do not often come face to face with a wine expert of international renown. And Régis Camus is without doubt one of the largest winemaker in the history of Champagne. In force since 1994, the historic house Piper Heidsieck (1785), since 2002 he inherited from his teacher Daniel Thibault the role of chef de cave in the prestigious sparkling wine Reims. Since then it has been awarded five times as "Winemaker of the Year" by ' UK International Wine Challenge (2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Also in 2010, the British international competition has elected its Charles Heidsieck Brut Vintage 2000 Champagne as the best year. Despite the triumphs and an almost absolute power to be given to 9milioni Footprint of bottles coming out every year by the two brands Piper Heidsieck (8 million) and Charles Heidsieck (1 million) that he wanted to unify and make wine in same establishment, Régis keeps that expression of the enlightened mind and sardonic relativist amusing anecdotes and rattles as if to say: "Come on, we're always talking about bubbles." Yeah, but bubbles! Here we are at levels of quality sublime. This is the Champagne. Everything else, outside the denomination, is nothing more than "sparkling wine", as keen to stress the marcketing responsible for the company, about the fledgling British bubbles. 
For Champagne takes the land there, 150 km east of Paris , cold and wet outside but heated in the belly of a layer of gypsum often several hundred feet, where the Romans dug mines in the shape of pyramids (the Crayères , the 'plasterer') and where, since 1600, were created the first wine aging of the baby 're-fermented wine'. Down there, in fact, the temperature is always around to 11 ° C, the dim light filtering from the few openings in the ground, 20 meters higher, and the soft plaster softens even the slightest vibration. That 's where, prior and then piles up on pupitres pending disgorgement, resting on the lees, the yeast, all the bottles of the house. Minimum 24 months Brut Piper, 36 to Charles. To reach the minimum of 5 and 8 years for their Vintage . Like what, exactly, just won in London.
And then it takes that trio of grape varieties chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier that only Reims area are the ideal conditions to give life to vins Clairs , ovvero alle basi, i vini fermi che, assemblati e addizionati di lieviti e zuccheri, rendono possibile il miracolo del metodo champenois.
Ed è proprio qui che, da settembre a giugno, interviene lo chef de cave. Assaggiando, testando, confrontando le caratteristiche dei vini fermi prodotti dalla vinificazione separata dei tre vitigni, provenienti dagli oltre 200 cru da cui si rifornisce l'azienda. Solo un 10% dei vigneti, infatti, è di proprietà della maison; le altre uve vengono acquistate da contadini 'récoltants'. Ogni giorno Régis e la sua ristretta squadra di collaboratori assaggiano e confrontano i vari campioni di vino. E in un gioco a esclusione danno le pagelle e decide how to compose the various cuvée. Which wines and cru such as Charles and allocate them to Piper. Such as those that can give life to thousandths memorable and so exalted by those who go to replenish the reserves intended to address in the following years the vintages are less fortunate. Like the insipid and watered down in 2001, or the over-ripe and torrid 2003. Another task of the chef de cave is just to keep the product always at the highest levels of quality, year after year, and make it more recognizable.
Everything, as Regis says, "wearing the austere pinot noir with floral aromas and fruity chardonnay and the color and brightness of pinot meunier.
For a unique and inimitable wine. Why, He reminds us, "we're always talking about wine."
