champagne on ice...
A few summers ago in the south of France, the bartenders of St. Tropez noticed that guests were adding ice to their champagne to combat the intense heat of those hot Mediterranean afternoons.
garnishes
Word got back to what the punters were doing and a bright spark at Moet & Chandon realized that while you can’t stop people from putting ice in their champagne, maybe you could make a champagne that would be a little more amenable to having ice plopped down in the middle of it.
the terrace at the Royal Astronomical Society
I met Benouit Gouez, winemaker, at the launch of the Ice Imperial in Mayfair at the Royal Astronomical Society and he told me his thoughts on Ice Imperial and what they hoped to achieve with it.
The Wine Sleuth 
Pingback: Carafe Georgetown
Pingback: alak
Pingback: Wine Blog Week In Review - spittoon.biz | spittoon.biz
i tried it in London and it was wonderful! with raspberries, blackberries, oranges … I usually go for pink champagnes but this has won me back over!
It seems that Moet have won themselves a customer with the Ice Imperial! 🙂
Pingback: » Wine Blog Week In Review Wine Blog
So in reality, was this not just a rather bland version with a bit of extra sugar in it, sold at a much dearer price? 😉
I wouldn’t know, I haven’t tasted it.
In reality, it was a demi-sec which I liked without ice but according to Moet, this is what consumers are demanding. They got the idea from their customers putting ice in their NV in St. Tropez and thought this would be taste better then an NV with ice-cubes in it. Give the people what they want,only better. That can’t be bad, can it? or are they being extremely cynical 😉
I love the containers for the garnishes – what a brilliant idea to allow people to choose little bits & bobs to put in their bubbly!
It was all done very well. The champagne is demi-sec but in ice, it was a pretty good match
Very interesting post I just read but I am very weary of adding ice to my Moet.Please explain to me how I shouldn’t just buy sparkling wine and save money.
I wouldn’t add ice to NV Moet. The Ice Imperial is a demi-sec so it’s rather on the sweet side and adding ice doesn’t make it lose it’s flavour. I don’t think Moet are trying to get people to trade up. As you know, champagne is a luxury item so I think they are catering to people who already drink champagne and are saying, “Hey, if you’re going to put ice in your champagne, don’t water down the NV, drink Ice Imperial instead.”