Where are the Women in Champagne? #Winophiles

Mar 14, 2019

Women in Champagne

It’s a simple title. I looked forward to learning and researching about Women in Champagne as we put together our piece for the Winophiles this month. As I set forth to do some research, I found two stumbling blocks, Champagne and Women. Do a search, try it now…I’ll wait.

Probably the first things that popped up were dresses or shoes in the color of champagne for women. Ugh!

Dig deeper.

Once you’ve waded through the photos of ladies in champagne colored gowns sipping flutes of Champagne, you might come across pieces on “The Women of Champagne”. Okay, this has a bit more merit. It will discuss the Grand Dames of the Champagne region, beginning with the Widow Cliquot and moving on to the women in the industry who work for or are part of the families of the big Champagne houses.

Kudos to all of them! You can read a great piece on them here at Food&Wine https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/champagne-sparkling-wine/future-women-in-champagne , but this was not what I was looking for.

I was looking for the boots on the ground women in Champagne.

Where were the female winemakers, owners of a small vineyards or women working with their families in Champagne for small wineries. I wanted to talk about women on the ground getting their hands dirty, making delicious wine, not about a large corporation.

In my online research I did stumble upon the perfect piece to send me down the rabbit hole that I needed.

It was a research piece by Professors Lucia and John Gilbert of Santa Clara University in California. (You can read it here https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/champagne.php) Researched and Written by Professors Lucia and John Gilbert [email protected] Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 2018

They discussed several organizations in Champagne for/by women including La Transmission and Les Fa’Bulleuses. Ahh….at last. These were the women I was looking for.

Les Fa’Bulleuses

I reached out to Les Fa’Bulleuses for some information and Charlotte de Sousa of Champagne De Sousa was happy to provide me with some additional information.

Les Fa’Bulleuses are a group of women in Champagne who have gathered together to market their family wineries in Champagne. More than that, this group has become an indispensable resource for each other.

“Each of us comes from a different village and has a very singular history … But what unites us, above all, is this unconditional love that we have for our wines and our terroirs.
Versatile and dynamic, we practice the noble profession of winegrower in its entirety. At the same time present in our vineyards, in vinification and cav, we like to learn, observe, communicate and especially share.
Convinced that “unity is strength” we are a real team. Through our associate the Fa’Bulleuses of Champagne we wish to defend with femininity but without feminism our work, our values and our passion”
Courtesy Les Fa’Bulleuses de Champagne

Charlotte was kind enough to give me her thoughts on the group.

“There were seven of us at the beginning. Two girls met during a wine fair and decided to create a group. One girl called another, and they called another and soon we were 7 for the creation of the group in 2014. It is important to us, because we have the same questions, the same issues. It is important to have each other for advice, help etc… we are oxygen for each other, working in a family business every day is not easy. Here we know we are not alone. It is not always so easy to work in a world of men when you are a young woman, so we are happy to know that the other Fa’Bulleuses are here to help!””
Charlotte De Sousa of Champagne De Sousa

The group includes:

Les Fa'Bulleuses photo on Stairs Women in Champagne — Les Fa’Bulleuses courtesy Les Fa’Bulleuses

Laureen Baillette of Champagne Baillet-Prudhomme

Hélène Beaugrand of Champagne-Beaugrand

Claire Blin of Champagne Mary Sessile

Mathilde Bonnevie of Champagne Bonnevie Bocart

Charlotte De Sousa of Champagne De Sousa

Sophie Milesi of Champagne Guy Méa

And

Delphine Brulez of Champagne Louise Brison

They have a map of 7 of the houses linking all the areas of Champagne.

Femmes de Vin Map of Les Fa'Bulleuses — Femmes de Vin Map of Les Fa’Bulleuses

I encourage you to check out the Les Fa’Bulleuses site and dig deeper into each of these houses!

