Champagne Master Class by Richard Juhlin

The world’s leading Champagne expert Richard Juhlin launches Champagne Master Class at Champagne Club by Richard Juhlin.

In 14 episodes + extra material, you will immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Champagne and discover its secrets and taste sensations under the guidance of the wine’s greatest connoisseur. Through fascinating and entertaining tutelage in our latest Master Class, one of the world’s most trend-setting Champagne connoisseurs, Richard Juhlin, sheds light on gastronomy’s most exclusive beverage, Champagne.

'For the first time in my career,' says Richard, 'I have found the time and opportunity to share my know-how and experience in an informative and basic thorough online course.'

About this Champagne Masterclass

This serie is a Champagne Master Class with Richard Juhlin. In 14 episodes, you will immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Champagne and discover its secrets and taste sensations under the guidance of the wine’s greatest connoisseur. Introducing the world’s leading Champagne expert – Richard Juhlin. Richard is launching his very first Champagne Master Class where you will learn everything you need to know about the world’s greatest drink, Champagne!

In a unique 14-episode online course, you will learn about the different types of Champagne, evaluating Champagne as a professional, hosting your own Champagne tasting and much more.

You will also get access to a complete 297-page guide where Richard compiles his knowledge and insights from over 30 years in the Champagne industry. Dive deep into his favorite Champagnes, the best Champagne houses, the history of Champagne and various other interesting facts. The ultimate guide for every Champagne lover!

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‘My own goal with this Master Class is to get you even more passionate and inspired about the best beverage in the world”

Richard Juhlin

About Richard Juhlin

Richard Juhlin is literally THE Champagne expert. Renowned for his skills in blind tasting, he’s tasted more Champagne than anyone else and holds the world record at over 14,000+ different types!

In between sipping his favourite bubbly, he’s found the time to design glasses and write numerous books. Four of which, Champagne Magnum Opus, Champagne Hiking, The Great Tasting and 3,000 Champagnes, all received the prize for ‘Best Book on French Wines in the World‘. He was also awarded International Champagne Writer of the Year at the The Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards at Vinexpo in 2005.

Let the world’s number one Champagne expert in the world guide you through the wonderful world of Champagne: Richard Juhlin. Most famous for his skills in blind taste testing, he has held the world record for most Champagne ever tasted – over 14,000+ unique Champagnes! Not only has he enjoyed one of the world’s best Champagne, he also designed Champagne glasses, and he wrote multiple books about Champagne. His book “A scent of Champagne” was translated into five languages and won the prestigious title ‘Best wine book in the world’ at the World Cook Book Awards in Beijing. If there’s one person who could share his knowledge and enthusiasm for France’s greatest gift, it’s Richard.

THE ESPISODES

What is champagne really? Glamorous bubbles or France's greatest gift to the civilized world. Champagne - just taking the word in your mouth creates an air of glittering expectations, right? For almost three centuries, Champagne has been associated with luxury, flair, elegance, and glamor. There are few victories and festivities that have been celebrated without this golden drink. Let the no 1 Champagne expert in the world guide you through the wonderful world of Champagne!

For nearly three centuries, champagne has been associated with luxury and glamor. There are not many of history’s most important victories and festivities that were not celebrated with this golden beverage. And the image of the champagne-spraying Formula One winner are well etched on most people’s retinas. To many people, champagne is a pure celebration drink whose bubbles are the most important.

It is the geological conditions and the cooler climate that characterize the Champagne wine region. The mineral rich soil gives the beverage unique features, and the grapes develop complicated chemical compounds during the long maturation process that provide particularly elegant healthy and balanced flavors. In a climate that is only marginally warmer than Champagne, the sparkling wines become immediately clumsy and unbalanced compared to the original. It simply is not possible to make champagne outside of Champagne.

✓ The process - step by step ✓ The champagne styles ✓ Dosage levels ✓ Bottles sizes ✓ Type of producers NM etc ✓ Characteristics - the look - the smell - the taste

In this episode you will follow in the footsteps of Richard trough all the basics you need to know to fully enjoy & understand the wonderful world of Champagne. ✓ What is terroir & why should we care?

