Champagne

Champagne is the only wine in the world that comes with a sense of occasion. No one casually opens a bottle of champagne on a Tuesday evening—and doing so can feel unexplainably blasphemous.

Around the world, the effervescent golden (and sometimes pink) wines of Champagne, France, have been mimicked but never replicated, imitated but never emulated. The region produces 1 of every 12 bottles of sparkling wine in the world, and, as a testament to its overarching popularity, it is probably the single most ubiquitous wine, and wine word, in the world.

So what is it that makes champagne sparkle more than all the others? And what else is worth knowing (and need to know for students of the Introductory SOM course) about champagne and Champagne?

Photo by “Pline” on Wikimedia

Note that Champagne (big C) refers to the region, and champagne (little c) refers to the wine.

The Terroir of Champagne

The self-imposed restrictions on yields and the fact that Champagne houses (akin to châteaux in Bordeaux) opt to exceed the legally required aging period for their wines definitely has a positive impact on quality of the final product. But it all starts in the vineyard.

Champagne is on the 49th parallel north — which is also the border between the USA and Canada — and closer to the north pole than the equator. It is right on the edge of what is considered to be the northern limits for growing grapes.

The region’s cool continental climate offers some of the world’s most unique terroir. It has no natural protection from weather events that come off the Atlantic and charge down the English Channel. It is wind prone and under constant threat of season-ruining events: spring frosts and rains, summer hailstorms, and rot inducing and grape bloating autumn rains.

The soils of Champagne are also unique. They’re more than 75% limestone, which is mostly chalk (a type of limestone). Chalk is easy for the vines’ roots to route through and offers superb drainage while acting as a reservoir for the vines in the exceedingly dry summers.

All of this creates a very trying environment for vines to grow in, and the grapes never really ripen before being harvested, equipping the wines with an acutely high acidity.

Making Champagne: La Méthode Champenoise

La méthode champenoise is French for “The Champagne Method”. Elsewhere in world, this is called the Traditional Method, Méthode Classique, and many other synonyms. This method is the only production method allowed for sparkling wine in Champagne.

La méthode champenoise is based on decades—nigh almost centuries—of struggling to get rid of the bubbles. Before finally embracing them and then endevoring to make the wine clear. Champagne houses typically employ teams of winemakers — instead of the few or solitary individuals found in other wineries around the world. This is a result of the complexity of the process of méthode champenoise.

These teams are led by one head winemaker, who has the knowledge of the older vintages and how these wines evolved during their time in the cellar, and applies this knowledge to the making of today’s wines.

1. Harvest

Once the grapes have matured enough to have a minimum potential alcohol of 8% they can be picked. They are picked by hand and pressed in the vineyard. This is to stop the grapes from picking up any “coarseness” from the skins due to too much handling and movement.

2. Base Wine Production

Wines are also pressed in this way to keep the “lots” separate. A different lot is made from each vineyard and each varietal in that vineyard, much like in Burgundy. These individual wines — and there are dozens, maybe hundreds of them — are then fermented in stainless steel tanks, but some houses use old oak barrels.

These are simple wines, low in alcohol, light in color, and high in acidity. After fermentation, some houses also soften the wines with malolactic fermentation.

3. Assemblage

This happens in the spring after the harvest. Here the base wines are blended (“assembled”) into what will become the final champagne. Winemakers will use wines from this year and pull from base wine stock from the past few years.

This blending is the most important element of the final product, and, as such, the process is equally considered a skill and an art form.

4. Second Fermentation

Here a bottle is filled with the final assembled wine, accompanied by yeast and a liqueur de triage (sugar and wine). The bottle is capped and set on its side for 4–8 weeks.

The yeast chow down on the sugar and perform a secondary fermentation in the bottle. This releases alcohol and carbon dioxide, which, with nowhere to go, is trapped in the wine. This builds up up to 6 atmospheres of pressure (~88PSI, the same pressure felt 60m underwater). This second fermentation is the signature way champagne gets its bubbles.

5. Sur Lie Aging

After the secondary fermentation, the yeast cells die and start to disintegrate in a process called autolysis. The wine is left to age with these dead yeast cells still inside the bottle, a process called aging on the lees, or sur lie aging.

This adds complexity and creaminess to the wine and brings flavors reminiscent of yeast, dough, and freshly baked bread. This happens for a minimum of 12 months.

6. Riddling (Remuage)

This yeast sediment turns the wine cloudy (the escaping gas disturbs the sediment as soon as you open it), so a process called riddling was invented. Here, the wine is turned from horizontal to vertical over the course of 6+ weeks, incorporating 25+ turns, with each one twisting the bottle a bit and placing it in a position that is slightly closer to vertical than it was before. This is done until the cap is pointing down and all the sediment is in the neck of the bottle.