Finding a wine made by a female Winemaker in Champagne

So I went to look for a bottle of Champagne. The same issues as before came up. It’s hard enough to find Grower Champagne, but then one made by a woman? I hit up wine.com. They pointed me to Veuve Cliquot. I explained that I was looking for a female winemaker. They pointed out that the Champagne houses typically have teams of winemakers that often change so finding and keeping track of a female winemaker there can be exciting for research (I would have said challenging).

I had to come back around to “Grower Champagne” and while they did not have any wines by the wineries of Les Fa’Bulleuses, they were able to find me one by Nathalie Falmet.

Nathalie Falmet, Vigneronne Oenologue

Nathalie Falmet was the first female oenologue in Champagne. Her label proudly lists “Champagne Nathalie Falmet, Vigneronne Oenologue. I was able to find a piece written about Nathalie on the Scala School of Wine site.

With a degree in chemistry she went on to become an Oenologue. In addition to making her wines, she runs her Bar-sur-Aube consulting laboratory. The tiny estate (which is just 3.2 hectares is in the Côte des Bar in the Aube department. An area which has been getting more and more attention.

We tasted the Brut NV. Tim Hall with the Scala School of Wine spoke about the style and production method.

A perpetual solera-type reserve begun in 2009 provides the reserve wines, giving a growing complexity of options to a small producer who does not have the volume to store a high proportion of reserves each harvest. The solera is replenished with about 20% of the assembled Brut NV (currently about 80PN 20CH) each year after 20% has been decanted for reserve wines. The Brut NV is thus based on a single year plus 20% solera reserves…
Champagne Nathalie Falmet – A Profile
Scalawine.com
Posted on February 21, 2015 by Tim Hall

Art, wine and Inspiration

Champagne has always seem feminine to me. It is elegant, festive and comforting. The bubbles cheer you and that waft of yeast, like fresh baked bread, wraps you in a comforting aroma. A few years ago we did a project with my dear friend RuBen, where he created beautiful art inspired by wine and we did pairings. The event was called Crushed Grapes and Open Minds.

One of the pieces he painted, I am lucky enough to still have gracing a wall. This piece was based on his interpretation of Champagne. The painting is vivid, yet soft and I always have the impression of a mother cradling a child. This felt like an appropriate backdrop for this piece.

I encourage you to visit RuBen site at Act2Art. He is a brilliant artist, working in multiple mediums. His art, writing, costuming, photography and other design are amazing. I am truly lucky to call him a friend.

On to the pairings

We were popping this beautiful bottle from Nathalie Falmet on the day before my birthday, which happened (kizmet) to be International Women’s Day. So there was much to celebrate.

Elegant yet comforting

In looking for pairings, I wanted to span that gap of elegant and comfort. So we started with caviar and creme fraiche on a beautiful salty potato chip combining two classic pairings, caviar and potato chips.

It was a gleeful and blissful pairing. We also enjoyed some classic pairings, brie, raspberries, nuts and lobster pate (although the lobster pate did not go as well as I would have wished).

Classic Champagne pairings caviar, raspberries, brie, pistachios — Classic Champagne pairings

Then, we did a high brow mac & cheese. I found a recipe for lobster macaroni and cheese and dove into this! The recipe seemed manageable and still a little fancy. More than once I worried that I had done a step wrong, but in the end, it came out beautifully. You can find the recipe here.

Ingredients for our Lobster Mac & Cheese

And…we ended up with lots more than I expected! So the celebrating continued throughout the week. (Lobster mac and cheese makes for a spectacular leftover!) I did add some vivid green vegetables to make this a bit healthier of a dinner.

Lobster Mac & Cheese, green vegetables and a Nathalie Falmet Brut Champagne

We finished it off simply with another great pairing for champagne…shortbread! Wrapped up with the mac & cheese, I didn’t bother to make this myself, but it was delicious and easy.

So that is my take on Women in Champagne. I cannot wait to read the perspectives by the other French Winophiles. I encourage you to dive in and enjoy some additional terrific reads below. And…you can join us to chat about the Women in Champagne on Saturday March 16th at 11 am EST on twitter! Just pop in #Winophiles and follow along, or join in! Tell us about your favorite Women of Champagne!

