champagne and potato chips

Kathy and I are leaving France for the next leg of our journey. We enjoyed several days in Champagne, tasting and writing about champagne, champagne houses and co-operatives. One experience we did not have is dunking potato chips in champagne. This is not a new idea. In the movie, The Seven Year Itch (1955) “the girl” played by Marilyn Monroe asks, ”Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in Champagne? It’s real crazy!”

Finally in the ICARE lounge in Terminal 1 at CDG, I spotted a bag of potato chips. I already had a Champagne Collet Brut Art Deco champagne and thought, why not try dunking the potato chips in champagne and see if it’s crazy. Well it was more of a disappointment. The Lays potato chips did seem to match with the champagne; however, I would have preferred the potato chips to be saltier. I think the salt and fizz would play well together. Since the chips were not very salty, the combination was rather bland, detracting from both the chips and the champagne.

I’m anxious to try the pairing again, this time with saltier chips. I’m not at all certain if it is crazy. The only thing that I can think of being crazy is running out of champagne.

”Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in Champagne? It’s real crazy!”

The Champagne Collet Brut Art Deco  was a light yellow colored blend of 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. The dosage was nine grams per liter. Twenty percent of the wine was a blend of reserve wines that were several years old. The yellow colored champagne had multiple columns of beads forming a mouse around the glasses circumference. The wine offered a mineral aroma with a floral touch. The taste offered apple and pear notes.

I continued my potato chip challenge on my IcelandAir flight. For lunch, they served potato chips and a Mont Marcal Cava Reserva. The cava reacted the same as the champagne to the potato chips. One again, I think the chips needed to be saltier. Perhaps the trend of saltier potato chips was more common in the 1950’s.

The Mont Marcal winery was established in 1975 in the Penedes region of Catalonia. The yellow cava has several columns of beads forming a mousse around the circumference of the glass, a small mousse forms off center. Apple is predominant on the aroma and taste with a hint of tropical fruits. It seems fitting to depart France sipping on a cava. The 2015 International Wine Tourism Conference ended in Champagne and the conference’s sights are now set on Barcelona for 2016. The cava producers will have their task of showing off this sparkling wine and impressing the conference delegates, wine experience providers and press with cavas and tapas. Hopefully, one cava producer will pair cavas with potato chips.

Cheers,
Terry