You need tact to taste Champagne. It means that a certain savoir-faire is necessary to approach, to get to know and examine it.
It also refers to the tactile side of it. It is a fact. That’s because when you talk of Champagne, you can perceive not only the aromatic shades with your sense of smell, the flavor notes with your palate, and the color, the sparkle and vivaciousness of the perlage with your sight. The French bubbles can reveal a lot when touched by hand, besides your mouth. And they also can be listened to, as Champagne whispers, murmurs and cracles, after popping when the bottle gets opened.
Bureau du Champagne Italia knows well about the multi-sensitiveness of the nectar from beyond the Alps.
What does it mean? The national embassy of French Comité Champagne, based in Epernay who is in charge of managing and defending the common interests of vignerons et maisons. It is an interprofessional organization aimed at enhancing the identity and heritage of the registered name, even by communicating the peculiarity and personality in an unexpected and original way. How did the Bureau decide to do that? By organizing workshops aimed at focusing on the five senses, in order to learn to observe, describe and tell about Champagne as an outsider voice.
That is why, after a Workshop in 2016 focused on the smell, and one on the hearing in 2017 (with the complicity of a piano and few pieces by Erick Satie, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel e François Couperin) this year it was about the tact. Where? At Ferrari Fashion School in Milan.
If it is true that palate touches the Champagne – better with a suggested temperature of 8-10 °C, and the hand touched tulip-like stem glass, it is then true that the mind can touch the French bubbles, associating them to the world of fabrics.
“Actually Champagne has always been part of the Fashion World. As in the fashion field, you start form the fabric to talk about a garment, you start from the raw material, such as the grapefruit, to talk about Champagne”, says the School Director, Mrs. Silvia Ferrari.
There are a lot of similarities between the two worlds: “if, talking about Champagne, it is fundamental to focus on the mix of wines from different cru, from different years, also talking about a garment, it is important to focus on the combination of different fabrics”, tells us Mrs. Chiara Giovoni, Italian Embassor for Champagne 2012 and Art Director of the Workshop together with Mrs. Ferrari, Mr. Thibaut Le Mailloux (Manager for Communication at Comité Champagne) and Mr. Domenico Avolio, Director of the Italian Bureau.
Mrs. Giovoni also precises that “in the mix, even the smallest change in the quantity changes the final result”. “It is the art of savoir-faire, it is the ability of creating a non repicable-dna, by giving to the Maison a unique style”. It is the same in fashion, where specific fabrics, precise cuts and stitching give shape to a unique ensemble.
Then comes the Fashion Designer, who is so similar to the chef-de-cave in many different ways. They are both art director, maestros and supporter of a vision made od technique and elegance, material and ideas.
That’s why a garment is not just a garment and a Champagne is much more than a simple cuvée, becoming spokesperson of a thought, a philosophy and a viticulture perspective.
