Champagne - Most N, tad E France Flashcards
Champagne - Regional Defining Characteristics:
Chalk soils, Bubbles, Most N Region in France!
Champagne - Prestige Cuvée (Tête de Cuvée):
Usually finest + most expensive bottling a house offers
Classic examples include:
Moët et Chandon > “Dom Pérignon”
Taittinger > “Comtes de Champagne”
Louis Roederer > “Cristal”
Laurent-Perrier > “Grande Siècle”
Perrier-Jouët > “Belle Époque” (AKA “Fleur de Champagne” in US)
Pol Roger > “Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill”
Ruinart > “Dom Ruinart”
Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin > “La Grande Dame”
- -are usually only released in superior vintages, + may undergo more traditional vinification procedures, such as barrel fermentation, riddling by hand, + cork-finishing during 2nd fermentation.
- -Many of large houses produce prestige cuvées from their own vineyards—even single vineyards in exceptional cases
- -typically (but not always) vintage-dated + aged for a # of years prior to release
- -may be Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs or rosé in style.
- -Not all houses produce a prestige cuvée, + some produce several.
France - Champagne AOP:
Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane, Petit Meslier
France - Champagne AOP Departments:
Aube(most S), Aisne, Marne, Haute-Marne, Seine-et-Marne
Styles of Champagne:
Non-Vintage (NV
Vintage
Blanc de Blancs
Blanc de Noirs
Prestige Cuvée (Tête de Cuvée)
Single Vineyard Champagne
Special Club Prestige Cuvée
Rosé ChampagneChampagne - Non-Vintage (NV):
Generally brut
NV cuvée = a house’s signature style,
blender’s job is to ensure its consistency from year to year.
Non-vintage Champagne makes up at least 3/4s of market.
Champagne - Vintage:
100% of blend must come from stated vintage
maxi 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, + good examples can age for a decade+.
Champagne - Blanc de Blancs:
100% Chardonnay is required,
not always sourced from the Côte des Blancs.
May be vintage-dated or NV.
Blanc de Blancs category represents some of Champagne’s most ageworthy bottlings; while austere + often steely in youth, better examples develop an intense bouquet with maturity.
Champagne - Blanc de Noirs:
White wine produced solely from black grapes.
usually displays richness, intensity, + weight,
it can lack the supreme elegance + finesse of Blanc de Blancs.
Champagne - Single Vineyard Champagne:
may be produced by a large house or a smaller grower-producer
may or may not be advertised as a prestige cuvée.
not required to carry a vintage date, although they invariably do, + the style represents a stark departure from the blending philosophy of the region.
Philipponnat’s “Clos de Goisses,” originally released for 1935 vintage from one of the few walled vineyards of the region, remains a benchmark bottling.
Champagne - Special Club Prestige Cuvée:
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.
Today, the Club Trésors comprises over two-dozen RM producers as members.
estate-bottled, vintage-dated wines that represent the pinnacle of each individual grower’s style + production.
bottles + labels share identical design.
Current members include: Marc Hébrart, Pierre Gimmonet, Paul Bara, J. Lassalle + Gaston Chiquet.
Champagne - Rosé Champagne:
Vintage, NV, + prestige cuvées may also be in pink
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 + white wine.
A rosé prestige cuvée = usually the most expensive + rare product a house offers.
Champagne - Still Wines:
Still wine appellations within the region of Champagne:
Coteaux Champenois - covers still red, white, + rosé wines from the entire appellation
Rosé de Riceys - reserved for 100% Pinot Noir rosé wines produced in Les Riceys, a cru village in the Aube.
Sparkling - Méthode Ancestrale:
AKA the méthode rurale, is oldest + 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.
Typically, the wine is disgorged, filtered + rebottled in clean glass prior to sale.
Bugey Cerdon, Clairette de Die Méthode Dioise Ancestrale, + Gaillac Mousseux Méthode Gaillaçoise are examples of the style.
Sparkling - The Charmat Process/Cuve Close/Tank Method:
Developed by Eugene Charmat in the early 20th century, the Tank Method is quicker, cheaper, + less labor-intensive than the traditional method.
After 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. Some appellations require the wine to remain in tank for a minimum period of time, such as one month for Asti DOCG. The wine is then filtered and bottled, usually with a dosage. The lack of extended lees contact in the tank method is not suitable for making quality wines in the style of Champagne. The bubbles, or bead, in tank method wines will be larger + coarser, + the wine will have a less uniform texture than wines made by the traditional method. However, this method is appropriate + even preferred for sparkling wines emphasizing fruit + varietal aromatics rather than the flavors derived from autolysis. Most Asti DOCG + Prosecco bottlings are produced in this method.
