Pol Roger, the Champagne of Friendship

It has been exactly 175 years since, on January 2, 1849, a young
Pol Roger
completed his first wine sale, effectively starting the business of making Champagne in the Aÿ, a village at the foot of the Montagne de Reims. In 1851, the booming company was transferred to Épernay, where the production of brut Champagne, the type most prized by the English, was favored. So it was that, in just a few years, the brand gained a incredible success in exports, which enabled the company to survive even the terrible catastrophe that struck it on February 23, 1900, when the entire plant collapsed in on itself, destroying five hundred tonneaux and one and a half million bottles.

Always the same family at the helm

Leading the business at the time were Pol Roger’s sons, Maurice and Georges (who had meanwhile had “Pol” annexed to their surname, thus becoming Pol-Roger), who in a short time had managed to restart production, also thanks to the solidarity of other maisons. In the years that followed, four generations of Pol-Roger succeeded each other at the helm of the winery that is, today, among the top five in Champagne, as well as a rare example of a company still owned by the founder’s own family which, with the recent landing of the young Bastien Collard de Billy, has officially reached the sixth generation. General secretary on the family’s council, as well as the one who, concretely, along with the Technical Committee, decides on the cuvées of the maison, Bastien is also the person in charge of the relationship with the Churchill family, respecting one of the most fascinating friendships born through wine.

A Prime Minister for a Friend

It was at a banquet called for armistice celebrations that the British ambassador to France, Mr. Alfred Duff Cooper, having a Pol Roger Vintage 1928 served, made introductions between the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the charming Odette Pol-Roger, between whom a lasting friendship was born.

When, in 1965, the prime minister passed away, the Pol Roger family decided, as a sign of mourning, to border the labels in black Of the bottles destined for Britain. As a further token of friendship, ten years later, in 1975, by mutual agreement with the Prime Minister’s family, he then started the production of what would become the house’s prestige label: the Cuvée Winston Churchill. The limited edition, in magnum size only, was launched on the market in the 1984, at Blenheim Palace, Churchill’s birthplace, on the 110th anniversary of his birth, and since then only 21 vintages (the latest, 2015, was released last December).

Today as then, what still binds the two families, Bastien Collard de Billy himself has well pointed out, “is solely a relationship of friendship“: there is no royalty of any kind on the name, and the only commitment Pol Roger must fulfill is to have the Churchill family taste the wine before it is released.

Oh, l’Italie!

Young Bastien Collard de Billy is also the person chosen to personally follow up with Italy, an evolving marketplace that, in recent years, both because of the type of consumption and the erudition of customers, has required more direct involvement on the part of the family. Since 2015, Pol Roger has been distributed in our country by Wine Company., a company founded in 1997 by Giancarlo Notari, which, for the past two years, has included Pol Roger Cie itself among its partners.

We had a chance to meet Bastien personally during a lunch held at the restaurant Seta at the Mandarin Hotel in Milan, a two-Michelin-starred venue led by the talented chef Antonio Guida and his inseparable executive sous chef Federico Dell’Omarino. A tasting where the great dishes of Seta met the great Champagnes of Pol Roger, in a perfect combination that had as its guarantee Chef Guida’s personal passion for Champagne and the experience of the sommelier and Beverage Manager of the Mandarin Hotel, Andrea Loi.

The tasting at Seta in Milan

The first to be released were the two cuvées of equal parts Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay, theExtra Brut Pure, with white fruit aromas and a dry, voluminous sip, and the Brut Réserve, which Bastien called the
“most difficult cuvée to make.”
because it does not rely on an exceptional vintage and must continuously represent the company. In his meeting with the
Cauliflower in tempura, on spiced carrot cream and citrusy seaweed broth
, an extremely technical dish in the net of its apparent simplicity, the Réserve in particular accompanied the delicate sweet and spicy notes of the vegetable composition with its smooth and creamy mouthfeel.

The stage then went to the Rosé Vintage 2018, a skillful blend of 50 percent Pinot Noir and 35 percent Chardonnay, to which another 15 percent Pinot Noir vinified in red, from a different parcel, is added before frothing. A sparkling wine of distinct fruity and savory intensity, which found a successful match, not only in color, with the
Risotto with raspberry and herb cream
, played on the balance between acidity, fattiness and the distinct herbaceous aromaticity.

The Brut Vintage 2016, a cuvée of Pinot Noir (60 percent) and Chardonnay (40 percent) aged for 7 years, with its rich, toasty, slightly smoky and taut sip created a magical marriage, to say the least, with the Chicken breast ficatum, bewitching Bastien himself with its perfect balance of savoriness, bitter notes, and smokiness contributed by the elements that accompanied the meat, namely caper powder, roasted spring onion, and millefeuille of giblets.

An unexpected pairing with the 2015 Sir Winston Churchill Cuvée.

It was no easy task to find a table pairing for the Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 2015, secret blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, subjected to an 8-year aging process to create a wine that is intentionally sumptuous, complex and robust, apt to embody the figure of the man for whom it is named. The offspring of a difficult and very hot vintage, the ’15 vintage offers itself more immediate and accessible than its predecessor 2013, but not without that assertive and multifaceted character, giving notes of candied citrus, almond, breadfruit and oysters, on a rich and dense mouthfeel, with mouthwatering returns of powdered sugar and toast. Just to go along with this toasty and tendentially rounded ensemble, it was successfully paired with a dessert of moderate sweetness, the
Licorice parfait
, with Kentucky tobacco leaf crystals, spiced pear and coffee cream.

Sweet closing with the cuvée demi sec Rich, blend of the three grapes to which is added a 25 percent house reserve, which ages for at least 4 years before marketing. Another non-vintage from the winery, another type now all but unobtainable in the marketplace, despite the fact that this is as bewitching a wine in the olfactory department (with candied sugared citron and ginger) as it is dynamic in the flavor department, where the ringing acidity and lively bubble convincingly dilute any hint of sweetness. A perfect sparkling wine at the end of a meal as much as at the opening, perhaps to accompany an aperitif of raw shellfish, cheeses or puff pastry.

TO READ THE WINE DESCRIPTIONS, WITH SCORE AND AVERAGE SHELF PRICE, CLICK ON THE TABS BELOW.