Champagne Flashcards
Established in 1729, what producer is the oldest sparkling wine maker in Champagne?
Ruinart
What is the oldest champagne house still in operation today?
Gosset, founded in 1584 as a still wine producer.
What is remuage and who is famed for pioneering the process?
Also known as riddling, it’s a procedure that allows sediment to be easily removed from a bottle during disgorgement. It manipulates the sediment into the neck through sharp twists and inversion of the bottle.
Madame Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin (Veuve Clicquot)
What is the only AOC/AOP that does not need to include AOC/AOP on the label to still be qualified under the stated guidelines?
Champagne
What was the first tete de cuvee that started the trend for releasing prestige cuvee champagnes?
Moet et Chandon’s “Dom Perignon” 1921 vintage
Where is Champagne located and what does that mean for ripening?
Along the 48th parallel, the average temperature is only 50F, making ripening very difficult and variable. This is why blending to create consistent wines each year is so popular.
What type of soil is found in Champagne and what does it do for the vines?
Belemnite Chalk: fossilized remains of cephalopods, with a high limestone content, allows the vines to dig deeply, leading to higher acidity.
Also, it absorbs heat well and protects the vines at night.
What region of Champagne has a high percentage of clay as its soil makeup?
Aube (in the south)
What other grapes are allowed in Champagne AOP but rarely seen in actuality?
Pinot Blanc Vrai
Arbane
Pinot Gris
Petit Meslier
What are the 5 regions of Champagne and what are the primary grapes associated with each?
Montagne de Reims--Pinot Noir Vallee de La Marne--Pinot Meunier Cote des Blancs--Chardonnay Cote de Sezanne--Chardonnay Cote des Bars (the Aube)--Pinot Noir
How is cru status awarded in Champagne and how many grand crus are there?
Status is awarded to entire villages, rather than individual vineyards or properties.
17 grand crus in Champagne
What does NM stand for?
Negociant Manipulant: a house that purchases grapes and or base wines from growers and other small houses.
What does RM stand for?
Recoltant Manipulant: a grower-producer who makes Champagne from estate-grown fruit, a minimum of 95%.
What does CM stand for?
Cooperative Manipulant: a growers’ co-operative that produces the wine under a single brand.
What does RC stand for?
Recoltant Cooperateur: a grower whose grapes are vinified at a co-operative, but sells under his own label.
What does SR stand for?
Societe de Recoltants: 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.
What does ND stand for?
Negociant Distributeur: a middleman company that distributes Champagne it did not make.
What does MA stand for?
Marque d’Acheteur: a buyer’s own brand, that purchases Champagne and sells it under its own label.
What are the 3 levels of extraction called under Methode Champenoise?
Vin de cuvee (first 2,550 liters)
Vin de taille (following 500 liters)
Rebeche (must comprise 1-10% of total, used for distillate, not Champagne)
What are the steps of Methode Champenoise?
- Pressing
- Debourbage–settling for 8-15 hours to allow the bourbes to be removed
- Primary fermentation
- Assemblage
- Cold stabilization
- Racked and bottled with liqueur de tirage
- Second fermentation (aka prise de mousse)
- Lees aging–for a minimum of 12 months for NV
- Degorgement
- Dosage (liqueur d’expedition)
What is liqueur de tirage?
A mixture of still wine, yeasts, sugar, and fining agents that will serve to ignite the second fermentation.
What was the original method for preparing a bottle for degorgement?
Pointage–briskly shaking a bottle to prevent the sediment from sticking to the sides of the bottle.
What was the original device used during remuage and what has it evolved to today?
Pupitre–two large wooden planks fastened together in an upright A shape, with 60 angled holes cut into each plank.
Gyropalette–an automated device that holds 504 bottles
What is liqueur d’expedition?
Also called dosage, it’s a liquid mixture of sugar, syrup, and wine, used to top up bottles after degorgement to the desired sweetness.
What are the sweetness levels for Champagne and the RS allowed for each?
- Brut Nature / Non-Dose: 0-3g/L, no added dosage
- Extra Brut: 0-6g/L
- Brut: 0-12g/L
- Extra Dry: 12-17g/L
- Sec: 17-32g/L
- Demi-Sec: 32-50g/L
- Doux: 50+g/L
What are the aging requirements for NV and vintage Champagne?
NV: a minimum of 15 months in total (includes 12 month min. on lees)
Vintage: requires a minimum of 36 months in the cellar (plus the 12 month min. on lees)
What are the bottle sizes for Champagne?
