Judit Ayago, sommelier: "The tripe and champagne pairing is incredible"

Last year,

went

worldwide

according to estimates by data analysts BoldData.

Guess why?

The truth is that with the

in the hump there was little to

, and the truth is that, with exceptions that confirm the rule, the world continues to uncork champagne when there are reasons for

.

With

and

and leisure confined within the walls, the bubbles had no choice but to confine themselves inside the bottles while waiting for better times, and privacy was given over to

(according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, their sales in the food channel

during the first 11 months of 2020), which in the end is another way to celebrate. That we have finished another day without bad news, for example.

The fact is that all of them must go -the

I mean-, like crazy these days, because despite the alarming news about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which could spoil Christmas, the air smells

. In case of viruses, we would do no wrong to stock up on a few bottles now, even if it is to celebrate ourselves if necessary. After all, champagne is one of the few

that

Upside down. Like the smile, which cheers the person who sketches it, champagne spreads its brilliance. "With how much fun you've had, not even his

can be bad," confirms

from the

restaurant

(c / de la Flor Baja, 5) from Madrid, one of the most expert champagne sommeliers in our country.

She is originally from Villafranco del Guadiana,

, from where she retains a characteristic accent spent for seven years in

. As a teenager he saw himself studying a degree in

, but he entered the hospitality industry and, as he says, "thanks to wine I'm still in it." After several jobs as a

waitress ended up

in

, mythical

in Queen Street and from there he jumped to Ikigai a

of

of the city center where you created an interesting selection of wines and champagnes with a diaphanous clarity of vision: "I did not want to have a museum here." For this reason, among other things,

included in their menu costs

"In our champagne menu there is no Grand Maison, because I preferred to focus on the

specifies.

A small vineyard that is, says the expert, as effervescent as a Moët & Chandon shake.

“Right now a lot of new people have come in to make wine, people who don't have a great capacity to make wine, which has made a type of

extremely

champagnes

, very

, with a

(not very vinous champagnes as before). ).

That, and

(non-carbonated) are two of the big trends shaking up the current 'champenoise' scene. A scene that increasingly attracts more Spanish palates, as witnessed by the proliferation of large and small brands on the menus of restaurants and bars and specialized stores. «In Madrid there are people doing very cool things, like

(Ronda de Segovia 7), led by

with a very curious selection of champagnes; o

(in the Plaza de Olavide) ... There are more and more places that allow you to go and buy something a little different from what can be found in large stores.

The same happens with bars and restaurants with large selections of champagne such as

says the sommelier from

All this happens, in the end, because "there has been a click in the way of

champagne", come on, it is no longer just a matter of christenings, weddings and Christmas, which does not prevent us Spaniards from still having the odd one ' It needs to improve 'in terms of the way we enjoy it, "although everyone who drinks it as they prefer," adds Judit Ayago diplomatically.

She herself, without going any further, has had to listen more than once to a customer the phrase: "Pour, add more, as if it were for you", when serving him a drink. "And I thought that, of course, if it were for me, of course, the last thing I would do would be to

to the brim." Because no, ladies and gentlemen, no, the champagne should reach at most the

point

, its 'little love handle' we would say, to guarantee that it will have space to express itself, and that when moved it

That, and we don't end up drinking the hot champagne. Although this is another story ...

This one, in particular:

, the sommelier at

told me in an interview

that one of the great myths about wine that still persist in the minds of Spaniards is that white is put in the fridge, then it goes to an ice bucket and then ... people still think it's hot.

Does the same thing happen to us with champagne?

-I was talking about it with the photographer a few minutes ago.

He asked me what was the ideal temperature to drink champagne and I told him that if it is for an average Spanish consumer, zero degrees.

It is a belief that we should completely banish because, in the end, when you take something so cold, what we manage is to hide all its nuances, that it does not taste like anything.

And what about the glasses where we drink champagne? Because I have already gone through the Marie Antoinette glass, the conical one, the flute and now the wine glass ... I believe that the current trend of drinking it in a wine glass benefits you. In the flute glass, the champagne does not have space for all the aromas to unfold ... The wine glass, which is wider, allows you to move it, allows you to release its aromatic compounds. The 'ice' champagnes [designed to be drunk with ice ] Do they make any sense? Let's see, I would not drink it or give it to drink, but I understand that there are certain people who demand it. I always say that when someone tells you "I want a wine like that, sweet, to eat" it is because that person, without the intention of offending, does not like wine. But I understand that if you are on a yacht in Ibiza and you don't like champagne, but how well does it look in the photo ...have a champagne with something that is glyceric and makes you more pleasant. But I think it is one of the many marketing things that is in champagne to bring it closer to another type of audience that is not really the potential consumer of champagne. What champagne would you recommend to someone who wants to get started in it? (but seriously, not on a yacht in Ibiza) A girl called

whose family had historically been dedicated to selling grapes has made a conversion of the vineyard to biodynamic, which is something that is now being done a lot in the Champagne area, and they are very interesting entry champagnes. The blanc de noir that it makes is also very well priced (around 40 euros). That is to say, for 40 euros you can drink a good champagne. Yes, we can destroy another myth, then, that champagne, like psychiatrists, must be expensive to be good. Let's see, champagne has to be expensive because not I think that nowhere else in the world does a kilo of grapes cost 14 euros, to begin with. I think champagne is worth what it costs. Another thing is that you drink a bottle of thousand euros. But for 40 you can drink good champagne. How should we do it? Take the glass by the stem,So as not to heat it (although seeing how we Spaniards drink it cold, it would not hurt). Move it, because there are heavier volatile compounds that if you don't move it they won't come out ... But not as much as wine. There are people who would tell you to analyze the rosary, but I think that the bubble as it really feels is in the mouth, the pressure, the thickness ... And now that we are running out of time, can we go to the plane at once intimate? Let's see: personally, do you prefer champagne before, during or after the meal? Of course I love it with meals, because its acidity and carbonic help me a lot to clean, to make the transition between one dish and another. champagne, I find it incredible. Although champagne goes well with almost everything And the maleficent question,To finish: is the best cava worse than a regular champagne? I don't think you have to compare them. They are two wines that are made with the same method but otherwise are different in everything: the climate, the grape varieties ... Each one has its space and its time.

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