By Monte Belmonte
For the Valley Advocate
Champagne, with its effervescent, aspirational qualities, levitating its drinkers towards the hope of wealth and good cheer, has become a staple when the clock strikes 12 on the last night of the year. The tiny bubbles of optimism signify all of the possibilities that come with a turn of the calendar.
PHOTO BY MONTE BELMONTE
Provisions in North Amherst held their Grand Champagne Tasting event and the place was packed. Six wine distributors set up tables and were pouring their best bubbles.
There is a lot of lore as to why Champagne is the beverage of choice for New Year’s Eve. The writer Wayne Curtis wrote a great piece about this for Imbibe Magazine back in 2019, where he says that a restaurant called Martin’s in New York City started the trend. Curtis writes, “This French restaurant was among the first rank of ‘lobster palaces,’ where the cream of society went to entertain themselves. On New Year’s Eve, guests could order anything they wanted to drink, as long as they wanted champagne — it was reputedly the first place to go ‘champagne only’ after 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. ‘To get a table at all on New Year’s Eve is difficult,’ wrote a visitor in 1910, ‘when you get one you must drink what you are told.’”
Nowadays, Champagne may not be mandatory on New Year’s Eve but it is likely to be available, both in restaurants and at private gatherings. I am a sucker for sparkling, and, on the rare occasion that the pocketbook permits, for the real deal Champagne. I won’t bore you once again with the lesson that not all sparkling wine is Champagne. I will say that if you call a non-Champagne sparkling wine “Champagne,” I will judge you. But I’ll also say that there are many great non-Champagne sparkling wine options that would suit you just fine for First Night or any night.
But this year, I was lucky enough to taste beaucoup Champagne. Many of our great wine stores in the Valley have some sort of big tasting event right before the holidays. You likely missed them all for 2024, but mark your 2025 calendar now, so you don’t forget them next year. It just so happens that, on the same day in early December, two of my favorite stores both had big Champagne tasting events.
The first I attended was at Provisions in North Amherst. It was their Grand Champagne Tasting event and the place was packed. Six wine distributors set up tables and were pouring their best bubbles. There was an incredible Le Brun de Neuville Champagne Millésimé poured by Gordon and Terroir Wines. Without getting too scientific, yeast eats sugar, then poops alcohol and farts carbon dioxide. When you trap the yeast farts in the bottle, that is where the Champagne bubbles come from. Eventually the yeast dies. And some makers leave the dead yeast in the bottle for a month or a few months or maybe a year. The Brun de Neuville Champagne Millésimé left the dead yeast in for 14 years. It was a 2009 vintage Champagne. Those dead yeasts incorporated their carcases into the grape juice and bubbles and made for an incredibly rich and delicious Champagne. And speaking of “rich,” I am not. It goes for $100 a bottle. Worth it? Yes. Bone dry. Great acidity. But I work in media. So, sadly, not today. However, I was thrilled to taste it.
PHOTO BY MONTE BELMONTE
At the Grand Champagne Tasting event at Provisions in North Amherst, I tried an incredible Le Brun de Neuville Champagne Millésimé poured by Gordon Alexander and Terroir Wines.
On the slightly more affordable end of things was the Atlantic Beverage Company’s Gamet Champagne portfolio. Many of my favorite Champagnes are what they refer to as “grower” Champagnes, where the farmers are making and bottling the product themselves, rather than selling their juice off to the big name companies who are charging you as much for their fancy marketing campaigns as they are for their juice. Gamet is a grower and their Blanc de Noir (“white from black,” meaning a wine that looks white but is made with red grapes) was excellent and only (only!?!?) $60. When I go to buy a new shirt that I know I will wear hundreds and hundreds of times, I recoil at the notion of paying $60. But if it’s a great $60 bottle of wine that I am, no doubt, going to drink in one sitting and have only this one experience with? No qualms.
The best stuff I tried at the Provisions tasting was not in the public tasting portion of the event, but when I weaseled my way into the private tasting in the backroom with one of Provison’s owners, Benson Hyde. Benson tasted me on a bunch of great Champagnes, including one from the so-called Special Club. The wine comes in a strangely shaped bottle and was produced by a group of 28 growers in Champagne who get together and blind taste their juices and come up with the best blend from the bunch. Special Club is like The Avengers Champagne. $90 a bottle and very good.
PHOTO BY MONTE BELMONTE
The best stuff I tried at the Provisions tasting was not in the public tasting portion of the event, but when I weaseled my way into the private tasting in the backroom with one of Provison’s owners, Benson Hyde.
But I defer to Benson’s better half and Provisions wine-buyer, Toni DeLuca, for the best of the bunch. Benson told me Toni’s favorite was the Rémy Grand Cru. George Rémy is the winemaker. His family used to sell his grapes to the big Champagne companies until he decided to get his family back into the game for themselves. The 2021 vintage 100% Pinot Noir Grand Cru Champagne from Rémy was both tangy and creamy. Benson says “it’s not a shy Champagne.” And I agree, Toni was right. This wine was incredible. And also, $115. Tempting … who needs a new shirt, anyway?
Across the river, on the very same afternoon as the Provisions tasting, State Street Fruit Store Deli Wines & Spirits was also hosting their annual gala. While not strictly a Champagne event, most of the tables there featured a Champagne or something sparkling. But the first thing I noticed when I walked through the doors of State Street that afternoon was the unmistakable smell of scallops wrapped in bacon. To quote Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation, it is “my number one favorite food wrapped around my number three favorite food.” I don’t want to dwell too much on the the food at this event, but the deli side killed it. Kielbasa in a blanket. Little barbeque chicken pizza things. Some crazy falafel. Anyway, wine. My good friend from State Street, the Yankee Sippah, tipped me off to a delicious Champagne she was pouring from the portfolio of one of my favorite wine companies, Ideal Wines & Spirits. She told me it was great. But she also told me it was $35. Perhaps too much for a shirt, but right in my Champagne budget. The Champagne was the Girot-Moussy Tradition Brut and damn, it was really solid. And a great value.
PHOTO BY MONTE BELMONTE
I sampled well over a dozen Champagnes at the two tastings in early December, and while I pined for plenty of them, the Girot is the one that I walked out the door with.
I sampled well over a dozen Champagnes that day in early December, and while I pined for plenty of them, the Girot is the one that I walked out the door with. It has become exceedingly rare to find a Champagne of any quality for anything under $50, so I was glad to find this one. And who knows? Maybe 2025 will bring with it the good fortune to afford the $115 Rémy. But given the chaos that tariffs brought to the wine world during the first Trump administration, maybe I should spend my 2024 dollars on the wines that I want now. I have a feeling that neither my shirts nor my Champagnes are going to get any more affordable in 2025.