✓ Grand cru villages ✓ Best vintages ever ✓ Recent vintages ✓ 100 point scale - How does in work? ✓ Producers ***** ✓ How to open the bottle ✓ The champagne glass ✓ How to taste champagne ✓ How to pour the champagne ✓ How to hold the glass ✓ The look ✓ The smell ✓ The taste ✓ The Champagnes tasted

The bread and butter of The Champagne industry ! Here are concepts such as cuvée, multivintage, blanc de blancs, tête de cuvée, cuvée préstige, extra brut, brut nature, œnothèque, RD, lieut-dits ... Often I get to hear in my profession 'I hate Moët' or 'I love Ruinart'. Very rarely do you get a more detailed explanation of why you prefer one in front of the other. One of the most important moments in my profession as a Champagne Expert is to keep track of the status of the large standard cuvées. Who keeps the style? Who deserves more attention? And perhaps most importantly: who has the best track record over the past, say ten years? This means that you should not snort at old brands that you think are tired and represent an old school style. In all wine regions there are fantastic top producers who for some reason are always forgotten when the biggest names are dealt with. No matter how good they perform, people always react with surprise and say things like; ’The big positive surprise was ...’ or ’oh how well this Champagne did today. It must have been an extremely good bottle.’

✓ What is non-vintage champagne? ✓ RJs top-ten non-vintage champagnes ✓ House styles ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Blanc de blancs as a concept are much younger than one might think even though Chardonnay has been cultivated since the Romans founded the first vineyards in the area about 2000 years ago. 1911 Salon succeeded in Maxim in Paris during the 1920s and this particular monocru from Le Mesnil was the only known name in the category for a long time. During the twenties, many wonderful blanc de blancs were created with Salon as a model of growers in the Côte des Blancs without the outside world getting to know which diamond was hidden. It was only in the fifties that Blanc de Blancs broke through with majorities such as 1952 Taittinger 'Comtes de Champagne', 1959 Pol Roger 'Blanc de Chardonnay' and 1959 Ruinart 'Dom Ruinart'.

✓ The blanc de blancs background ✓ The icons ✓ The blanc de blancs characteristics ✓ RJs top-ten blanc de blancs champagnes ✓ The Champagnes tasted

A French term, white of black, meaning a white wine from blue grapes. Blue grapes with clear grape flesh and grape juice can be obtained after minimal contact with the skins. Which gives a white wine, whose color is offset by a small amount of red pigment and gives bright shades of yellow, is often described as white-yellow, white, gray or gold-colored. Numerous in Champagne you encounter more often in a number of houses that have been following Bollinger which produces one of the region's icon wines, ’Cuvée Vieilles Vignes Française’. Many today present a prestigious wine with Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a mixture of the two. Although Bollinger's wine is world-famous for its intense wealth and rich character, this has more to do with how the grapes are planted and when they are harvested rather than it is just a blanc de noirs.

✓ The blanc de noirs background ✓ The icons ✓ The blanc de noirs characteristics ✓ RJs top-ten blanc de noirs champagnes ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Top of the pops ! It can be argued that the most important wine produced by the Champagne houses is the non-vintage vintage - multivintage - which serves as an introduction to Champagne for so many, and should also be a reliable picture of the house style - the wine that hopefully will interest the house ’cuvée préstige’. These wines are at the heart of Champagne, the result of a favorable vintage, these are certainly not produced year in and year out, made on the basis of even stricter choices than the pure vintage Champagne and performed with great care in the cellar.

✓ The cuvée de préstige background ✓ The article on Dom Pérignon ✓ The article on Cristal ✓ How to obtain the best quality ✓ The icons ✓ Debute vintages of the icons ✓ List of cuvée de préstige from all the houses ✓ RJs top-ten cuvée de préstige champagnes ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Hand on the heart, would you let your newborn son be dressed in pink? Will you proudly court with a bouquet of pink roses on his graduation day? Hardly! No color is so highly valued and gender-controlled as the romantic and soft-cream color pink. I just need to go to myself. I have never ever bought a pink gadget, but have always been knee-weak by rosy blondes who dressed themselves in pink creations. There is also nothing more sensual than pink lips. I also get a quirky expectant feeling in my stomach when the Japanese cherry trees are in full spring bloom. The pink leader jersey in the Giro d’Italia is anything but silly and Sicilian tanned macho men in Palermo have the Italian league's finest sweaters in light cream pink. The Pink Panther is my favorite animal and overall! What about pink Champagne? Is it only a silly Champagne for night clubs & beach clubs on the Riviera?

