Champagne Flashcards
Study
The Monk Dom Perignon
lasting contributions to modern Champagne lie in the techniques of assemblage (blending) and viticulture, despite the persistent myth that anoints him as the inventor of sparkling winemaking
Pérignon and his contemporaries endeavored to lessen the probability of refermentation, rather than encourage it.
Mousseux
implies effervesence
Oldest sparkling Champagne house
Ruinart, founded in 1729
Madame Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin
the Veuve (“widow”) Clicquot
She pioneered the process of remuage, or riddling—a procedure that allows sediment to be easily removed from a bottle during dégorgement (disgorgement)
First Brut Champagne
Pommery Nature, put on the market in 1874
CIVC
Formed in 1941
Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne
Remains a powerful force in the complex mediation between the large Champagne houses and the numerous smaller growers from whom they source grapes
Year of vintage of Moët et Chandon’s “Dom Pérignon,”
1921, first Prestige Cuvee released, a premier bottling often carrying a vintage date
What is “bouvreux”
Rain often interrupts flowering, resulting in a bouvreux, or second crop, that rarely ripens and is left on the vine.
Soils in Champagne
Belemnite chalk, derived from the fossilized remains of millions of extinct cephalopods, has a high limestone content, which allows vine roots to dig deeply and is linked to increased acidity.
Micraster chalk
A second layer of micraster chalk, named for an extinct sea urchin, characterizes the valley vineyards.
Thin layer of clay and sand cover chalk in Champagne, clay is the dominant soil in the south in Aube (good for Pinot Noir)
Three Grapes of Champagne
Pinot Noir, Pinot Menuier, Chardonnay
In 2018, Pinot Noir accounted for 38% of total plantings, Chardonnay accounted for 31%, and Meunier accounted for 31%.
The Five Champagne districts
Montagne de Reims- PN
Vallée de la Marne- PM
Côte des Blancs- Chardonnay
Côte de Sézanne- Chardonnay
Côte des Bar in the Aube département- PN
Échelle de Crus
A % system by which the villages of Champagne are rated, from 80 to 100. Administered by the CIVC
Classifications by Echelle de Crus
Villages that achieved the maximum échelle (“scale”) of 100 were classified as grands crus; villages that achieved an échelle of 90 through 99 were classified as premier cru.
Mareuil-sur-Ay in the Vallée de la Marne and Tauxières in Montagne de Reims were the only premier cru villages with a 99% ranking.
Villages with a rating below 90 were simply crus.
What happened to Echelle de Crus
Abolished in the 2000’s, but Premier and Grand Crus retained their ranking and may use them on the label
NM (Négociant Manipulant)
A house that purchases grapes and or base wines from growers and other smaller houses. Some NM houses own a significant portion of their own vineyards; others own none at all.
RM (Récoltant Manipulant)
A grower-producer who makes Champagne from estate-grown fruit. 95% of the grapes must originate in the producer’s own vineyards.
CM (Coopérative Manipulant)
A growers’ co-operative that produces the wine under a single brand.
RC (Récoltant Coopérateur)
A grower whose grapes are vinified at a co-operative, but whose wines are sold under the grower’s own label.
SR (Société de Récoltants)
A firm, not a co-operative, set up by a union of often related growers, who share resources to make their wines and collectively market several brands.
ND (Négociant Distributeur)
A middleman company that distributes Champagne it did not make.
MA (Marque d’Acheteur)
buyer’s own brand, often a large supermarket chain or restaurant, that purchases Champagne and sells it under its own label.
Vin de Cuvée
First press juice, first 2,050 liters
Vin de Taille
Second press juice, next 500 liters, usually richer in pigment and tannin
rebêche
Third press, 1-10% of the juice, used for distillate
vins clairs
High acid base wines
liqueur de tirage
a mixture of still wine, yeasts, sugar, and fining agents that will serve to ignite the second fermentation
prise de mousse
Second fermentation of Champagne- carbon dioxide creates a pressure inside the bottle of five to six atmospheres
Lees aging for NV Champagne
12 months minimum
Pupitre
Two large wooden planks fastened together in an upright “A” shape, with sixty angled holes cut into each plank of wood. A remuer would fractionally turn and tilt each bottle over a period of about eight weeks, slowly inverting the bottles with the neck pointing downward
Gyropalette
an automated device that holds 504 bottles, and performs the remuage operation
sur pointe
After remuage, bottles remain upside down with lees in the neck for a brief period.
