D4.C3. Champagne Flashcards
What is the name of the committee that worked tirelessly to ensure that Champagne remains a traditional method sparkling wine from grapes grown within the appellation?
The Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC, now known as the Comité Champagne)
What is the most common style of Champagne? Describe the tasting notes
- White, fully sparkling, non-vintage Brut wine made from a blend of the three main varieties, Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay
- Medium intensity aromas and flavours of apple and
lemon fruit with biscuit autolytic notes, high acidity and medium alcohol
What is the price/quality range for for standart Champagne and vintage and special cuvée wines?
- Standart: Good to outstanding quality and mid- to premium-priced
- Vintage and special cuvée: Very good to outstanding quality and premium and super-premium prices
What is the style of non-vintage sparkling wines
The wine usually follows a set house style
What are the prerequisites of vintage Champagnes?
- By law, 100 per cent of the wine must come from the year indicated
- Theoretically, these wines are only produced from the best vintages, however, there is often some variance as different producers rate some vintages more highly than do others
Do the vintage Champagnes reflect the house style?
The vintage wine will still reflect the house style, but can be a unique wine, showing the characteristics of the year without having to meet a set mould
What are the methods to produce rosé Champagne?
- Rosé d’assemblage: By blending red wine to white wine
- Rosé de saignée: By skin maceration of black grapes
What are the major differences between “Blanc de Blancs” and “Blanc de Noirs” Champagnes in terms of taste and aging potential?
- Blanc de Blancs: They can be leaner and more austere in youth, but often have an unmatched ageing potential
- Blanc de Noirs: They are fuller bodied than Blanc de Blancs are. However, they are generally thought to age more rapidly than
Blanc de Blancs wines
What does Prestige Cuvée mean for Champagne?
This is usually the top wine in a Champagne producer’s range
Are the Prestige Cuvées vintage wines?
They can be non-vintage or vintage wines
What are the “late release, recently disgorged” wines
These are wines that have seen extended ageing on lees, and are disgorged just before release onto the market, ready to be consumed immediately
What are the properties of late release, “recently disgorged” wines?
They initially seem more youthful. However, after their disgorgement they age more rapidly than standard vintage wines
What are the non-sparkling appellations of Champagne?
- AOC Rosé des Riceys: Still rosé wine from Pinot Noir
- AOC Coteaux Champenois: Can be red, white or rosé but in practice is mainly a light-bodied, high acidity, pale ruby Pinot Noir
Historically, how was the wine produced in Champagne?
Pink and still, made from Pinot Noir
How is the idea of producing sparkling wines develop in Champagne?
In the cold winters of this northerly
region, fermentation would halt but it could start again as temperatures rose, resulting in sparkling wine.
How did the sparkling wines from Champagne become fashionable?
- These slightly fizzy wines became fashionable in the English market
- In the mid-seventeenth century, the glass produced in coal-fired ovens in England enabled bottles to be created which could reliably withstand pressure
How did Dom Pierrre Pérignon influenced the Champagne region?
- He produced first white wine from black grapes,
- He invented the still widely used Coquard press
- He blended wines (assemblage) to make a superior wine from grapes grown in different areas of the region
- He re-introduced the cork stopper into France and pioneered the use of stronger, English glass, in the production of Champagne
- However, the wines in his period were still only slightly fizzy, with Dom Pérignon himself regarding fizziness as a fault
What are the developments in the 19th century which enable the production of Champagne we know today?
- Development of second fermentation in the bottle using a measured amount of added sugar and yeast to produce a known pressure in the bottle
- Madame (Veuve) Clicquot developed riddling (remuage) using pupitres
- This enabled the next step of disgorgement, following the dipping of the neck of the bottle in an ice-cold bath of salty water
When is the current boundary of Champagne region set?
In 1927
What is échelle des crus”?
- It was originally a rating system used to determine grape prices
- Although the market now determines prices, the ratings of the échelle des crus system were used to define the grand cru and premier cru villages
What is “the blocage system”?
- Initially it was a system where a portion of the young wines was set aside as an insurance policy against future disasters that might reduce yields
- In time it become a system of storing reserve wines to enable vintage variation to be reduced and quality raised by blending for non-vintage wines
Where is Champagne region located?
In north-east France, just south of the 50th parallel, directly east of Paris
What is the size of Champagne region?
It is a large region that extends 150 km from north to south and nearly 120 km from east to west
How is the climate of Champagne?
Cool continental with some oceanic influence