2019.03 #Winophiles Chat – Champagne
Julia from Julia Coney.com speaks on “Women of Champagne Making Shift Happen”
Pinny from Chinese Food & Wine Pairings whips up “Women Who Make Champagne AND Woman Who Helps Us Learn About Champagne #Winophiles #tastelikehappy”
Cynthia and Pierre from Traveling Wine Profs talk about Biodynamic Grower Champagne with Make-Your-Own Sushi Dinner “Biodynamic grower Champagne with make-your-own sushi dinner.”
Martin from Enofylz Wine Blog writes on Overcoming the Odds Twice – The Women of Champagne Duval-Leroy “Overcoming the Odds Twice – The Women of Champagne Duval-Leroy”
Gwendolyn from Wine Predator talks about the Wonderful Women of Champagne and Halibut 4 Ways for #Winophiles “Wonderful Women of Champagne and Halibut 4 Ways for #Winophiles.”
Jill from L’Occasion talks about Working With the Classics: Advice from Women in Champagne“Working With the Classics: Advice from Women in Champagne”
Camila from Culinary Adventures with Camila makes you hungry with Glazed Beet & Burrata Toasts + Alice Paillard“Glazed Beet & Burrata Toast + alice Paillard”
Nicole of Somm’s Table shares with us “Champagne Dames, Lamiable Extra Brut, and a Hot Cheese Mess”

Crushed Grapes & Open Minds – The Event

Apr 5, 2017

Crushed Grapes & Open Minds

an interactive experience

Last August we held an event entitled “Crushed Grapes and Open Minds”. My friend RuBen with Act2Art by RuBen is an accomplished artist and created some works specifically for this event. The idea connected scent memory and art, both in the creation of the pieces and peoples reactions to them.

We chose 5 wines, a Champagne (A.J. de Margerie a Bouzy Grand Cru), a Sauvignon Blanc (Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand) a Syrah (Carhartt 2013 Estate Syrah Santa Barbara), 2 Zinfandels (Tobin James 2010 Fat Boy & French Camp Zin) and a Dessert wine (Chateau Megyer Tokaji Aszu 2010)

Champagne bottle posed 3 There was a station for each wine, with a pairing, aroma jars, the wine and of course the associated work of art. Cards to explain the pairings were located at each station.

Individuals bring their personal experiences and memories as they interpret a work of art. Scent memories are similar, an aroma can trigger a very personal memory. Mixing the two and stirring in a little wine and good food can make for a powerful experience.

We asked guests to smell the aroma jars, taste the wine, and look at the art, then jot down a word, a phrase or a memory that came to them.

A.J. de Margerie a Bouzy Grand Cru

We chose this Champagne for the bread on the nose. When we were sampling Champagnes, Cremants and Sparkling wines, we dipped our nose in this glass and got hamburger buns. Yep, hamburger buns. That yeasty smell of bread came across in a very approachable way that we thought would make this wine less intimidating for those new to finding aromas in wine, so it made a great start.

This Champagne is mostly Pinot Noir so you also get berries on the nose and so there were scent jars of hamburger buns and berries for people to smell. For a food pairing we matched it with Salty potato chips. The salt and fat are a perfect pairing, the salt making you crave another sip of the champagne and the champagne’s bubbles and acid clean the fat off of your palate after each bite, making every bit as delicious as the first.

The Art – Champagne

Champagne

Some of the responses to this piece: “A perfect first date” “Crisp pears – a cool spring afternoon” “Happy – like a picnic at an apple orchard” “Fields of dandelions – fresh grass” “A beautiful sun shower in late April or Early May”

Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand

Crushed Grapes & Open Minds w/ Crushed Grape Chronicles.com

Starborough Sauvignon Blanc w/ Crushed Grape Chronicles.com

We had a bunch of Sav Blancs to choose from, but the nose on this one was just captivating! This wine, is not fancy, you can find it in your local grocery store. We had jars of lime, grapefruit, cut grass, stone fruit, and lemongrass and everyone found something different in the wine. We paired this with Guacamole and chips. The avocado is fatty which is nice with the acid in the wine and goes well with the lime and fresh greenness of the wine.

