Champagne (beverage)

Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the secondary fermentation of wine. It is named after the Champagne region of France. While the term "champagne" is often used by makers of sparkling wine in other parts of the world, such as California and Canada, it should properly be used to refer only to the wines made in the region of Champagne, France. The community, under the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine that comes from the region. These rules are designed to ensure that the highest quality product is produced and include a codification of the most suitable places for grapes to grow, the most suitable types of grapes ? all Champagne is produced from one or a blend of three varieties of grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier ? and has identified a lengthy set of requirements that specify most aspects of viticulture. This includes vine pruning, the yield of the vineyard, the degree of pressing applied to the grapes, and the time that bottles must remain on the lees. Only if a wine meets all these requirements may the name Champagne be placed on the bottle. The rules that have been agreed upon by the CIVC are then presented to the INAO for final approval.

Related Topics:
Sparkling wine - Fermentation - Wine - Champagne region - France - Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne - Chardonnay - Pinot noir - Pinot meunier - Viticulture - Lee - INAO

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In Europe and most other countries, the name "champagne" is legally protected to mean only sparkling wine produced in its namesake region and adhering to the standards defined for that name as an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. Even the term méthode champenoise, or champagne method is, as of 2005, forbidden in favor of méthode traditionelle. There are sparkling wines made all over the world, and many use special terms to define their own sparkling wines: Spain uses Cava, Italy calls it spumante, and South Africa uses Cap Classique. A sparkling wine made from Muscat grapes in Italy uses the DOCG Asti. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine.

Related Topics:
Legally protected - Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée - Cava - Spumante - Cap Classique - Muscat grape - DOCG - Asti - Germany - Sekt

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Other sparkling wines not from Champagne sometimes use the term "sparkling wine" prominently on their label. While most countries have labeling laws that protect wine producing locations such as Champagne, some ? including the United States ? continue to allow U.S. wine producers to utilize the name ?Champagne? on the label of products that do not come from Champagne. To allow this practice, the U.S. Congress passed a law claiming that the term "Champagne" is semi-generic. This often leads to consumer confusion about genuine Champagne and is seen as deceptive by some consumers and wine experts. While some U.S. companies ironically claim that their long usage of the term prevents them from dropping the word champagne on the bottle, many quality U.S. sparkling winemakers have ceased use of the term, instead favoring "sparkling wine" as their identifier.

Related Topics:
U.S. Congress - Semi-generic

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Champagne's sugar content varies. The sweetest level is doux (meaning sweet), proceeding in order of increasing dryness to demi-sec (half-dry), sec (dry), extra sec (extra dry), brut (almost completely dry), and extra brut / brut nature / brut zero (no additional sugar, sometimes ferociously dry.).

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