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30 | DECEMBER 2015 nshoremag.com Jenny Johnson was inspired to create an affordable, domestically produced label, Champy. photographs by Lauren Poussard BY JEANNE O'BRIEN COFFEY T.V. personality Jenny Johnson tapped her contacts in the food and beverage industry to create her own sparkling wine. Pop the Bubbly! When Dom Perignon, credited with inventing champagne, first tasted the bubbly beverage, he is rumored to have said, "Come quickly, I am tasting stars!" Emmy Award –winning executive producer, entertainment and life- style television celebrity, and Mar- blehead native Jenny Johnson hopes her own star power will help launch her sparkling wine, while encourag- ing people to pause to appreciate the small joys in every day. "Historically, we think of spar- kling wine as [intended] for mo- mentous occasions," says Johnson, whose work hosting and producing NECN's Dining Playbook and TV Diner helps foodies find the best places to eat and drink in New Eng- land. (She has garnered two Emmy Awards for her work.) "But it's not necessarily helpful to wait for those big, important events," she suggests. While Johnson and her friends of- ten enjoy a bit of bubbly just to add a festive touch to the commonplace, she found that there was a niche in the market that just wasn't filled. "I'm a big fan of bubbles—that's the gift I bring to people's homes, that's what I enjoy on a Sunday. But I personally found that I would be spending a lot of money to get what I considered to be great sparkling wine or Champagne—or, alterna- tively, I would spend very little and not get the flavor I was looking for," Johnson says. What she wanted was a domesti- cally produced sparkler with a com- plex flavor at a price point that was suitable for everyday enjoyment. After chatting with the staff at New England powerhouse wine and spirits distributor M. S. Walker, John- son realized there was a hole in the market where she could fit perfectly. "I was able to connect a lot of pieces because of the relationships I've made over the past decade," Johnson says. "I have grown to have the utmost respect for everyone in this business. I've learned so much, but I always wanted to find a niche to be a part of [the industry] in addi- tion to promoting it." The result is Champy (pronounced shamp-y), a blend of 60 percent chardonnay and 40 percent pinot noir sourced from Sonoma, Mendo- cino, and Napa Counties. The still wine is crafted into a sparkler using