The Art – Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc Painting by Act2Art Ruben Permel

“Blowing out candles on your birthday cake” “Very content and peaceful – smells like our smoothie day” “Blood splatter on the grass from when I split my lip” (I love this childhood memory)

Carhartt 2013 Estate Syrah Santa Barbara

We love the wines from this Winery and Syrah from Santa Barbara is almost always wonderful. These are the same “Carhartts” that make the work clothes. They owned a cattle farm in Santa Barbara that Mike Carhartt turned into a vineyard. His wife Brooke and their son Chase now make the wines and they have my favorite tasting room on the planet in Los Olivos.

Carhartt Syrah

This wine has quite a bit going on with aromas of Black berries, dirt, allspice, tobacco, vanilla bean and beef jerky and we had scent jars with all of these. As to a pairing? Well there is a pig on the label, so bacon was the perfect pairing.

The Art – Syrah

Carhartt Syrah Painting by Act2Art.com Ruben Permel

“The calm after a winter storm – perfect tranquility” Dark – cosmos – blanketing” “Thirsty – the kind of thirst when flying” “A very tempestuous sunset”

Tobin James 2010 Fat Boy and French Camp Zinfandels

Tobin James Zin at Crushed Grape Open Minds Event

We were members of Tobin James for a while and pulled these two older Zinfandels from the cellar to try. Tobin James is in Paso Robles California and their wines tend to be pretty big. The aromas on these were earth, pepper, fruit jam, leather and chocolate. We paired them with chocolate fountain mini cup cakes from Retro Bakery.

The Art – Zin

Zinfandel Painting by Act2Art.com Ruben Permel

“Making a picnic lunch for the family” “Costy – like a warm blanket wrapped around me during the winter” “tobacco warmth – a little earthy – comfortable”

Chateau Megyer Tokaji Aszu 2010

Chateau Megyer Tokaji at Crushed Grape Open Minds Event

Tokaj is an area in Hungary and this wine is made from a grape called “furmint”. This is a wine made through “noble rot” or “botrytis cinerea” a fungus that shrivels the grapes like raisins. The raisins are then made into a paste which is added to a dry base wine. This is a sweet wine with citrus, apricot and honey on the nose. We paired it with Brie and Comte cheese.

The Art – Tokaji

Chateau Megyer Tokaji Painting by Act2ARt.com Ruben Permel

“Oceanside Cliffs on a summer evening” “My first visit to Montreal – wonder and excitement – Christmas eve” “Tending to my fathers garden”

In addition to the wine stations, there was more to eat with a table filled with delicious things with notes to suggest pairings to try with the wine as well as more of RuBen’s beautiful art around the space.

Perfect pairings with wine at Crushed Grapes Open Minds Event

This was an evening of exploration, discovery and animated conversations.

Check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on wine and the people behind the wines! You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook

To have an evening like this created for you, contact 42Aspens Productions at…. 702.463.4242

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The Art Installation – Crushed Grapes and Open Minds

Mar 11, 2017

A few days before the “Crushed Grapes and Open Minds” event. The Artist RuBen Permel came by to install the art works. He brought the 5 paintings inspired by the wine, as well as a selection of other pieces. Including his Upland Flight series, “Three Angles Walking”, “Landscape Series 6” parts of the “Whispering Goliath Series” and the beautiful “Open Minds”. We spent the morning finding just the right spot for each work.

Check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on the details on our Crushed Grapes and Open Minds Event! You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook

RuBen Permel – Act2Art – Wine Inspired Art

Mar 8, 2017

RuBen Permel of Act2Art is an accomplished artist. He’s actually quite the renaissance man, he is an actor and dancer, a puppeteer, a costumer, a painter, a writer, a film maker….and lucky for me, my friend.

