Welcome Bienvenue Velkommen 2021
The assortment of Champagne Tange-Gérard dressed up a bit for the occasion of Christmas 2020.
New Year: Rarely have we been this impatient to begin the new year. In our family the main criteria for success in 2020 was for everyone to remain well, the company included. The rest came second like for so many others worldwide.
We share this experience of the limits of mankind but also of what we can achieve together. This is the positive outcome from the year, we believe.
One year ago, we wrote: ”There’s lots to be done in this third decade of the 21st century.” This last year has certainly not brought any less of these challenges or even dealt with them.
However, do we dare to hope that the will to pull together and take care that we saw unfold in 2020 in so many places, could be extended to other fields in need perhaps, before it will be too late?
Our company has worked with sustainability in the vines since 2015. We continued with the packaging then installed a heat pump in the house when the oil-fired boiler died some years ago.
In spring 2020, our entire family was contained at the farm, we decided to make it visible with 27 pairs of shudders painted green by our kids. We stored, reused, rebuilt according to the saying: use, what you find, rather than buying new.
So how does this connect with our core product, champagne? In all sorts of ways. We were contained long enough to rethink our life in the village and change habits. We want to describe more here in our webpage with the UN sustainable development goals as frame.
Sollissime, our latest champagne, was introduced in tasty company with Danish oysters from Glyngøre. A combination that does work. Danish research, published in the Nature magazine in 2020, found that champagne and oysters combine into the powerful umami taste.
Sollissime is 100% Soulieres. Due to grapes from old Chardonnay vines, this cuvée possesses a certain power along its freshness despite a warm summer. Shallow ploughing made the difference. A method that is very much learning by doing.
But it is not the first time that the region of Champagne must cope with climate change. Luckily, the champagnes so far are better.
Champagne is always a remarkable way to mark your special moment. For us, it was special in the spring to be kept afloat by you, getting delivered in new ways as we could not offer the usual ones. This is likely to continue at least partly in 2021.
More than ever before you showed us how bubbles work both ways. We would like to express our gratitude for your help. Thanks a lot.
Warm regards from Soulieres
Alain Gérard & Solveig Tange
FInishing the last rows of Chardonnays in Loisy-en-Brie on the last day of the grape harvest in August, 2020, in a great mood as any other year.