{"id":2352,"date":"2023-04-28T18:11:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2023-04-28T18:38:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:38:14","slug":"champagne-les-petites-maisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2352","title":{"rendered":"Champagne: Les Petites Maisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we asked you to name ten Champagne houses, without giving it any thought, we\u2019d bet your initial choices would include some or all of Moet & Chandon, Mumm\u2019s, Taittinger<\/a>, Veuve Cliquot, Pommery\u2026and then you\u2019d slow down a bit.\u00a0 Oh, yes, Perrier-Jouet, Pol Roger\u2026a little more thought and maybe you\u2019d come up with Roederer, Deutz or Piper-Heidsieck, to round out the ten.\u00a0 Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

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The point is that for most of us, our knowledge of Champagne is restricted to a handful of the biggest names, the ones that are always available and occupy the most shelf space in our local wine stores.\u00a0 But there are more than 2,000 producers of real French Champagne, of which approximately 370 are considered the Grandes Marques<\/em>, the most prestigious of them all.\u00a0 Now, very few of us have tasted anything close to 370 Champagnes, much less 2,000 of them.\u00a0 So, if you have the chance to taste a Champagne other than the very few at the top brands in terms of popularity, it will be something new to your taste buds.<\/p>\n

We have four categories of Champagnes: the super premiums, the top sellers, the \u201coh, yeah, I\u2019ve heard of them\u201d, and then the truly small, little known producers.\u00a0 The super premiums include wines such as Dom Perignon from Mo\u00ebt et Chandon, Krug Crystal and Comtes de Champagne from Taittinger.\u00a0 These cost a lot and are hardly for routine drinking unless you own a hedge fund or are a Russian oligarch.\u00a0 More frequently, we buy the wines that we know, the ones on the list of ten we challenged up front, because\u2026well, because we know them.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of Champagnes in that third category, which you may have heard about.\u00a0 These might include Lanson, Nicolas Feuillatte or Philliponat.\u00a0 They tend to be a bit less expensive than the Big Names (English for Grandes Marques<\/em>) and some are excellent.\u00a0 But some are somewhat disappointing.\u00a0 So if you decide to be a little adventurous and try some Champagne you\u2019ve never tasted before, why not go all the way and get one of the Petites Maisons, or little houses?\u00a0 We think you\u2019ll be well served doing so.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve written previously about Tribaut Schlosser<\/a>, a favorite of ours.\u00a0 Others might include Alfred Gratien, Henriot, Jacquesson and Duval-Leroy.\u00a0 Whether these fall into category 3 or 4 depends on your familiarity with Champagne wines.\u00a0 With more than 2,000 more to choose among, there are bound to be more than a few \u2013 a lot more \u2013 that you\u2019ve never heard of or tasted.<\/p>\n

Why try something you don\u2019t know?\u00a0 For the same reason you try the new restaurant that just opened in your neighborhood or the new flavor of ice cream.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll love it; maybe you won\u2019t.\u00a0 But the upside chances outweigh the negatives.\u00a0 The worst that will happen is you\u2019ll decide not to buy that Champagne again.\u00a0 It\u2019s very rare that you\u2019ll hate any of them and you\u2019ll broaden your knowledge of what the Champagne region has to offer.<\/p>\n

So take a chance at your local store.\u00a0 Or to reduce the outlay, try a glass at an upscale bar or restaurant.\u00a0 Or best of all, travel to Champagne.\u00a0 You won\u2019t have any trouble finding Petites Maisons there.<\/p>\n

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If we asked you to name ten Champagne houses, without giving it any thought, we\u2019d bet your initial choices would include some or all of Moet & Chandon, Mumm\u2019s, Taittinger, Veuve Cliquot, Pommery\u2026and then you\u2019d slow down a bit.\u00a0 Oh, yes, Perrier-Jouet, Pol Roger\u2026a little more thought and maybe you\u2019d come up with Roederer, Deutz … Continue reading Champagne: Les Petites Maisons<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2367,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}