Ice idea for Moet

If you’re currently packing your bags for St-Tropez, make sure to look out for Ice Imperial while you’re there.

Ice Imperial is Moët’s Brut Imperial blended to be drunk with ice. Drinking Champagne this way is, says chef de cave Benoît Gouez, a St-Trop tradition.

It’s being trialled in a few other places as well. Germany, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Acapulco, and indeed other parts of France are being used as test markets.

The idea is to increase sales in the summer while, presumably, not detracting from the end-of-year peak.

If you serve a normal non-vintage Champagne over ice it does, of course, lose its identity.

Gouez identifies three ways in which Brut Imperial has been adapted to become Ice Imperial. Firstly, a higher proportion of Pinot Noir gives more intensity of flavour.

Secondly, there is more dosage. Brut over ice doesn’t work, says Gouez, who believes demi-sec tastes better.

"The last element," he says, "is a thirst-quenching quality, which often comes from acidity or bitterness on the finish." The result is a Champagne that "finds its balance on ice". On its own, he says, it’s not good.

The idea, as he says, is not new, but Moët appears to be the first to get it past the drawing-board.

Laurent-Perrier is believed to have discussed the possibility of serving Champagne over ice made from Champagne (presumably L-P) but the proposal got no further.

Margaret Rand, 27.07.2010