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CHAMPAGNE - THE BRANDS
Champagne - The Brands
There are hundreds of different Champagne brands, from Champagne Houses to supermarket labels and numerous other 'names'. Some Champagnes are made by a single Champagne House and some from grapes grown on a single vineyard plot. Some are grown by cooperatives where various Champagne growers combine their grapes to produce a Champagne, that is then sold under various different labels.
Anyway, there are a number of Champagne 'super' brands, for want of a better expression. They are sometimes called 'Grand Marque' Champagnes. These Champagnes, and their 'Prestige Cuvées' are:
Moët et Chandon's Dom Perignon; Taittinger's Comtes de Champagne; Perrier-Jouët's Belle Epoque; Ruinart's Dom Ruinart; Bollinger's Bollinger RD and Grand Annee; Louis Roederer's Cristal; Veuve Clicquot's La Grande Dame; Pol Roger's Cuvée Winston Churchill and Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siecle.
Out of these, perhaps the cleverest piece of marketing of a prestigious Cuvée is Moët and Chandon's Dom Perignon. Dom Perignon was probably the most influential figure in Champagne history, and Moët and Chandon bought the rights to use his name in the 19th Century. They created the first 'Prestige Cuvée' in 1936, using their 1921 vintage Champagne. To this day, they go to great lengths to keep the two brands separate, and most people do not realise that Dom Perignon is actually made by Moët and Chandon.