Champagne picked in August 2026 and lost half its crop. Growers harvested 7,000 kg per hectare against 9,900 last year. Here is who absorbs the loss.
The fastest, safe ways to chill champagne in summer heat, plus the serving temperature most people get wrong. Straight from Pops at Champagne Tuesday.
Not the formal stuff. Not the bottle you save for a toast and then forget about. The everyday kind, cold, poured right next to dinner, outside, while the evening is still warm. Grower champagne does this better than the big houses. The bottles are more vinous, more tied to a single piece of land, more flexible at the table than most large-house non-vintage blends. That makes them built for summer eating. Here's how the people who make it actually eat in July. M. runs the kitchen. She's the chef in this family. I pour.
Boats, porches, picnics, cookouts — champagne handles summer better than anything in the cooler. Here's what to pour, what to pair, and why the occasion is enough.
