Seafood and bubbly time has arrived

Perrier-Jouet makes just 12,000 bottles of its vintage Blanc de Blancs cuvee a year. Hold the ice.

Herve Deschamps: ‘For me no. It is a fashion product perhaps for 10 years maximum.’

Summertime is the season of seafood and chardonnay, which suits Perrier-Jouet.

The champagne house, established in 1811 and a favourite of Oscar Wilde and Princess Grace, hopes its vintage cuvee Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs 2004, finds favour with an increasingly champagne-thirsty Australian public during the festive season.

Blanc de Blancs, which eschews the traditional champagne blend of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meuniere and is made solely from chardonnay, is a rare cuvee that is growing in popularity.

Rare means rare. Perrier-Jouet, the 10th largest champagne house, owned by drinks giant Pernod ­Ricard, produces about two million bottles of its Grand Brut NV annually and about one million of its vintage Belle Epoque. But the house makes just 12,000 of its vintage Blanc de Blancs cuvee.

“Blanc de Blancs is very specific and seafood from Australia is a wonderful match,” says Herve Deschamps, Chef de Caves of Perrier-Jouet, who visited Australia this month. “You can have it with Grand Brut or Belle Epoque but with Blanc de Blancs it is more pure.

“Blanc de Blancs for me the best occasion in France, the beginning of November as the scallops come on the market, sweet and meaty and they are wonderful with Blanc de Blancs.”

Perrier-Jouet creates its Blanc de Blancs from a single harvest of Chardonnay grapes from the Cote des Blancs area of Champagne. Wine critic Tyson Stelzer called its Blanc de Blancs 2002 cuvee “the most sublime creation of the house”.

Flowers are centrally important to Perrier-Jouet. It prides itself on the floral elegance of its chardonnay, and showcases white Japanese anemone flowers on its Art Nouveau logo and etched on to the bottle of its vintage flagship Belle Epoque.

Blanc de Blancs production is rare but limited edition bottles featuring the collaboration with Japanese artist and glassmaker Ritsue Mishima are even rarer. The house revisited its Art Nouveau heritage for its latest release Ritsue Mishima Blanc de Blancs 2004, for which the artist created a transparent case of organic swirls to encase its traditional Japanese anemones bottles. Just 72 are available in Australia.

For the first time, a magnum of 2004 Blanc de Blancs was uncorked at an event at Goma, the restaurant within Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art.

“(Goma chef) Josue Lopez has a great understanding of the house,” Deschamps says.

“The flowers he uses are from his garden so he knows them. He said he had to create the best seafood dish that he had ever created. He wanted to be very sure that the matches he created are equal to the champagne.”

Says Chris Sheehy, the house’s local ambassador, of Blanc de Blancs, which locally is outsold by rose champagne cuvees: “It seems to be a style that we like. But the conversation at an enthusiast level is much higher with Blanc de Blancs; it starts at the top and trickles down. We are expecting it to grow as it does in France.”

Perrier-Jouet is a victim of unexpected success — stocks are in allocation, effectively rationed as the house is not able to meet demand. Like all champagne houses, Perrier-Jouet was rocked by the global financial crisis in 2008 and reacted cautiously. The house supplies 20 per cent of its own grapes through vineyards it owns, the remaining 80 per cent coming from independent growers it negotiates with. “The forecast wasn’t there and I didn’t buy more grapes,” Deschamps says.

All Perrier-Jouet styles are available at venues including Hayman Island’s One & Only resort, Brisbane’s Eleven Rooftop Bar, Cafe Sydney, Bistro Guillaume in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, Dinner by Heston in Melbourne and The Langham in Melbourne.

Deschamps is aware of the trend for champagne served over ice, launched by rival houses Pommery and Moet & Chandon. But he is not a fan of the drink, made extra sweet to compliment the lower serving temperature. He says: “For me no. It is a fashion product perhaps for 10 years maximum.

“For me it is not champagne within a pure tradition. It is wine — but with sugar it loses part of its elegance.”

The limited edition Ritsue Mishima 2004 Blanc de Blanc is available for $599 at select stockists including David Jones.