Mention champagne and the image that is conjured up is that of a white bubbly, but hang on, the picture above is something completely opposite - a red wine from Champagne without bubbles. This wine (a Coteaux Champenois) is made from Pinot Noir from the Grand Cru village of Bouzy. Champagne villages are classified according to the quality of the grapes and rated according to a point scale up to 100%. Grand Cru villages are those with 100% and Premier Cru villages are rated 90-99%, others being given 80-89%. Sometimes the village gets a different score depending on the grape, but usually they are still in the same band. However, Chouilly is Grand Cru for Chardonnay and Premier Cru for Pinot Noir, whilst it is the reverse for Tours sur Marne. But enough of the Echelle des Crus for now.
Bouzy is the best village in Champagne for making red wine from Pinot Noir, and this is also used for rose champagne. The wine (from the 2000 vintage) was tasted at one of our wine dinners and it was like a light Burgundy - a star bright ruby with a strawberry perfume, and a fruity slightly tannic palate. Although this is a Grand Cru, I'm not sure that it will develop like its Burgundian equivalent with age, but nevertheless this was a good drink, regardless of its novelty value.
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