Champagne on the Rocks? It’s This Summer’s Drink

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/fashion/champagne-on-the-rocks-summer.html

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For years, Bill Murray has enjoyed an unorthodox alcoholic drink: Champagne on ice. “The way I like to drink it is in a big pint glass with ice,” the actor once said. “I fill it with ice and I pour the Champagne in it, because Champagne can never be too cold.”

Of course, this goes against centuries of tradition and the advice of Champagne makers, who have long believed that the wine has a completeness and harmony that should be enjoyed neat. To dilute the flavors and aromas with ice was gauche.

But it turns out Mr. Murray was a trendsetter. Others are just now catching up. At events including Coachella, the tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., and a party for the men’s wear label Orlebar Brown during the recent shows in New York, the attendees were, heretically, drinking Champagne on ice.

The driver of the trend is Moët, the French Champagne producer. Benoît Gouez, the company’s chef de cave, said his colleagues noticed Champagne sales slumped during the summer months, and blamed the drink’s formal tux-and-gown reputation.

Inspired by jet-setters in the south of France, who, like Mr. Murray, have long added ice to their Champagne (the drink is called a piscine — or pool), Mr. Gouez conceived Moët Ice Impérial, a Champagne designed specifically to be consumed over ice. Think of it as a looser, T-shirt-and-halter-top Champagne.

“It has become more of a party drink,” Mr. Gouez said. “New generations are looking for more freedom, a more casual approach.”

Though Moët Ice has been around for five years, it seems the concept has come into full blossom this summer. The Champagne producer Veuve Clicquot came out with Rich, a sweet Champagne designed to be mixed with ice. And this month, Moët introduced a second frosty wine, Ice Impérial Rosé.

That Champagne and rosé go good with ice is no surprise to Bill Irvin, a restaurateur and self-described “wine snob” who spent last summer plopping cubes into his rosé to beat the heat. When he opened La Folie Bistro, his new French restaurant in Baltimore last month, he installed a 7-Eleven-style Slurpee machine behind the bar and began selling what is essentially a Frosé in mass quantities.

“If you walk into the restaurant, almost every person has one on their table — it’s insane,” Mr. Irvin said of the drink. “It’s an adult Slurpee.”

Mr. Irvin was quick to point out that his Slurpee machine freezes the rosé, rather than adding ice to it and diluting the drink. Likewise, Mr. Gouez said Moët Ice is blended with base wines that have more flavor intensity, prettiness on the nose and acidity, to anticipate the dilution. “You have to start with something unbalanced to finish with something balanced with the ice,” he said.

To achieve a proper dilution, Mr. Gouez recommends the Champagne be poured into a large glass first and ice added after, otherwise it will foam and lose effervescence. The ideal ice setup is “three large ice cubes, not crushed ice.”

As drinkers like Mr. Murray have noticed, ice in Champagne acts as a refresher, with the extra water countering the effects of dehydration, especially in summer. As Mr. Murray said: “You don’t want to crash. You want to keep that buzz, that bling, that smile.”