Frédérique pouring their champagne at Champagne Jean-Claude MOUZON in Verzenay

Friday, October 24th is Champagne Day. This is the fifth annual day that wine enthusiasts world-wide will open a bottle of champagne and enjoy with their food. The day is dedicated solely to champagne from the Champagne region in France. Cava, prosecco and sparkling wines do not count. Consumers need to buy the real champagne which is only produced in Champagne, France. Beware of bottle labels that use the word champagne and the wine is produced elsewhere in the world.

The Bureau du Champagne, USA is an organization in Washington DC that promotes the growers and wines of Champagne, France. One of the bureau’s goals is to inform the public about this wine region and the importance of terroir in this region. Another goal of the bureau is to protect the word “champagne” in the United States. US wineries are not permitted to have the word “champagne” on bottles of sparkling wine, although some were grandfathered in and still use the word although it is misleading consumers.

Next April, Champagne will host the annual International Wine Tourism Conference. The media team selected to attend the conference and familiarization tour will spotlight the region and champagnes in blogs and articles in both print and online media outlets.

It happens that I have a bottle of champagne that I purchased at Champagne Jean-Claude MOUZON in Verzenay last year. I enjoyed this small producer and the tour we had of his production house that is in his home. Winemaker, Cédric Lahemade is enthusiastic and passionate about the champagne he makes. I remember that he told us that one of the ways to have a champagne house in Champagne is to marry an owner’s daughter. Frédérique and Cédric are now the owners of Champagne Jean-Claude MOUZON and produce excellent champagnes.

Check out Twitter tomorrow and follow the hashtag #ChampagneDay.

Cheers,
Terry