Last year we worked together on a project called “Crushed Grapes and Open Minds”. I had this idea of finding wine that would pair with some of RuBen’s beautiful art. RuBen, ever the overachiever, decided he would paint a piece for each wine we chose. We chose 5 wines and he painted a piece to pair with each.

We spent an afternoon with RuBen while he painted, actually priming a canvas for what became the signature piece for the event.

Check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on the details on our Crushed Grapes and Open Minds Event! You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook

The power of Wine Aromas

Oct 7, 2016

A few years ago we had attended an event at Cold Heaven in Santa Barbara. It was called “a Rhone Scent-ual Experience”.. You can visit the blog post and see the video here “Cold Heaven Cellars – Rhone Scent-ual Experience”.

I was amazed, not only at how wonderful it was to find these aromas from the jars in the wines, but also how excited everyone became. People who had just met (or not even) were excitedly sharing the jars and asking what other people smelled. Inhibitions were gone and people joyfully bonded and shared the experience.

Wine Event

We had done a small event after that with a friend and found again that people loved the scent jars. Putting together these aromas of things they were familiar with and then finding them in the wine glass made people so excited. I remember people speaking for weeks about the wet stones that we had with the Tablas Creek 2014 Vermentino. (check out the blog post on this party here “Wine with friends – A California Tasting & Pairing”)

Cut Grass in Scent jar for Crushed Grape Chronicles Events — Cut Grass Scent Jar

Creating Scent Jars

So I knew we wanted to do scent jars again for our “Crushed Grapes & Open Minds” Event and I did some further research on how other people do them. My go to for stuff like this is Madeline Puckett of Wine Folly and I found a great article here http://winefolly.com/tutorial/make-wine-aroma-kit-30/

I took her advice on the jars and I did find them at Cost Plus. I opted out of the small jars and went for one size larger (which were a dollar more), because they would give me more room for fresh fruit and better visuals. And I did not blend any wine into the jars, I wanted the fresh scents.

We did some shopping and some scrounging to fill the jars. The Champagne had some bread and yeast on the nose that we found reminded us of hamburger buns (I know, right?). And it was a mostly Pinot Noir based Champagne so you got berries and cherries. So our jars here were filled with hamburger buns, fresh & dried berries (I used sliced strawberries, blueberries and dried cranberries) and then cherries, which were defrosted from frozen, because they were out of season.

promo shot hambruger buns1144.MOV.16 30 15 24.Still001 — Hamburger Buns

Starbourgh Sav Blanc

The Sauvignon Blanc had grapefruit, lime, lemongrass, stone fruit and grass. We did slices of the citrus, cut up the lemon grass to release it’s scent. We chopped up a peach for the stone fruit and Michael headed with the scissors to the local park for the fresh cut grass.

Carhartt Syrah

The Syrah had jars with Black Berries, Allspice, dirt (we used a little potting soil here, since backyards in Vegas are not filled with very happy soil), tobacco (I found a smoke shop and got pipe tobacco, which worked but wasn’t exactly what I wanted), vanilla bean and beef jerky (for smoky meat).

Tobin James Zinfandel

The Zins had jars of earth, pepper (black & white peppercorns), fruit jam, leather (we hit the craft store, chopped it into pieces and added a little water to bring out the fragrance), and chocolate (we used a broken up dark chocolate bar)

Tokaji

Lastly our dessert wine was a Tokaji. It was just 3 Puttonyons so on the less sweet side. We had aroma jars of dried apricots, citrus (thinly sliced lemon and lime) and a jar of honey.

You don’t have to invest in jars though, you can use wine glasses. If you are doing this with friends, it’s fun to find wines that have unexpected aromas. We had a Magerum Rose that had Watermelon Jolly Ranchers on the nose! The important thing is to have fun with it. Which is what we did, and the people at our Crushed Grapes & Open Minds Event did.

