but the human beings working at the winery to insure their security, well being and way they are treated.

Jean-Pierre Vincent says, “The key to champagne, we should open a bottle any time of day between 7 am and 7 am the next morning.” He may be right, I feel champagne makes every meal a celebration! www.feuillatte.com www.vdarahotel.com

SANDY ZIMMERMAN is a syndicated features columnist published in Dubai, Japan, England, South America, as well as other countries and in the United States;

She is talk show host of the Las Vegas Today Show programs and Discover the Ultimate Vacation travel specials taped on location in Las Vegas and around the world;

Celebrating 29 years as the longest running talk show host, columnist, and entertainment reviewer in Las Vegas, Sandy also covers dining reviews, travel, spas, health and lifestyles; sandyzimm2003@yahoo.com