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.

How is Champagne made?

Grapes used for Champagne are generally picked earlier, when sugar levels are lower and acid levels higher. Except for pink or rosé Champagnes, the juice of harvested grapes is pressed off quickly, to keep the wine white. The traditional method of making Champagne is known as the Méthode Champenoise.

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The first fermentation begins in the same way as any wine, converting the natural sugar in the grapes into alcohol while the resultant carbon dioxide is allowed to escape. This produces the "base wine". This wine is not very pleasurable by itself, being too acidic. At this point the blend is assembled, using wines from various vineyards, and, in the case of non-vintage Champagne, various years.

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The blended wine is put in bottles along with yeast and a small amount of sugar, called the liqueur de tirage, and stored in a wine cellar horizontally, for a second fermentation. During the secondary fermentation the carbon dioxide is trapped in the bottle, keeping it dissolved in the wine. The amount of added sugar will determine the pressure of the bottle. To reach the standard value of 6 bars inside the bottle is necessary to have 18 grams of sugar, and the amount of yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae, is regulated by the European Commission (Regulation 1622/2000, 24 July 2000) to be 0.3 grams per bottle. The "liqueur de tirage" is then a mixture of sugar, yeast and still champagne wine.

Related Topics:
Carbon dioxide - Bars - Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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After ageing (a mimimum from one to three years), they undergo a process known as riddling (remuage in French), in which they are rotated a small amount each day and gradually moved to a neck-down orientation, so that the sediment ('lees') collects in their necks and can be removed. The removal process is called "disgorging" (dégorgement in French), and was a skilled manual process, where the cork and the lees were removed without losing large quantities of the liquid, and a dosage (a varying amount of additional sugar) is added. The bottle is then recorked. Until this process was invented (reputedly by Madame Clicquot in 1800) Champagne was cloudy, a style still seen occasionally today under the label méthode ancestrale. Modern disgorgement is automated by freezing a small amount of the liquid in the neck and removing this plug of ice containing the lees.

Related Topics:
Riddling - Disgorging - Madame Clicquot

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Wines from Champagne cannot legally be sold until it has aged in the bottle for at least 18 months, but the longer the better. Champagne's AOC regulations require that vintage Champagnes are aged in cellars for three years or more before disgorgement, but many top producers exceed this minimum requirement, holding bottles on the lees for 6 to 8 years before disgorgement.

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The majority of the Champagne produced is non-vintage, a blend of wines from several years. Typically the majority of the wine is from the current year but a percentage is made of "reserve wine" from previous years. This serves to smooth out some of the vintage variations caused by the marginal growing climate in Champagne. Most Champagne houses strive for a consistent "house style" from year to year, and this is the hardest task of the winemaker. Good-quality vintage Champagnes are the product of a single high-quality year, and bottles from prestigious makers can be rare and expensive.

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Even experts disagree about the effects of aging on Champagne. Some prefer the freshness and vitality of young, recently disgorged Champagne, and others prefer the baked apple and caramel flavors that develop from a year or more of aging.

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