If you’re a sparkling wine fan living in the Chicagoland area, no doubt you’ve heard of Pops for Champagne. If you don’t live in the area, and are a Champagne lover, you need to head there soon.
There are a few notable Champagne bars in various large American cities that have assembled an excellent selection of Champagne, but there’s really nothing to compare with Pops for Champagne, located in the River North district of Chicago. Opened in 1982 at a different location, farther north in the city, Pops is the oldest wine bar in the US dedicated to Champagne.
That’s impressive, but what’s really special about Pops is the sheer quantity of Champagne labels; currently there are 165 selections of Champagne, ranging from famous names such as Pol Roger, Ruinart, Lanson and Bollinger to numerous artisan producers such as Pertois-Lebrun, La Closerie, R. Pouillon and Marie Courtin. While most of the Champagnes offered are full bottles, there are six half-bottle selections, as well as ten Champagnes by the glass; among the latter are Louis Roederer Collection 243, Marguet Yuman Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature and Jean Vesselle Oeil de Perdrix Brut Rosé.
The list is organized into several categories such as Vintage Champagne (currently 50 offerings!), non-vintage Champagne, rosé Champagne and grower-producer Champagne; this last category is subdivided into districts within the Champagne region, such as Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, Aube and the Côte des Blancs. There are also categories for sweeter Champagne (demi-sec), half-bottles, and large formats, which include 19 magnums and two jeraboams (3 liters, equivalent to four bottles of standard size 750 ml.)
The person responsible for this amazing list (there are also sparkling wines from several countries such as Spain, USA, New Zealand, Greece and other regions of France), is wine director Michael Seward. A native of New York City, he went to visit his sister in Chicago after finishing college more than 25 years ago, and wound up staying, as he fell in love with the city. He started at the original Pops in 1997 and worked there for ten years.
How did Seward develop his love – as well as expertise – for Champagne? “There was a gentleman who did a really fine job here (Craig Cooper), who was here for a long time. He and I would taste; he did most of his appointments during the week with salespeople and I was fortunate enough to be working here as an opener almost all the time. So I would taste those wines with him regularly, and we had an extensive educational sort of the curriculum here. “That lent itself to directing my palate and moving it in the direction of what I really fancy, what I love.”
Seward told me that he loved the Bollinger style at first, “but over the years I may have strayed from the style of Bollinger, moving towards something that’s a little leaner, a little more acid-driven, a little higher tone, something that really cuts.” This would certainly explain his admiration for so many Champagne grower-producers that are represented on the wine list.
I mentioned to Seward that there are many Champagne lovers out there that argue that the smaller grower-producers are superior to the large Champagne houses. His answer is one many of us who enjoy Champagne should think about, no matter your preferences. “I think if you pigeonhole yourself into one experience, you’re not experiencing the region, which is built on blending, realistically. If you’re not going to try everything, you’re limiting your experiences.
“But you know if you’re just going to focus on growers or you’re just going to focus on rosé, or you’re just going to focus on Extra Brut, you’re only going to find that. Where, the more you broaden your horizons, you tend to find out there’s a lot more out there. It’s like saying, I will only drink grower Champagne for this reason, or I will only drink Grand Marque, I’ll only drink Dom Perignon. Well, enjoy that. Technically, that leaves a lot more out there for people like me and people that are like-minded.”
As far as beginning customers, does he see them returning? “Oh, for sure. I see them changing their tastes. We definitely turn people into Champagne fanatics. I think some people come in here and see the menu and tend to get overwhelmed, so when you can softly place them into a nice glass of champagne that they can open their eyes to – maybe a person who’s only had Champagne on New Year’s eve or at a wedding – and they experience something from the region, and if you’re able to give them a little background and some history about the wine, they’re feeling more informed, and it lends to a more enjoyable experience.
“If you just place a glass in front of someone, it could be anything. When you can knowledgeably speak about the wine, and give them just a little more than they would get if they bought a bottle and took it home, they come to a place like Pops and have a knowledgeable staff member deliver the message from the winery to them; their own experience about that wine, their own personal feelings about that wine, and maybe guide them in a direction from your own personal experience with that wine.”
I asked Seward if there are crowd favorites among the wines on the list. “There are crowd favorites among the staff. What happens here is we tend to have the staff direct the guests, and the guests then come in with crowd favorites. Anytime some of the cult producers come in such as Jerome Prevost, Cedric Bouchard wines, Jacques Selosse wines, they are crowd favorites, so people will come in for them, Ulysse Colin – people love them.
Has Seward seen a change in the overall product from Champagne, or is it producer specific? “I think it’s producer specific,” he commented. “I think there’s a lot of adapting to what Mother Nature is giving you these days; there’s a lot of people focusing on adapting to the environment. But there’s so much history in Champagne that I think it’s hard to make a direct change or a hard turn from anything that you ever knew.
“Even if you’re a small grower, only two or three generations, you really need to understand what I think for them they have to understand; where they’re producing wine, who’s accepting it, what their peers are saying about it. There’s so much pressure from a lot of different forces in the Champenois whether they’re small or big, to make wine in a particular fashion and adhere to the unspoken rules.”
So it’s clear from speaking with Seward (as well as Craig Garofalo, the owner of Pops) that it’s not just about building a comprehensive list, it’s equally important to help the public understand the sometimes complicated world of Champagne. The categories on the wine list certainly take much of the guesswork out of ordering, as does a beautiful color-coded map of the Champagne region that shows where the various districts are located, along with a few small boxes with text that define such terms as non-vintage Champagne, along with a thorough definition of what makes a rosé Champagne, and even a brief paragraph about the basics of Champagne; all of this helps demystify the region and these great cuvées.
In closing, I asked Seward about the customer base at Pops. “I think our customer base varies greatly, but I think one of the main characteristics that describe our customers is that they are coming in open minded. They range from young professionals to retired people, all with sort of a like-minded love of Champagne. Most of them tend to come in open-minded. It’s pretty rare when someone comes in and stands their ground – ‘I only drink this.’ I think people come in here and understand that there’s something unique that’s happening, and it’s available for them to take advantage of. I tend to find more people come back, and my experience with them is that after the second time they never even open the menu back up. They’ll look at me and say, ‘Hey Michael, what am I drinking today?’
“That’s a beautiful thing about being in this profession, when you’ve garnered the trust of your guests and they leave you to do what you do best, which is to put wine in front of them, and they’ll enjoy it. They’re open also to experiencing a new adventure with Champagne and understand that every bottle is not necessarily going to be the next great bottle; it doesn’t necessarily go that way. It’s just trying and finding new wines to create a broader palate to work with.”
601 N. State Street, Chicago