This was traditionally done by hand using a unique A-frame rack called a pupitres. Today, machines called Gyropalettes riddle dozens of bottles in as little as three days (typically 1–2 weeks).

7. Disgorgement (Dégorgement)

This is the process of removing the sediment, now in the head of the bottle. A bottle is placed upside down in a freezing solution, freezing the neck and its contents. The bottle is righted, and the cap is popped, with the frozen yeast flying out under gaseous pressure. The wine will now be clear when served, allowing you to see all those tantalizing little bubbles.

Many connoisseurs prefer wine as close to this stage as possible (before the effects of oxidative aging set in. “LD” is sometimes added to the label to show that the wine was left on the lees for an extended period).

8. Dosage

Disgorgement leaves a small space in the bottle, and this is filled with a small liqueur d’expedition, a mix of reserve wine and sugar. The quantity of sugar in this dosage pertains to how sweet or dry the wine will be.

After this, the wine is corked, receives its wire cage (called a muselet), and gets foiled — before being sent out of the cellar to join the party!

Why Assemblage?

Making wine is a fickle business year-on-year, and if you’re as far north as Champagne it pays to have some insurance. Champagne houses keep a little of each year’s wine back as that insurance, hedging against years with small yields and ensuring consistency of product and flavor. This has been practiced for a long time but is now also required by law. Just a small amount of this older wine can add depth and complexity to the final product, but it does detract from the wine’s freshness.

Making Rosé Champagne

Rosé champagne is produced in the same way with one of two little changes to add the necessary pinkness. The second, more modern method, is now more popular as it offers greater (but not perfect) consistency of color.

Saignée: Historical method. Here some base wines are macerated on the skins of Pinot Noir until they’re the right type of pink.

A Dose of Red: Modern method. Here a splash of Pinot Noir wine is added to the bottle before the second fermentation to give it color.

Styles: Champagne’s Scale of Sweetness

Because there are two fermentations, and the initial wine didn’t have much sugar anyway, any sweetness perceived in a glass of champagne comes from the dosage. These are clearly marked on the bottle and are one of a customer’s deciding factor when selecting a bottle of champagne. Note that the vast majority of champagne is Brut and Extra-Brut.

Note that 10g sugar in 1l means 1% sugar.

• Brut Nature: 3g/l
• Extra Brut: 0–6g/l
• Brut: <12g/l
• Extra-Dry: 12–17g/l
• Sec: 17–32g/l
• Demi-Sec: 32–50g/l
• Sweet: >50g/l

Why is Extra-Dry sweeter than Brut?

Back in the day, believe it or not, people’s palettes were a lot sweeter than they are today (winemaking methods have also been refined, so there’s less need to mask flaws with sweetness), and wines were made sweeter. The English wanted drier champagne, so the Extra-Dry class was created for them. Tastes have changed since then, and Brut, Extra-Brut, and Brut Nature were added afterward. Note that Sec means dry in French, and Brut means raw.

The Grapes and Champagnes of Champagne

Unlike all other French wine regions, Champagne has just one appellation, Champagne. This region features three towns Reims, Épernay and Aÿ, and 320 villages ranked in a three tier cru class system: Grand Cru (17), Premier Cru (42), and Cru (258).

Around these villages, all the grapes for Champagne’s wines are grown, and these are turned into the lovely bubbly stuff by 350 houses of Champagne. There are six grape varieties that are permitted to be grown here, with three main ones:

• Chardonnay: Features in almost every champagne and brings fineness to the wines. It is planted in the chalkiest of places, where it shines fantastically!
• Pinot Noir: Gives the wine body, texture, and aroma.
• Pinot Meunier: The most minor of the three and actually a clone of Pinot Noir. It brings fresh fruitiness and body to the wines, is more hardy than the others, and is less prone to frost and botrytis. It is also the least capable of aging, and that’s why it is almost exclusively used in non-vintage champagnes.

The other three permitted grapes, grown in minuscule quantities, are Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane, and Petit Meslier. There are five regions of Champagne (rarely listed on the label) in which these grapes are be grown:

• Montagne de Reims*: “Mountain of Reims”. A south-facing, deep chalk area growing Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
• Côte des Blancs*: “Hillside of Whites”. A chalky outcropping facing east, laced with lines of Chardonnay vines.
• Vallée de la Marne*: “Valley of the Marne” river. The soils here feature more clay, marl, and sand, and you’ll find it full of Pinot Meunier vines.
• Côte de Sézanne: Lying south of the Côte des Blancs this mostly east-facing area grows mainly Chardonnay.
• Côte des Bar: a.k.a. the Aube. The southernmost region, quite flat with a lot of Pinot Noir.

*All 17 Grand Crus and 42 Premier Crus sit in these three regions.

