Interview with Steve Mosher, a Sparkling Wine Buyer
by Andreas Matern

I was introduced to celebrating the "day to day" with sparkling wine at a normal gathering of friends - we got together on a Fall day in 2000 to watch football.   At halftime, the host and hostess opened a couple of bottles of champagne, which I initially assumed meant it was someone's birthday, or perhaps the celebration of a promotion.   However, this was not the case, the hosts just wanted to celebrate getting together.   Since then, I've been fascinated by sparkling wines from all over the world, although my budget never allows me to go overboard.   I've been interested in meeting the people who get the champagne from the four corners of the earth to my bachelor pad and luckily, the opportunity arose to speak with Steve Mosher, one of four buyers at the Wine and Cheese Cask (407 Washington Street, Somerville, MA 02143 (617) 623-8656.).  

What is it exactly that you do at the Wine and Cheese Cask?

I'm one of four buyers.   And we basically evaluate wine samples and determine if we want to sell them here.

Is it a different process for buying champagne than it is for wine?

We really don't receive as many samples of champagne as we do other wines but occasionally, we do.   But we know all the name brands that we have to carry and we have our own little favorites as well.

Most people think of champagne they think of Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon.

. . .Moët, who makes Dom Pérignon.   Yes, it is one segment of the wine industry that is definitely dominated by brand, by conglomerates, large companies.   That's champagne.

But there are little ones as well, in the last few years at least you can walk into a well-stocked store like this one and find champagnes between twenty and thirty dollars where normally people look for champagne only when it's a time to celebrate, like for a wedding or a graduation. However, people can walk into a store and buy an inexpensive bottle of Chilean sparkling wine.

You are right, there are more choices now.   Small champagne houses have been treated well by small importers so they get sold, and they get sold as more of an individual product than some mass blend.   It's good.   But it's not exactly a large segment of the market, its still a very, very small segment of the market.   What you mentioned is true, people are more aware of their options in the sparkling wine world I think after the millennium changed, some people were turned off by the way champagne was marketed.   Those people started learning the names of other sparkling wine regions of the world -people come in now and ask for a prosecco from Italy or a Cava from Spain in a way that that shows that they've learned there are alternatives to champagne.

When people come in looking for champagne and they don't know what they are looking for - they're total novices - what do you normally steer them towards?

I try to steer them towards the ones that I think are the highest quality and the best value.   Value in champagne is a more difficult thing to quantify than value in a five or ten dollar bottle of wine.  

Why is that?

People are looking to spend about $25.   People are looking for more than just the idea that this is a good one, they are looking for the right one.   And if you're going to give it to a friend, or if you're going to serve it to someone, they want that extra boost that that comes from the person who might have a preconceived notion of quality - the branding.   Try as we have to market small grower champagne the response is - it's been an uphill battle definitely.   You always have to have an option.   People look for labels - things that are well marketed.   While the négoçiant dominates the market, there are smaller growers I try to recommend to people.   Bollinger, for example, is lesser known but it's better than the more famous ones - now I'm talking about the non vintage Bruts that dominate the market.   There are the smaller growers who make seemingly more individual products.

Champagnes are blends?

They tend to be blended, yes.   If you get into the hierarchy of the single growers of champagne - the small family operations - they usually reside in one village.   And in Champagne all the vineyards are rated and all the villages have a rating.   You could have a village that's 100% rated for pinot noir or a village that's 100% rated for chardonnay.   If the small grower is in one of the chardonnay village he will probably make a blanc de blanc.   Most of the négoçiant are buying wines, buying grapes from all over Champagne.   They are aiming for a house style - a blend.   The single grower champagnes you're more likely to get something from one small location that's kind of more like they market - more like they make burgundy.   You can narrow it down to a single plot of land.   These champagne growers are making something individual   - at least to a village.  

Who rates these villages?

Its part of the whole hierarchy system of champagne.   You can't plant another vine in Champagne.   The whole place is planted.

Like urban housing?

Probably even tighter than that.

What about other countries?   Are there any famous sparkling wines made in places other than in France?

California makes Louie Rodier, a French champagne house, in the Anderson Valley that's one that I know of.   Because you can't plant another vine in Champagne, you can't increase production in Champagne.   These guys are building wineries in other countries.   Moet and Chandon, who makes about 30 million bottles of champagne a year in France, has operations in California, Argentina, Australia.

Do the small growers make their own champagnes?

Yes, but they make it much more difficult to get those here.   We have some small grower - Cava from Spain - and that's quite good.   The prosecco houses that ship their wines to the US from Italy are rather sizeable, they're not small operations.

Doesn't Germany make some sparkling wine?

Germany does, it's not very popular here.   It's tough enough selling German wine, let alone German sparkling wine.   The fairly high quality German sparkling wine is consumed in Germany, I don't know if they export much of it.

Is champagne described similarly to wine - for example oaky, fruity, etc.?

Like I said, the champagne that most people encounter - the non-vintage blends - they are blending for uniformity.   They want a house style to come through year after year.   Some houses make a lighter champagne, some make a medium bodied champagne and some make a more full-bodied rich champagne.   And that's to the taste of the blender or of the house style they have been maintaining over the years.   If you're a consumer in the US and you buy their bottle of champagne they want it to taste the same if you are at home or on vacation in South America.   To their credit, its most often extremely high quality, but they want the experience to be the same no matter where you are.

How does body apply to champagne?