- Piccolo (quarter bottle): 187ml
- Demi (half bottle): 375ml
- Bottle: 750ml
- Magnum: 1.5L (2 bottles)
- Jeroboam: 3L (4 bottles)
- Rehoboam: 4.5L (6 bottles)–discontinued in 1989
- Methuselah: 6L (8 bottles)
- Salmanazar: 9L (12 bottles)
- Balthazar: 12L (16 bottles)
- Nebuchadnezzar: 15L (20 bottles)
- Solomon: 18L (24 bottles)
What style of Champagne is usually brut, represents a house’s signature style, blended for consistency, and makes up 3/4 of the market?
Non-Vintage
What % must come from the stated vintage for Vintage Champagne?
100% from stated vintage.
Only 80% of a year’s harvest can be sold as vintage–the rest must be reserved for blending.
Requirements for blanc de blanc Champagne?
100% chardonnay (doesn’t have to be from the cote des blancs)
Can be Vintage or NV
What grapes are used in blanc de noirs champagne?
It’s a white wine produced solely from black grapes.
Prestige Cuvees are usually, but not always, a _______ Champagne.
Vintage
What are the tete de cuvees of:
- Moet et Chandon
- Taittinger
- Louis Roederer
- Laurent-Perrier
- Perrier-Jouet
- Pol Roger
- Ruinart
- Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin
- Moet et Chandon…….Dom Perignon
- Taittinger……..Comtes de Champagne
- Louis Roederer……..Cristal
- Laurent-Perrier………Grande Siecle
- Perrier-Jouet……..Belle Epoque or Fleur de Champagne in the US
- Pol Roger………Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill
- Ruinart………Dom Ruinart
- Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin………La Grande Dame
What are some requirements for a Single Vineyard Champagne and what is a benchmark bottling of the style?
- Comes from a single vineyard
- Not required to carry a vintage date, but they invariably do
Philipponnat’s “Clos de Goisses”
What is a Special Club Prestige Cuvee and what are some producers within Special Club?
Originated in 1971 it’s a collaboration between grower-producers who lack the marketing budgets of larger houses so the band together to promote prestige bottlings through identical packaging.
Members include:
- Marc Hebrart
- Pierre Gimmonet
- Paul Bara
- J. Lassalle
- Gaston Chiquet
Rose Champagne is often made via what method?
Blending. The traditional saignee method is less common.
What is the only AOP in France that allows rose production by blending red and white grapes?
Champagne AOP
Within Champagne, what AOPs produce still wines and in what styles?
Corteaux Champenois–red, white, and rose from all over Champagne
Rose de Riceys–only rose made from 100% Pinot Noir from Les Riceys, a cru village in the Aube.
What are the 7 AOPs for cremant wines in the traditional method?
Cremant de Bordeaux Cremant de Bourgogne Cremant de Loire Cremant de Limoux Cremand de Die Cremant du Jura Cremant d'Alsace
What is the Methode Ancestrale (methode rurale)?
A single fermentation begins in tank but then bottled prior to finishing fermentation. The remaining yeasts (not liqueur de tirage) continue to ferment in bottle, creating the bubbles. Disgorged and then rebottled.
Example: Bugey Cerdon
What is the Charmat Process (Cuve Close / Tank Method)?
A quicker, cheaper, and easier way of making sparkling wine where liqueur de tirage is added directly to the tank after the first fermentation is complete, starting second fermentation in tank (pressurized autoclave). Once pressure is achieved, it’s chilled to stop fermentation, then filtered and bottled, usually with dosage.
Examples: most Asti DOCG and Prosecco bottlings
What is the [Russian] Continuous Method?
The base wine is pumped through a series of interconnected tanks while undergoing secondary fermentation. This allows for liqueur de tirage to be constantly added and the lees to accumulate in the first few tanks, giving the wine more autolyzed flavors than the Charmat Process.
Examples: most German Sekt
What are the grand cru villages in the Montagne de Reims?
- Sillery
- Puisieulx
- Beaumont-sur-Vesle
- Verzenay
- Mailly Champagne
- Verzy
- Louvois
- Bouzy
- Ambonnay
What are the grand cru villages of Vallee de la Marne?
- Ay
- Tous-sur-Marne
What are the grand cru villages of Cote des Blancs?
- Chouilly
- Oiry
- Cramant
- Avize
- Oger
- Le Mesnil-sur-Oger
