Champagne/Sparkling wines Flashcards
What are the AOPs of Champagne?
Champagne AOP
Coteaux Champenois AOP
Rosé des Riceys AOP
What are the Cru’s of Champagne?
Champagne Cru’s and Special Club
Champagne Grand Cru Villages (17)
Champagne Premier Cru Villages (43)
Champagne Special Club (29)
Varietals allowed in Champagne AOP
Encépagement: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane, Petit Meslier
Minimum potential alcohol for Champagne AOP?
Minimum Potential Alcohol: 9%
Maximum residual sugar allowed for Champagne AOP?
Maximum Residual Sugar: 10 g/l
Tirage process of Champagne AOP
Tirage:
Secondary fermentation (prise de mousse) is accomplished in glass bottles
Tirage may not occur until at least January 1 of the year following the harvest
Volume of wine may not increase by more than 1.12% per 1% increase in alcohol during secondary fermentation
Wines may not be disgorged until at least 12 months after the date of tirage
Finished wines are marketed in the same bottle in which tirage occurred, except for bottle sizes with a volume smaller than 375 ml or larger than 3 liters. For NV bottlings, up to 20% of 375 ml bottles may also be transferred into new bottles.
Liqueur d’Expedition for Champagne AOP
Liqueur d’Expédition:
The addition of liqueur d’expédition may not lead to an increase in volume of wine (expressed in percentage) higher than the sum of the percentage increase in alcoholic strength (multiplied by a coefficient of 1.266) and the grams per liter increase in sugar content (multiplied by a coefficient of 0.0666). See the following formula:
Volume of Wine (%) = (1.266 × Alcohol Percent Increase) + (0.0666 × Sugar Increase)
Details on regulations for vintage dated Champagne
Vintage Dated Wines:
Max. 80% of a year’s harvest may be sold as vintage Champagne
Vintage-dated wines must contain 100% of a stated vintage (with the exception of wine and products contained in the liqueur de tirage or the liqueur d’expédition)
Elevage for NV Champagne wines?
NV wines: Min. 15 months from date of tirage
Elevage for vintage dated Champagne wines?
Vintage Wines: Min. 36 months from date of tirage
Permitted training methods for Champagne AOP?
Permitted Training Methods: Chablis, Cordon de Royat, Vallée de la Marne (allowed for Meunier only), Guyot (simple or double)
Minimum must weight levels for Champagne AOP
Minimum Must Weight: 143 g/l
Minimum planting density for Champagne AOP
Minimum Planting Density: max. 2.5 square meters per vine
Maximum press yield for Champagne AOP
Maximum Press Yield: 102 liters/160 kg (Additional pressed juice is rebêche, or the “end of pressing”, and must account for 0-10% of the total. This may only be used for distillation.)
Styles of wines allowed under Champagne AOP
Vin Mousseux Blanc
Vin Mousseux Rosé (either saignée or blending prior to tirage is authorized)
Brut Nature*
grams per liter?
0-3 grams per liter
Brut Nature wines may not contain any added dosage
0-3 grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Brut Nature*
Brut Nature wines may not contain any added dosage
Extra Brut
grams per liter?
0-6 grams per liter
0-6 grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Extra Brut
Brut
grams per liter?
0-12 grams per liter
0-12 grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Brut
Extra Dry
grams per liter?
12-17 grams per liter
12-17 grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Extra Dry
Demi-Sec
grams per liter?
32-50 grams per liter
32-50 grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Demi-Sec
Doux
Grams per liter?
50+ grams per liter
50+ grams per liter
What designation of Champagne would this be?
Doux
Other names for Brut Nature
Equivalent terms include Non-Dosé, Brut Sauvage, Ultra Brut, Dosage Zéro, Sans Sucre, Pas Dosé.
Non-Dosé, Brut Sauvage, Ultra Brut, Dosage Zéro, Sans Sucre, and Pas Dosé are other terms used for what designation of Champagne?
Brut Nature
Grand Cru villages in Montagne de Reims
Sillery Puisieulx Beaumont-Sur-Vesle Verzenay Mailly-Champagne Verzy* Louvois Bouzy Ambonnay
How many Grand Cru Villages are there in Montagne de Reims?
9
Sillery Puisieulx Beaumont-Sur-Vesle Verzenay Mailly-Champagne Verzy* Louvois Bouzy Ambonnay
Grand Cru villages in Montagne de Reims
*There are 9 total
Grand Cru villages for Vallée de la Marne
Aÿ
Tours-sur-Marne (GC for red)
Aÿ
Tours-sur-Marne
Grand Cru Villages in Vallee de la Marne
Chouilly* Oiry* Cramant Avize Oger* Le Mesnil-sur-Oger*
Grand Cru Villages in Côte des Blancs
Grand Cru Villages in Cotes des Blanc
Chouilly* Oiry* Cramant Avize Oger* Le Mesnil-sur-Oger*
How many Grand Cru Villages are there in Cotes des Blanc?