Compared to red wine - like this is a full-bodied red wine or this is a light bodied red wine, there's a wider parameter than saying this is a light champagne or this is a full champagne.   You're getting just a little more depth of richness, and there are also parameters of dryness and sweetness even within the Brut category.   Some of the champagne houses make champagne that's seemingly a little sweeter than one of its rivals.   There's balance, there's sugar, and there's body in champagne.

Are there champagne extremes?

There are dessert champagnes - the demi-secs.   There are off-dry champagnes - extra-dry.

Do the big houses make different kinds of champagne, for example Veuve Clicquot?

I wish, they made a medium dry Veuve Clicquot they had one a few years ago that was quite good.   But, we carry the sweet champagne from Veuve Cliquot their demi-sec and their brut.   But they don't have one in the middle any longer

What about Vintage champangne?   Do you have a lot of customers who come to the Wine and Cheese Cask asking for a particular vintage?

It's a small part of the market but it's an interesting segment of the market. You truly are getting an upgrade if you are buying a vintage champagne.   It's made the same, but it's only made, hopefully, in exceptionally good years.   Because they are blending champagne - most of the time they are also blending vintages, different years.   So if they think one vintage is so good so they leave a portion of it to sell as vintage champagne, you know they are selling the cream of the crop.   They are leaving a good bit of it behind to make the normal stuff.   But when a good vintage comes out it can be darned good.

When was the last good vintage?

I'd say 1996 is really going to be a great vintage.   Some of the champagnes on the market, some people are holding it back because they don't think its ready yet.

So champagne ages in the bottle like a red wine does?

Champagne doesn't age spectacularly well in the bottle.   It's at the winery when most of the aging is done.   Once its bottled, all champagne is ready to drink.   There will be some improvement over a few years period for vintage champagne, but I'd say that you really have to know your taste in champagne to cellar it for 5 or 6 years after you buy it.

There's no danger in storing it, so if you buy vintage 1996, and leave it in your cellar.   I can still drink it when my unborn son graduates from college?

You can, if you've chosen well.

Chosen the vintage or.?

If everything works out perfectly.   There is a very tiny auction market for older champagnes, but in general, like I said, if you know you like old champagne, you have to age it yourself but you have to know your tastes rather well.   Probably you're going to lose a lot of the fizz.it's become darker in color, get nuttier, it's going to oxidize a little bit, but some people like that. But that's a very small, small group.

The Spanish champagne you mentioned earlier.?

Cava.   It's the Spanish name for their method of making sparkling wine.

Is there one brand of Cava that you recommend?

There's a producer called Albet I Noya.   Excellent Cava.

What's the biggest seller in the whole genre?

Probably one of our cheaper cavas.   We have Spanish sparkling wine for $7-$8.

Is it any good?

Yeah, not bad at all.   You could drink that any day of the week, I think.

This might be silly, but do you recommend the champagne flute or the cup shaped champagne glass?

I'd use the flutes.   You lose the fizz pretty much immediately if you use the cup shape.   And without the fizz, its just white wine.

What do you look for in champagne?   When samples come by, what do you look for?

I think it's not as easy to describe champagne, as it is other wines.   Because of the way it's produced.   The flavor impact is very immediate and doesn't linger in such a way as wine does.   Of course, as a buyer and we're looking to give our customers value so we have to evaluate on price as much as anything.   If it's cheap and bad we don't want it, but if it's moderately priced and good we do want it.. I'd have to say that price is where it's at.   We all have our preformed expectations and after tasting wine for several years you start to realize what to expect.   I guess when I taste a champagne I expect to be distinctive.

How did you get started buying wine and champagne?

I failed at so many other things.   I worked in restaurants hotels before, got tired of that and ended up here.   Now they have all these training programs.   If you're a college dropout you have to gravitate to an industry to something that doesn't have training programs.   I actually studied hotel and restaurant management at the University of Massachusetts.   I gravitated toward the restaurant and wine business without any real advanced training.   You swirl the glass to bring the aroma out of the wine, etc.  

How many kinds of champagne do you carry?

We carry about 50 different kinds of champagne.  

Do people come in to just buy champagne or is it an impulse buy?

I don't think champagne is an impulse buy; people still use it mainly as a celebratory beverage, as you alluded to earlier.

Do you think champagne pairs well with some foods better than wine.

I think Champagne is great with food.  

With any food?   Steak and champagne?

I think that's OK.

Red wine brings out flavors in food, but when I think of champagne . it's fairly vanilla in its flavor.   Does champagne bring out any flavors in food?   Are there any great champagne-food flavor combinations?

I like it quite a bit, and a few weekends ago I served champagne with smoked salmon to a few people.   I think champagne goes great with smoked fish.   If anything I'd say it that was really great.   There's a wine writer who years ago enticed me to try champagne with Parmesan cheese.  

Those things you mention, cheese and fish, they are fairly strong flavors.

Champagne is deceptively strong.   It cleans the palate and also makes you want to take another bite of food at the same time.  

Well thank you very much, hope this was fun.

It was nice talking to you!

Afterwards I did a little research.   Most of the well-known brands of champagne fall into the Négoçiant Manipulant - champagne houses that buy grapes in bulk to make their own champagne.   All Spanish sparkling wines are called cava, Italian sparkling wines are prosecco and spumante and German sparkling wines are sekt.   Here's hoping you enjoy a great glass of bubbly sometime soon, no matter what you call it, and if you stop by the Wine and Cheese Cask, tell Steve I say hello.

-Andreas Matern

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