Bollinger’s “RD” (“Récemment Dégorgé”) is kept sur pointe for a number of years, and only disgorged upon order
dégorgement à la glace
involves dipping the neck of the bottle in a freezing brine solution. The bottle can then be turned upright. The force of internal pressure will expel the semi-frozen sediment (and a small portion of wine) as the crown cap is removed
liqueur d’expédition
Dosage, a liquid mixture of sugar syrup and wine
muselet
Wire cage, After the addition of dosage, the bottle is secured with a cork and six half-twists of a muselet, or wire cage
Bottle aging after dosage
Non-vintage styles must remain in the cellar for a total minimum of 15 months (including the period of lees aging), whereas vintage wines require 36 months in the cellar
Non-Vintage (NV)
Generally brut in style, the NV cuvée represents a house’s signature style, and the blender’s job is to ensure its consistency from year to year. Non-vintage Champagne makes up at least three-quarters of the market
Vintage Champagne
100% of the blend must come from the stated vintage, yet a maximum 80% of a year’s harvest may be sold as vintage Champagne.
The better houses declare a vintage only in exceptional years. These are usually brut in style, and good examples can age for a decade or more
Blanc de Blancs
Only white grapes are permitted, but they are not always sourced from the Côte des Blancs. They may be vintage-dated or NV. The Blanc de Blancs category represents some of Champagne’s most ageworthy bottlings; while austere and often steely in youth, better examples develop an intense bouquet with maturity
Blanc de Noirs
White wine produced solely from black grapes. The wine usually displays richness, intensity, and weight, although it can lack the supreme elegance and finesse of Blanc de Blancs.
Prestige Cuvée (Tête de Cuvée)
Usually the finest and most expensive bottling that a house offers, the prestige cuvée is typically (but not always) vintage-dated and aged for a number of years prior to release.
Prestige Cuvées are usually only released in superior vintages, and may undergo more traditional vinification procedures, such as barrel fermentation, riddling by hand, and cork-finishing during the second fermentation.
Single Vineyard Champagne
Single Vineyard wines are not required to carry a vintage date, although they invariably do, and the style represents a stark departure from the blending philosophy of the region
Clos de Goisses
Philipponnat’s Single Vineyard Champagne
Club Trésors
Special Club Prestige Cuvée: The “Special Club” concept originated in 1971, with a dozen grower-producers. Lacking the marketing budgets of larger houses, these producers banded together to promote their prestige cuvées through identical packaging. The Club Trésors comprises 28 RM producers as members. The Special Club bottlings are estate-bottled, vintage-dated wines that represent the pinnacle of each individual grower’s style and production.
Club Trésors Producers
Champagne Salmon Chaumuzy
Champagne Sanchez Le Guedard
Champagne Paul Bara
Champagne Forget Chemin
Rosé Champagne
Vintage, NV, and prestige cuvées may also be produced in pink versions. The traditional saignée method, in which the wine gains its hue through extended skin contact, is less common than blending. Champagne is the only AOP in France that allows a rosé to be produced by blending red and white wine
Coteaux Champenois
Still wines in the Champagne region, red, white, rose
8 Cremant AOP Regions in France for sparkling wines produced by the traditional method
Crémant de Bordeaux, Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire, Crémant de Limoux, Crémant de Die, Crémant du Jura, Crémant d’Alsace, and Vin de Savoie, which produces crémant under the designation Crémant de Savoie.
Other appellations producing sparkling wines in France
Vouvray, Montlouis-sur-Loire, and Saumur in the Loire; and Seyssel
mousseux
means fully sparkling
pétillant
lightly sparkling
Limoux AOP
Blanquette de Limoux wines from the Limoux AOP in the Languedoc region are also produced by the traditional method, from a minimum 90% Mauzac that may be blended with Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc
Best Italian Traditional Method Sparkling wines
In Italy, the best traditional method sparkling wines are produced in Lombardy, within the DOCGs of Franciacorta and Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico.
Graham Beck
Graham Beck is at the forefront of traditional method “Cap Classique” sparkling wines in South Africa.
Méthode Ancestrale
oldest and most rudimentary of sparkling winemaking procedures. A single fermentation begins in tank, but the wine is transferred to bottles before the process is complete—liqueur de tirage is unnecessary.
Yeasts continue to ferment the remaining sugars in the bottle, giving the wine its sparkle. The residual sweetness of the finished wines varies by appellation, but dosage is not allowed.
Charmat Process/Cuve Close/Tank Method
After the wine undergoes primary fermentation, liqueur de tirage is added to the wine, provoking a second fermentation, which occurs in a pressurized enamel-lined tank, or autoclave, over a matter of days. Once the appropriate pressure is reached (usually 5 atmospheres), the wine is chilled to arrest fermentation
Continuous Method/Russian Continuous Method
Developed in the USSR, this method is similar to the tank method, but the base wine is pumped through a series of interconnected (continuous) tanks while undergoing the second fermentation. Liqueur de tirage is constantly added to the wine, and lees accumulate in the first several tanks, offering a higher degree of autolyzed flavors than the standard tank method. The majority of German Sekt is produced by either the tank method or the continuous method.
Labelling for Sparkling Wine made outside of Champagne
The term “Champagne” is regulated by the EU. If a wine is made outside of the region of
Champagne in the same style it may be labeled “méthode traditionelle” or “méthode
classique.” Many wines made in a Champagne-style will fall into the “cremant” AOPs of
their respective regions.
