Champagne Flashcards
Champagne Grape Varieties
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier
Typical Style of Champagne
White, fully sparkling, non-vintage, Brut, medium intensity aromas of and flavors of apple and lemon fruit with biscuit autolytic notes, high acidity and medium alcohol
Styles of Champagne
1) NV - follows house style, usually 60-80% of current year wines and 20-40% of reserve wines
2) Vintage - 100% of the wine must come from the year indicated. Will reflect house style but can be unique, showing characteristics of the vintage year without having to fit the set mould
3) Rose - typically made by blending red and white wine but Rose de saignee is also permitted
4) Blanc de Blancs - made from white grapes only, typically leaner and more austere in youth but have unmatched aging potential
5) Blanc de Noirs - made from black grapes only, fuller bodied but thought to age more quickly
6) Grand Cru - all grapes must be grown within the grand cru villages
7) Premier Cru - all grapes must be grown within the premier and/or grand cru villages
8) Prestige Cuvee - the top wine in a producer’s range (can be NV or Vintage)
9) Late Release / Recently Disgorged Wines - wines that have seen extended aging on the lees and are disgorged just before release - ready to be consumer immediately
5 subregions of Champagne
1) Montagne de Reims (near Epernay)
2) Vallee de la Marne (near Epernay)
3) Cote des Blancs (near Epernay)
^main 3
4) Cote de Sezanne (south of Cote des Blancs)
5) Cote des Bar (100km south, closer to Chablis)
Champagne’s Climate
Cool continental with some oceanic influence, 700mm of rain per year (spread throughout the year), low average temp of 52F
*Note over the last 30 years the climate has warmed - harvest dates have moved forward about 18 days, avg acidity has dropped and potential alcohol levels have risen by 0.7%
Soils of Champagne
- Wider region of Paris has a thick layer of chalk, an old seabed.
- Chalky hillsides in the northern part of Champagne are most valuable for high quality grapes
- Chalk is particularly beneficial for high quality Chardonnay
- Most common soils types are chalky soils with a limestone subsoil and chalk itself
- without chalk, the vines would have root rot from all of the rain*
Most vineyards are planted between _____m above sea level
90-300m
Montagne de Reims
- black grapes
- Grand Cru villages: Mailly, Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay, Bouzy
- a wide plateau rather than a mountain
- some of the top villages face north (unusually) - provides excellent cool climate sites but are very frost prone
- wines tend to be austere in youth with very high acidity
Vallee de la Marne
- majority of plantings are Meunier
- Grand Cru village: Ay
- clay, mark and sandy soils which produces fruity Meunier
- a frost prone valley
- because Meunier has later bud break and earlier ripening, it is well adapted to this area
- Chardonnay is also grown here and used to blend into early drinking wines
Cote des Blancs
- exclusively white grapes (95% Chardonnay)
- has the purest form of chalk, providing an excellent balance between water retention and drainage
- Grand Cru Villages: Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger
- wines here tend to be of great intensity and longevity
Cote de Sezanne
- a continuation of the Cote des Blancs
- mostly clay and clay/silt soils and some pockets of chalk
- mostly planted with Chardonnay
- warmer south-east facing slopes lead to fruitier, riper grapes
- generally lower quality than the three main sub-regions
Cote des Bar
- nearly a quarter planted to Pinot Noir
- Kimmeridigan calcareous marl soils (same as Chablis and Sancerre)
- the steep slopes and soils with stony limestone elements have excellent drainage, helping Pinot Noir to ripen well
- a very important source of ripe Pinot Noir in the NV blends
- merchants based in the north buy most of this wine
7 permitted grape varieties
Pinot Noir (38%) Pinot Meunier (32%) Chardonnay (30%) Pinot Blanc Arbanne Petit Meslier Fromenteau
Pinot Meunier
- mutation of Pinot Noir that has white hairs on its leaves giving it a floury appearance (“miller’s pinot”)
- early budding but it buds later than Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
- less prone to frosts (like in the cool Valley de la Marne)
- does well on heavier soils (like clay)
- ripens earlier so can be useful in seasons where it rains during harvest
- very susceptible to botrytis
- produces fruiter wine and contributes softness to the blend (which is particularly important for young wines)
- tends not to be used in wines intended for long aging
Champagne planting density
- max inter-row spacing of 1.5 meters and intra-row spacing of 0.9-1.5 meters
- total spacing must not reach more than 2.5 meters
- produces an average planting density of 8,000 vines per hectare
4 approved trellising systems in Champagne
1) Taille Chablis (Chardonnay)
2) Cordon du Royat (Pinot Noir and Meunier)
3) Guyot (all varieties in lesser-rated vineyards)
4) Vallee de la Marne (similar to Guyot but more buds) - not used often
Average number of fruiting buds on vines in Champagne
Must not exceed 18 per square meter
Hazards in Champagne
- occasional severe winter frost, which can kill vines
- spring frosts destroying new buds, reducing yields
- disruption to flowering/fruit set due to cold and rainy weather in June, reducing yields or leading to uneven ripeness
- violent storms and/or hail in summer, which can damage grapes and vines
- hot and humid weather in summer (esp after heavy rainfall), leading to rapid spread of botrytis
- downy and powdery mildew
- dagger nematode which spreads fanleaf virus
Sustainable Viticulture/Practices in Champagne
- sustainable viticulture is promoted at the regional level by the Comite Champagne
- use of sexual confusion to control pest populations
- soil protection methods (i.e. management of groundwater on slopes and use of cover crops to enhance biodiversity)
- water management in the winery
- new lighter weight bottle introduced in 2010 for NV cuvees
Comite Champagne role in harvest
- sets harvest dates, yields and minimum potential alcohol levels
- does this by taking samples from approx 450 control plots from the time of veraison (measures rate of color change, weight, sugar concentration, presence of botrytis)
- harvest dates are only start dates
- if a grower wants to pick earlier (e.g. if their grapes have botrytis) they must seek a derogation
- harvest usually lasts around 3 weeks
The Cuvee
first 2,050 liters of free run juice and the first pressing
- rich in acids
- produces wines with great finesse and long aging potential
The Taille
the second pressing, last 500 liters
- lower acidity
- richer in color and phenolics
- can be a useful addition to some blends, helping to produce wines that are more expressive in youth but do not have the same aging potential
- used mostly in NV blends
Chapitalization rules
permitted if the natural sugars in the juice are not high enough to produce a base wine that is 11% alcohol
Key considerations for Rose Champagne
- most is made by blending a proportion of still, dry red wine with white base wines to achieve the desired color and flavor profile
- yeast absorbs color pigments from the wine during each fermentation so achieving the desired color in the final sparkling wine takes expertise
Liqueur de tirage
yeast + sugar
Liqueur de expedition
base/reserve wine + sugar (the dosage) - determines the final sweetness of the wine
*can be used to correct color differences in rose production
Champagne aging laws
NV wines - 15 months minimum with at least 12 months on the lees
Vintage wines - same as NV but they cannot be released until 3 years after tirage (usually much longer than 3 years in practice)
“mise sur pointe” aging
aged upside down - slows down maturation for slow oxidation
