Debate a Bubble - Champagne Detective

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Posted: 24 Nov 2010 07:33 AM PST

There's nothing I like more than a challenge so I was delighted and intrigued when a friend in England asked me the other day if I could find out anything about a champagne called Chauvet Frères.

My friend's friend had discovered, in the bottom of a wardrobe belonging to a relative who had recently died, an unopened half bottle of vintage champagne from 1926. The bottle had probably been in that wardrobe for years, possibly since way back in the 1920s or 1930s

A wardrobe is not a good place for storing champagne and unlike the champagne that has been found in near perfect condition in shipwrecks at the bottom of the ocean, I fear that this half bottle won't be worth drinking - the bottom of a wardrobe is neither as still, nor as dark and cool as the bottom of the sea - but it would still be great to discover more about it.

The only clue is that the name on the label is Chauvet Frères Reims

Now there are at least 3 Champagnes by the name of Chauvet that are still around today: Marc Chauvet and Henri Chauvet in Rilly-La-Montagne and Auguste Chauvet in Tours-sur-Marne.

I've spoken to them all hoping that one of them would be able to point me in the right direction. Perhaps one of them used to be called Chauvet Frères ( brothers) before some fascinating family feud?

Alas No.

None of them has any knowledge of Chauvet Frères, so it's back to square one.

If anyone has any suggestions,please let me know. Meanwhile I'll carry on with my Sherlock Holmes act and see where it leads