The relentless conquest of Champagne continues: Entrepreneurs now open bars and restaurants configured solely to sell it, and if you have an emergency shortage, one express service will deliver a bottle to your home (or office) in 20 minutes. No wonder sales continue to hit records and Champagne houses are right there meeting demand with such new, unexpected offshoots as LVMH’s Moët Ice Imperial.
Ice Imperial’s first trial came in 2011 with the promise that it would offer a ‘unique and thirst quenching taste’ that blended three distinctive flavors—fruit intensity, richness, and freshness—and should be served in an unexpected way: a large wine glass, over ice. Champagne snobs scoffed at such heretical drinking, somewhere Bill Murray smiled, and everyone else guzzled it up. In fact, this new kind of fizz, expressly designed to be drunk on the rocks, has become a new category of Champagne.
Moët Ice Imperial proved so successful that it hasn’t just spawned its own offshoot—a rosé version, released in 2016—but also a slew of me-toos from other marques. Pommery claimed that drinkers of its new, ice-friendly Royal Blue Sky would be “quickly hypnotized by this wine, that you want to discover as soon as possible.” Veuve Clicquot, a sister brand to Moët under the LVMH umbrella, went even farther, suggesting its “rich” offshoot be served over ice, in cocktails, or swirled with a chunk of pineapple, some cucumber, or even a squirt of tea.
It wasn’t just the Champagne houses eyeing a share of this sparkling market, either. There are now around a dozen ice-friendly, new blends from French winemakers, such as Bordeaux-based JP Chenet and Jura-based Francois Montand, which has been using méthode champenoise since its namesake winemaker fled there during World War II. There’s a similar aesthetic—foil-wrapped or frosted bottles with snazzy, busy graphics—and a marketing program that’s more Kendall ’n’ Gigi than Catherine Deneuve. Moët Ice free-flowing at Coachella this year and name-checked in ample Instagrams was a result.
But how and why have the Champagne houses shucked off traditional constraints and launched these poppy, seemingly sacrilegious blends? It’s down to tradition, taste, and conveniently coinciding trends.
Much as marketers might suggest that the idea of icing champagne is outré or unexpected, it’s a long-time habit in France, especially in the south, according to Champagne expert Caroline Brun, who works with such brands as Bollinger.
“In St. Tropez, people have been drinking Champagne [this way] since the 1960s. It’s a fresher way to drink champagne, which, as you know, can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime,” she told Bloomberg via email. “It’s as simple as that.”
Indeed, ice Champagne’s implicit association with the yacht- and model-heavy life of a mogul in St. Tropez has earned it the nickname ‘Disco Champagne.’ Quaffing it this way implicitly transports the drinker poolside, somewhere with jet-set je ne sais quoi; no wonder serving Champagne in a goblet with a few ice cubes is known in France as à la piscine, or “swimming pool style.”
Piper-Heidsieck was the first Champagne brand to try to import this tradition stateside a decade ago, with its Piscine program, which emphasized oversized glasses, but according to Brun, kept the recipe of the Champagne the same. “It was just a campaign for a glass with their normal cuvée.”
Moët entirely reformulated its juice for Ice Imperial. When food or drink is consumed at colder temperatures, sugars are less prominent, so it’s perceived to be less sweet. This quirk makes brand extensions aimed à la piscine a handy way to repackage, and so re-popularize, the sweeter Champagnes whose flavor has fallen from favor. (Longtime Champagne champ stateside for Moët was its sweet White Star expression, but in 2012, LVMH discontinued distribution in the U.S.) Ice Imperial, with 45 grams of sugar per liter, is technically a demi sec, while Veuve Rich’s 60 grams earn it the traditional doux classification—the closest Champagne can come to fizzy candy. It’s a stark contrast with brut Champagne, arguably the standard flavor profile today; with a maximum 12 grams per liter or dosage, it’s 80 percent less sweet.