Jun 16, 20202 min read

Three Words of Wisdom from Virginie Taittinger and Ferdinand Pougatch

On the 4th of June, we were delighted to be joined for an online tasting by Virginie Taittinger and her son Ferdinand Poutagch of the house of Virginie T. Virginie and Ferdinand have champagne in their blood as they are descendants of both the Taittinger and the Suarez d’Aulan family who owned Piper-Heidsieck. In 2006 Virginie founded her own boutique house: Virginie T. Ferdinand joined as cellar master in 2015, and is being primed to lead the house for the next generation.

Virginie and Ferdinand were gracious enough to share both their exquisite champagnes and their philosophies with champagne lovers all over the world.

1. Having control of your vines is key to creating great champagnes

Virginie and Ferdinand have recently acquired vines in Verzy and Ay, and they believe that being great champagnes start with respectful and sustainable practices in the vineyard.

"Wine is time. Wine is a life" says Virginie "And you must learn, like a child, what the vineyards represent. You must see what happens, not during one harvest, but during 2, 3 or 4 harvest. Each harvest is different and you must learn that from the vines".

The Virginie T vineyards are scattered around the Montagne de Reims, and the Cote des Blancs, with a real focus on high quality pinot noir.

2. Champagne takes time, and great champagne takes at least 5 years

"We have 17 cuvees ageing in our cellars" sans Ferdinand "and every year we taste all of them to gauge maturity". Although they don't have a set ageing time for each cuvee, they have found that the minimum time to get the effect they want is around 6 years. The autolysis process reaches a certain plateau around 6 years when all the last yeast cells die off and start to create an incredible complexity in the wine.

3. Creating a great champagne for a specific dish is like haute couture

Virginie and Ferdinand recently launched a new vintage cuvee which is specifically made for pairing with Macarons. The 2009 vintage was selected as a particularly ripe year, to which an extra-dry dosage of 12.5 grams was added. There were only 1,600 bottles made so and most of them are already reserved for their family consumption and for La Duree, so worth getting your hands on them if you can.