So when a region of the world becomes known for a specific type of food,
they'll go to great lengths to protect it.
I mean, let's look at Kobe beef.
It can only be called that
if it meets a very particular set of requirements,
including that the cow was born, fed, and slaughtered in a region of Japan
that includes the city of Kobe.
Quebec regulates who can sell maple syrup
and the government even keeps a strategic reserve.
French champagne is from, you guessed it, the Champagne region of France
and it's heavily regulated.
But the pandemic is exposing the behind-the-scenes drama
about how it's produced.
DYING ON THE VINE
You must hold it like this and tap, all the way up.
Okay.
And I use the back of the knife.
- Here, this part. OK. - Yes, that part.
Okay, merci.
Oh, it's quite heavy.
Okay.
This is very difficult.
Whoaaaaa!
(Charlet) There were many reasons to break out the champagne sabre in 2020.
Whooooo!
And that's bad news for Charles Duval-Leroy and his family.
Merci.
This is what we have today for Femme de Champagne: non-vintage.
It is more of apéritif-style vintage.
We stay in the frame of elegance and finesse.
Duval-Leroy has been in this business for 150 years.
They produce more than 2 million bottles annually
for big clients like Delta Airlines
and the Moulin Rouge.
With Covid-19 keeping planes on the ground and event spaces closed,
sales have plummeted by almost 40%,
and the champagne industry has had to take drastic action.
This is an unusual year.
We had a good harvest,
but due to this COVID-19 crisis,
we couldn't harvest all the grapes.
As you can see, there are a lot of grapes left.
It's a frustrating year for us.
If I didn't the context, it looks like sabotage.
It's really something unprecedented.
There are so many times that we ask ourselves
if there's a new wine-making method.
No, it's just throwing the grapes on the ground.
It makes no sense.
So with the sales dropping throughout the year. How did the industry respond
with the city illuminated Dakota?
Champagne has spent decades meticulously curating a global image
as the way to Mark special occasions.
It's this type of deliberate management that led to cutting production
by 100 million bottles, this year to prop up prices,
but the decision left, over 10,000 tons of grapes to waste away.
And it didn't necessarily account for issues
that were already threatening Champagnes reign as a celebratory. Drink of choice.
Can you talk a little bit about the state of
Of the champagne industry before the pandemic hit
because I remember there was already talk of champagne,
having a little bit of an image crisis
before covid.
But if you do MB,
scholarship and activism evil
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Sadiq Ali Duchamp and salute salute Circle,
we sure do two dudes operative lose a point of privilege Instagram
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illegal immigration achiever
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professional self in photo orientation has a drive.
Some smaller, producers have a different take on the right response to the crisis,
some clam Left Behind questions.
While the big names in the industry sell millions of bottles each year,
and some sillas makes only about 50,000 and each one can go for hundreds of euros.
Chef liquid Reza come sir,
we a la parte know but it tastes.
Where's your boss? It is best girl.
She tutored me. Keep he
means all producers are leaving grapes on the ground to compost something.
That's a losses.
Particularly hard for smaller companies that can't lose out on Revenue.
So the industry implemented a quota to try and ease the crisis.
Do you think that was the right solution? Seabone solution?
See permit, the passage or kalmo antipater longer.
Possible correspondent even more, probable that your sookie.
Sookie sookie world of incoming fabric.
Champagne success. Depends on Innovation from the next generation of winemakers.
Charlotte Discovery, sweetie, but I'm building something.
But younger produces
like Alexander. Shortened are also the ones with the most recent Investments,
leaving them? The most, at risk financially.
I love it.
Would you drink this for an aperitif or with food?
The department who loves any problem or
we will blow out a settlement is really good though.
Most champagne makers are doing fine for now.
But their future depends on when the pandemic ends.
And more importantly, if sales pick up when it does.
It's of all the industries that have been hurt
by the pandemic Champagnes. Not necessarily the most sympathetic one.
Why should people care that Champagnes been hurt?
I'm awkward because what is only than me like a person? Namely France, a vision.