6 total
General Rules for Membership of Special Club Champagne
Viticulture must occur on the estate (only RM producers may join)
Vinification and bottling must occur on the estate
Members must respect and uphold the Club’s charter
Other name for Special Club Champagne
Club Trésors de Champagne (Special Club)
Rules for “Special Club” Wines
The “Special Club” is the top-of-the-range, prestige cuvée for all members
The Club Trésors will declare a vintage as being worthy of “Special Club” prestige cuvées, then each member may decide individually whether or not to produce a “Special Club” wine
All base wines and finished “Special Club” wines must undergo tasting analysis
All “Special Club” bottles share an identical label and bottle shape
Styles of wines Coteaux Champenois AOP can release
Blanc
Rosé
Rouge
Varietals allowed under Coteaux Champenois AOP
Encépagement: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier, Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris
When was Coteaux Champenois established?
AOC Established: 1974 (last updated 2010)
Rosé des Riceys AOP is located in what department?
Aube
Communes of production for Rose des Riceys AOP.
Communes of Production: Les Riceys
Styles of wines produced from Rose des Riceys AOP?
Styles and Encépagement:
Rosé (tranquille): 100% Pinot Noir
What is the vinification requirement for Rose des Riceys?
Vinification Requirements: Grapes are vinified as whole bunches (semi-carbonic maceration)
Wines made in the fashion of Champagne but produced elsewhere may be labeled as what?
traditional method (méthode traditionnelle) or classic method (méthode classique)
Dom Pérignon’s lasting contributions to modern Champagne lie in what category?
In the techniques of assemblage (blending) and viticulture, despite the persistent myth that anoints him as the inventor of sparkling winemaking.
What producer was Dom Perignon a cellar master for?
Abbey of Hautvillers from 1668 until his death in 1715
In the 17th century, what struggles did the cellar masters in Champagne deal with?
The irrepressibly cold winters of the region created a danger: as the weather cooled off in the autumn and the yeasts became dormant, fermentation would sometimes prematurely stop, and the wines would be bottled with fermentable sugars still present. With the spring thaw and rising temperatures, yeasts would awaken inside the bottle, and refermentation occurred. The resulting sparkle was a fatal flaw, as the weak, wood-fired French glass of the past could not withstand the mounting gas pressure, and bottles would explode, often causing a chain reaction throughout the cellar.
Who were responsible for producing stronger glass for Champagne bottles?
In the late 17th century, the English transferred Champagne from cask to stronger, coal-fired glass that could contain the pressure, and were likely the first to enjoy true sparkling Champagne—the merits of effervescence are praised in English literary works whose publication predates Pérignon’s tenure. Pérignon and his contemporaries endeavored to lessen the probability of refermentation, rather than encourage it.
Who is the oldest Champagne house to produce wine still in operation today?
Gosset, 1584
Who is the oldest Champagne house to produce sparkling wines?
Ruinart, established in 1729, can claim to be the oldest sparkling Champagne house
What did Madame Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin accomplish?
Under her leadership, the house pioneered the process of remuage, or riddling
Madame Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin’s nickname
Veuve (“widow”) Clicquot
remuage
or riddling—a procedure that allows sediment to be easily removed from a bottle during dégorgement (disgorgement).
Who was the French chemist and statesman for whom the process of chaptalization is named, identified the relationship between sugar and fermentation in a seminal 1801 work?
Jean-Antoine Chaptal
What was Jean-Antoine Chaptal and Andre Francois responsible for in Champagne’s history?
A fundamental understanding of the connection between sugar and the second fermentation, coupled with the pharmacist André François’ measurement of the precise amount of sugar required to induce it without breaking the bottle, allowed Champagne houses to produce sparkling wines with greater confidence.
Because the cost of making sparkling Champagne was so expensive early on, what were the smaller growers forced to do with their fruit?
They would sell fruit to the larger houses, which could manage the costs of both production and marketing.
Between 1800 to 1883, what kind of increase in production did the advancements in technology do to Champagne?
Champagne production jumped from 300,000 bottles in 1800 to 36 million by 1883.
Who released the first brut Champagne on the market and when?
Pommery put the first brut Champagne, Pommery “Nature,” on the market in 1874.
Commission de Châlons
A consortium of growers and merchants, was formed in 1935 to develop quality standards and regulate pricing
What is the only region that does not need to list its Appellation Controlee (or Protegee) on the label?
Champagne remains the only AOC/AOP that does not need to include Appellation Contrôlée (or Protégée) on the label.
When did phylloxera hit Champagne?
1890
CIVC
Comité Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne
An organization that has a powerful force in the complex mediation between the large Champagne houses and the numerous smaller growers from whom they source grapes.
Comite Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (CIVC)
tête de cuvée
prestige cuvée—a premier bottling often carrying a vintage date.
What parallel is Champagne situated on?
48th
bouvreux
or second crop, that rarely ripens and is left on the vine.
What type of soil is found Champagne and how does that affect the vine?
Porous, belemnite chalk subsoil is pushed to the surface on the appellation’s slopes, absorbing heat to protect the vines at night and providing excellent drainage in the wet climate.
Belemnite chalk
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.
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.
Belemnite chalk
Soil type in Aube
Aube to the south clay is the dominant soil type.
Why would there be trash littered throughout Champagne?
Remnants of bags used to ship composted trash. The Champenoise have a long history of relying on recycled Parisian garbage to fertilize their vineyards. Composting is admirable, but the portion of inorganic and toxic waste grew over time, and the practice was outlawed in 1998. Les bleus de ville remain, a reminder to a new generation of growers and caretakers.