From the grapes that grow here producers make three wines:

• Non-Vintage Champagne: The vast majority of champagne produced by any house is non-vintage. This wine is consistent year on year, and each house has their own style. Here base wine from previous years is used to ensure consistency of product. Must be aged 15 months, minimum of 12 on the lees, but many producers age sur lie for around three years.
• Vintage Champagne: Wine made from grapes from a single year that was considered exceptional. There are about 3–4 of these years per decade. Must be aged for at least three years on the lees.
• Prestige Cuvée: These are the best wines from a Champagne house, and each has their own, distinctive name — notably the houses of Dom Perignon and Krug say all of their wines are prestige Cuvée. Pinot Meunier rarely makes it into these blends. Prestige Cuvée is not a legally regulated name. However, the common practice is to age these wines sur lie for 4–10 years. These are still riddled on pupitres.

Finally, there are three more ways winemakers will vary the wines inside the bottles that will be indicated on the label:

• Blanc de Blanc: “White from White”. These are wines made from 100% Chardonnay. They’re lighter in flavors, have a Chardonnay bouquet, and are generally quite expensive.
• Blanc de Noir: “White from Black”. Made from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. These are rare in Champagne but stronger in flavor and dark straw in color.
• Rosé: These can be made with all the grapes. They are richer, fuller bodied, with a strawberry bouquet, and are more expensive and rarer than their golden counterparts.

What’s in a Name?

In many international agreements it is normal to respect the other state’s protected products, e.g., Parma ham, parmesan cheese, champagne; and not copy them, or use their name for anything else. For champagne this means any use of the name (they’ve won lawsuits against Apple and Yves Saint-Laurent to prevent them from using the word “champagne” as a descriptor). One country that refused to comply with French requests to do so for a long time is the USA.

Finally, in 2006, they agreed to do so — in part. The condition being that anyone who already used the name could continue using it. So there are a few — typically bottom shelf — sparkling wine producers in the USA who still use the name champagne on their bottles. And Miller Lite can continue to describe itself as “The Champagne of Beers”.

The Bottle Sizes and Labeling Terms of Champagne

As champagne is typically bought for special occasions, people like to show off with it. It has become customary for champagne to be produced in large format bottles to accommodate people’s lavishness. These are the different size bottles that exist.

• Split 187ml
• Half-Bottle 375ml
• Bottle 750ml
• Magnum 1.5l (2 bottles)
• Jeroboam 3l (4 bottles)
• Methuselah 6l (8 bottles)
• Samanazar 9l (12 bottles)
• Balthazar 12l (16 bottles)
• Nebuchadnezzar 15l (20 bottles)
• Solomon 18l (24 bottles)
• Primat 27l (36 bottles)
• Midas 30l (40 bottles)

The larger of these are very rare, handblown, and made to order. For anything larger than a magnum, the wine is 2nd fermented in a magnum and then transferred into the size ordered.

Finally, a champagne bottle’s label can feature one of many codes. This is found on the back of the bottle preceding the registered number of the bottler. These codes signify what type of producer they are:

• NM: Négociant Manipulant. — Buyers of grapes from others to produce their wine. Will also grow their own grapes, and this category includes most of the big champagne houses.
• RM: Récoltant-Mainpulant — A grower making his or her own wine from their own grapes.
• CM: — Coopérative de Mainpulation — Wine made by a co-operative from grapes they grow.
• ND: — Négociant-Distributeur — A company that simply buys wine, re-brands it, and distributes it.
• RC: — Récoltant-Coopérateur — A co-op member selling the wine produced by the co-op under their own label.
• MA: — Marque d’Acheteur — Wine bought by a non-grower and sold under the buyer’s own brand name (BOB is another term for this). These are your typically supermarket brands.
• SR: — Société de Récoltant — A company of a small family of growers (rare)
• R: — Récoltant — Very small scale grower (very rare)

On top of this, a wine’s label can also say Clos meaning from single parcel owned by one individual.

POP!!

Perfected from a confusingly fizzy and annoyingly cloudy wine into the clearest sparkler that adorns podiums around the world, champagne and its producers have trodden the long and arduous road — and many producers could argue that, as winemakers, they built their houses at the wrong end of it.

But the results are worth it. Underripe grapes bring the wine a crisp acidity, onto which sur lie aging adds a layer of creaminess. Tasting through different types of champagne, both on the sweetness and the quality scales can be a true delight, but it is recommended to have many non-vintages before stretching your wallet for a vintage champagne. You know… for knowledge and experience purposes.

Sources

Julyan, B. (2020). Sales and Serviec for the Wine Professional, 5th Edition. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press

MacNeil, K. (2015) The Wine Bible, Revised 2nd Edition. Workman Publishing

Monosoff, M. (2018) Introductory Sommelier Course 2018 Workbook.

Robinson, J. (2015) The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition. Oxford University Press

Beavers, K. (Host). (2020, Sep 16th). Burgundy (№17) [Audio Podcast Episode]. In Wine 101. Vinepair Podcast Network. https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-burgundy/