Image: The Bubble Company – Karma Champagne
Managing director Filip Mertens of The Bubble Company has been making his own exclusive champagne brand ‘Victor & Charles‘ for a few years now. A champagne that is on the menu in most Belgian top restaurants. During the end of year period Mertens launches a very remarkable ‘Cuvée prestige’… A bottle in which a real diamond is incorporated.
Filip Mertens is manager of The Bubble Company and has his own wine store ‘Manero’ in Willebroek. His passion for champagne has a long history. Since 1998 he has been active in the world of wines. From the beginning he had a predilection for champagne. First as a sommelier in gastronomy, then for years as ‘key account prestige’ at the champagne brand Pommery and as commercial director at beverage supplier Mampaey & Co.
“In the meantime I had also started producing my own champagne,” he says. “For that, I partnered with a French family that was already producing good quality champagne. I could build on that and we started refining it together. I’m present at every step of the process. In 2016, I was able to present my first bottles.”
When his father passed away in 2014, Filip deliberately chose Victor & Charles as the brand name. By developing his own quality champagne, Filip especially wants to honor his father and grandfather. Meanwhile, the cuvées are on the wine lists of the Hof Van Cleve, ‘t Zilte, De Jonkman and Comme Chez Soi, among others.
Still on Filip’s bucket list was the ambition for his own ‘Cuvée de prestige’. “I wanted to market the most beautiful bottle of champagne ever made. Not only the outside had to be perfect but the contents as well.” The result is a beautiful assemblage of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir. It is a 2015 Millésime that has been kept as pure as possible after a long period in our cellars. It has therefore become a ‘Dosage zéro’. This means that it contains less than 3 grams of sugar per liter. A unique fact in the prestige cuvée segment. But at least as eye-catching is the bottle in which the champagne is contained. There is a real diamond in the Victor & Charles logo. The exclusive champagne was given the name “Karma”. This symbolism is woven throughout the entire project. There are only 1,000 units of Karma available.” According to Filip Mertens, this cuvée will easily continue to evolve beautifully in bottle for 10 years.
Each bottle of KARMA is artisanally assembled, comes in a numbered luxury gift box, containing a personal message, a booklet with all the information about the champagne and the vintage. Each case also contains a diamond ID certificate delivered by the Hoge Raad van Diamant. For a bottle of Karma, in presale during the month of November, you pay 495 euros.