Behind the scent jars in each of the photos you can see a bit of each of the beautiful paintings that RuBen did to pair with each wine. More on that to come.

Check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on the details on the wines we paired with the Art and our Crushed Grapes and Open Minds Event! You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook

Crushed Grapes & Open Minds – Art with Wine

Sep 7, 2016

Art with Wine

I have a dear friend who is an Artist and we had just moved into a house with lots of beautiful wall space. I kept thinking that it would a really amazing to have a party where we pair his Art with Wine. My original thought was to go through the Art he had available and choose some pieces that paired (at least in my mind) with certain wines. He agreed to do this but with one caveat, he would create pieces to pair with the wines.

Here is a short teaser that we put together before the party.

How do you pair wine with art? There is of course taste and texture, but I really find the nose of a wine (what you smell when you put your nose in the glass) to be more inspirational. Scent often brings up scent memories that can take you back to a very specific time or place. The memories are often emotional and can bring a smile to your face or a tear to your eye. RuBen loves to paint from an emotional place. So we found wines or samples of wines that he could smell and then paint. (I think he drank a little along the way and…actually added a little wine to some of the paint!)

Inspiring the ART

Adding the sense of smell

The idea from here was to create scent jars for the tasting. I have found there is nothing better to get a party going and to get people talking than scent jars.

Wine is a constantly changing variety of compounds, that come from the grapes, the yeast that causes the fermentation and then the vessels in which it is fermented and aged. Of course there are other variables, like soil, climate and the individual winemakers style. Wine is a living liquid, constantly changing, every moment that it ages, every moment that it is exposed to air and as it’s temperature changes. What it smells and tasted like can change from the time you take your first sip of a glass to your last.

There is lots of room for discussion with people about what they are smelling and tasting. But most people are intimidated about smelling a wine and telling you what they are smelling. Without comparisons, people often feel like they might get something wrong. When you open up the scent jars, they can do that comparison, and it will be different for each person. We go back to the emotional response…somehow reflecting on smell and aroma deactivates that worry about judgement. There is something in smelling that turns off inhibitors and people get excited. They want to share the smells and see if others get that also. It can be very freeing and allows people to see the “nose of a wine”, something they thought of before as stuffy and perhaps snobby language of wine people and suddenly experience it first hand for themselves.

Opening Minds

You take this uninhibited emotional experience and then pair it with art. People then have opened their minds to experience the art in a whole new way. Some will compare a scent memory to what they see in the painting.

This whole concept is about allowing people to Open their Minds to see things in a different way, Art, Wine…and maybe so much more.

Open Minds

The party was amazing and we will be posting on how we chose the wines, the details on the wines we chose, how to set up your own scent jars and of course the Art! So stick with us!

And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook

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RuBen Permel

Where are the Women in Champagne? #Winophiles

Women in Champagne

Les Fa’Bulleuses

Finding a wine made by a female Winemaker in Champagne

Nathalie Falmet, Vigneronne Oenologue

Art, wine and Inspiration

On to the pairings

Elegant yet comforting

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Crushed Grapes & Open Minds – The Event

Crushed Grapes & Open Minds

an interactive experience

A.J. de Margerie a Bouzy Grand Cru

The Art – Champagne

Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand

The Art – Sauvignon Blanc

Carhartt 2013 Estate Syrah Santa Barbara

The Art – Syrah

Tobin James 2010 Fat Boy and French Camp Zinfandels

The Art – Zin

Chateau Megyer Tokaji Aszu 2010

The Art – Tokaji

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The Art Installation – Crushed Grapes and Open Minds

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RuBen Permel – Act2Art – Wine Inspired Art

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The power of Wine Aromas

Wine Event

Creating Scent Jars

Starbourgh Sav Blanc

Carhartt Syrah

Tobin James Zinfandel

Tokaji

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Crushed Grapes & Open Minds – Art with Wine

Art with Wine

Inspiring the ART

Adding the sense of smell

Opening Minds

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