✓ The rosé background ✓ The different styles of rosé champagne ✓ The icons ✓ List of rosé from all the houses ✓ RJs top-ten rosé champagnes ✓ The Champagnes tasted

In this episode we look for different approaches for combinations of food and Champagne.We go beyond the picture of champagne alone aperitif or drink for celebration. We will explore the different champagne styles and how they fit at the table set when we discusses when and when not to use extra brut, how to best show oxidising versus reductive interpretations, and the method behind mating of Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Noir-based interpretations. The variables of village character, vintage and maturity will also record. The episode will give you an idea of how to show both the bubbles & the food from their best side. Santé !

✓ Friends & enemies of champagnes ✓ Classic combos - RJs favorites ✓ Contemporary combos - Björnstiernes favorites ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Champagne’s immense storage capacity is one of the factors that divides the area’s wine from other districts. When, as a tourist, you visit the big houses, you often learn that champagne is a perishable item that cannot withstand storage after disgorging. Most people in Champagne drink their oldies newly disgorged, but a large number love champagne when it is aged in the English way, i.e., several years after the disgorging. The richness of normal disgorged old champagne may be unparalleled. The bouquet is developed and rich in fruit thanks to the large amount of esters and aldehydes formed by the contact with the minimum amount of oxygen between wine and cork. Even the dosage plays an important role in the development of new aromas during longtime bottle storage after disgorging. The process is called réaction de maillard, which means that the sugar reacts with the amino acids in the wine and gives roasted, honey tender, and vanilla-like flavors. It is with a portion of risk that you should buy really old champagne, but if the cork sits tightly and the wine has been stored well, you can get an experience beyond the ordinary. Perfectly aged champagnes have a honeyed, exotic bouquet with hints of coffee and chocolate. The flavor easily becomes caramelized and rich with a sense of increased sweetness.

✓ The old champagne background ✓ Old & recent disgorgements ✓ Auction wines? ✓ The millennium tasting? ✓ RJs best old champagnes ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Would you like to learn a little more about champagne and quickly get the hang of what this wine has to offer? Is a serious wine tasting with specific tasting conditions the only way? Champagne, like all wines, is an experience for all of the senses – colour, aroma, texture, flavour and in this case sound too. Learning to recognise and define the distinctions in Champagne – making associations, finding the right word – is what makes tasting Champagne especially fascinating.

✓ How to set up a blind tasting ✓ Preparation ✓ What to look for? ✓ The Champagnes tasted

I have mentioned Anselme Selosse several times before in all my books, partly because he is my favorite grower and partly because he is the most special winemaker in all of Champagne. Selosse's wines have added champagne to another dimension with their unique, vinous Chardonnay style. Avize's magician quickly became Champagne's cult grower number one, having been named France's best winemaker in all categories in 1994 by the magazine Gault Millau. Despite his fame, his rare wines cost nothing compared to Petrus, Romanée-Conti or Krug Clos du Mesnil. All wines are magical world-class wines.

✓ RJs background on Anselmne Selosse ✓ All Selosse champagnes

What is Champagne Hiking? TheChampagne Sommelier asked the simple question to Richard; We know that you went around the world drinking Champagnes in the most magnificent places you can imagine, but can you tell us what Champagne Hiking really is?The simple answer is that it is a Champagne picnic in nature. The more detailed answer isthat it is primarily about an interaction of all external factors that affect a champagne experience. Champagne Hiking is a concept in which I neither delve into the chemistry of the fragrance world nor in the origin of wine or its gastronomic merits, but instead devotemyself to the external factors of the wine expeience. Wine has recently become a over-analyzed science, but there is an important basic forgotten aspect. Let's call it "the wine environment", or even better "the microclimates of the taste occasion". I dare to say that this "microclimate" is just as important for the wine experience as the design of the glass and the wine's gastronomic company. The same wine can taste very different depending on context, company and environment. I think most people have been involved in tasting a local wine during the holiday trip that tasted so excellent in place that you bought with them some bottles of home. Once at home you do not recognize the wine at all. The wine appears as a pale shadow of the beauty that was shown when it was drunk in place in harmony with the scents of nature in its original environment.

✓ The concept ✓ Top 100 spots in the world & The 100 best champagnes in the world ✓ The Champagnes tasted

Laurent-Perrier is the biggest success story since World War II. The family firm was on the verge of going under in the early 1950s, but is now among the largest and most respected companies in all of Champagne. The chef de cave Michel Fauconnet is known for his clinically clean cuvées, where oxidation is avoided at all costs. L-P is widely praisedfor their fruity and elegant cuvées.

✓ Grand Siècle ✓ The house philisophy of Laurent-Perrrier ✓ Tasting with chef des caves Michel Faucconet