Hello bubbly girls! I'm excited to introduce you our newest Champagne Girl of the Week - Champagne Jayne! As you know, the Champagne Girl of the Week is a woman who is truly living an effervescent life. She is passionate and inspirational, and she is rockin' it out by doing what she loves. Champagne Jayne loves, well, Champagne! And she's made a career out of her love affair with bubbles.
I was lucky to be a part of Champagne Jayne's "Taste and Tweet" portion of this year's Champagne Summit held in London, from the comfort of Flute Bar in NYC. With a selection of some of the world's best Champagnes, and my Twitter app, I took part in all the action and connected with Champagne lovers around the globe. CJ tells us all about her inspiration for the event below, as well as what's next for her brand!
TCD: Can you give us a brief background of who you are and what you do?
CJ: I’ve been in love with champagne since my first school trip to France, aged 15, and today I’m an award-winning champagne author and educator, media commentator and respected independent expert in champagne.
For me, champagne connects to everything, but the experience should be both accessible and inspirational at the same time. My goal in life is to make champagne accessible to everyone and help people to understand this magical wine’s many facets whilst also showcasing the very best in local sparkling wines − I do this in a variety of ways: educational articles and videos on my website, which include video interview tastings with the most interesting winemakers in Champagne – both large and small – as well as the best sparkling winemakers around the world. I also host public champagne and food matching master classes with the world’s finest chefs to showcase these amazing food wines with the very best cuisine on offer. Corporate and private events are another focus where I help my clients connect and engage all sorts of audiences through champagne experiences that enrich, educate and entertain at all levels. I’m definitely living an effervescent life, Cara!
TCD: How did you get involved with the Champagne Summit?
CJ: After the success of Sunrise on Champagne Day last year, I was approached by the editor of Harpers Wine & Spirit Magazine (organiser of The Champagne Summit) to participate in an expert panel at The Champagne Summit 2012. He asked me to speak to the UK Champagne trade about the benefits of consumer engagement through social media and to create also a themed champagne masterclass for this conference. Rather than just sharing a case study of my work around Champagne Day, I thought it would be much more exciting and engaging to create a live ‘tweetchat’ experience for those participating. Winning the Champagne Educator of The Year Award that same day was a totally unexpected and completely humbling experience, especially because the two runners up were previous winners Richard Bampfield, Master of Wine and Laura Clay, CIVC European Ambassador 2010.
TCD: What inspired you to bring a global angle to the Summit via social media?
CJ: Champagne is by its very nature a global brand, and so, despite the logistical nightmare, it seemed both entirely logical and appropriate to bring my global social media influence to bear to embed twitter within the fabric of this year’s Summit − whilst at the same time creating something fun and new for participants to get involved in. After all, that’s what I call ‘edutainment’. Judging by the waiting line outside my masterclass on the day, the lively commentary online and rave media reviews since the event, I think this sparkling social media experiment was a roaring success!
TCD: Do you feel Twitter changed the way people view wine and champagne? If so, how?
CJ: In my mind, champagne is a timeless icon of shared luxury that easily lends itself to social communication − after all, way before the advent of the internet superhighway, TV, radio or even planes, trains and automobiles, champagne was already famous around the world. Nevertheless, perhaps because of its incredibly long history and sustained prominent position, the champagne industry can be quite conservative and slow to adapt its communication style. To remain relevant to today’s consumers, champagne needs to assert its affordable luxury credentials − what better or more effective way to do this than to share all champagne’s magnificent stories than the social media airwaves? It means instantaneous, personalised, two-way, multimedia cost-effective communication with customers − it’s really marketing 101.
TCD: Favorite champagne?
CJ: I call all champagnes ‘my children’ and firmly believe there is a moment for every champagne and a champagne for every moment − so it’s really very hard to pick favourites. When asked this perennial question, before answering, I always consider the following:
(a) Where am I?
(b) Who am I with?
(c) What time of day is it? (ie. are we eating, if so, what?)
As a rule of thumb − Blanc de Blancs in the morning, classic non-vintage for brunch/lunch and then when you have more time to appreciate things in the evening, it’s time to move on to vintage or prestige cuvée − if there could be only one champagne forever more − I would be satisfied with Krug.
TCD: What's next for Champagne Jayne?
CJ: I flew back from Europe just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and to begin work on an exciting food and wine TV pilot. Now I’m back in Sydney busy preparing a series of champagne edutainment experiences to mark Australian Mother’s Day in May and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June. My next global champagne trek will include more conference speaking and themed master classes in London, another visit to Champagne, naturally, and potentially even a sparkling side trip to NYC to catch up with my champagne twitter-mates!
For more info visit www.champagnejayne.com
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