FR: Champagne Flashcards
Who was the 1st to bottle a 100% Pinot Meunier as Special Club?
Moussé
Who is considered to be the OG Grower Champagne - the first recoltant manipulant?
Gaston Chiquet
In 1919, the brothers running the domaine decided to keep a large portion of their grapes for the first time and sell sparkling wine under their own name
Bollinger: in Champagne and beyond
- Champagne Bollinger + Champagne Ayala
- Chanson + Chateau d’Entroyes (Burgundy)
- Langlois-Chateau (Saumur) + Hubert Brochard (Sancerre)
- Ponzi Vineyards (Oregon)
- Cognac Delamain + Anaë Gin (Cognac)
of villages allowed to produce Champagne?
319
What grapes were added to Champagne AC for “adaptation purposes”?
Voltis, up to 5%
Champagne’s principal grapes and min. % for assemblage?
Min. 95% (bc Voltis up to 5%)
Chardonnay
Pinot Noir
Meunier
Pinot Gris
Pinot Blanc
Petite Meslier
Arbanne
What is the min. potential ABV and max. RS for Champagne’s base wine?
Min. 9% ABV
Max 10g/l RS
For Champagne, earliest date for tirage?
Jan. 1
How much time between date of tirage to disgorgement for Champagne?
12 months
Prise de Mousse must occur in what vessel?
Glass bottle
*finished wines must be marketed in this bottle with exception for 3L+ and less than 375ml
Max. % of harvest that can be sold as vintage Champagne?
80%
Vintage-dated Champagne must contain what % from said vintage?
100%
How long is the elevage for NV Champagne?
15 months total
(inc. 12 months on lees between date of tirage and disgorging min)
How long is the elevage for Vintage Champagne?
36 months
(inc. 12 months on lees between date of tirage and disgorging min)
Champagne max yields?
10,400 kg/ha
(max. 18 bunches per square meter and .. whatever the average yield overall.. no individual block can surpass 138 hl/ha)
Rebêche
“end of pressing”
*Additional press juice; must account for 0 - 10% of total
*can only be used for distillation
Champagne’s max. press yield?
102 liters/160 kg
What year were Champagne’s earliest protections put in place? Year for AC?
1919
1936
Brut Nature
0-3 g/l
*1 - 2g is normally left after 2nd ferment
Other terms for Brut Nature styles?
Non-Dosé
Brut Sauvage
Ultra Brut
Dosage Zéro
Sans Sucre
Pas Dosé
Extra Brut
0 - 6 g/l
Brut
0 - 12 g/l
(15 prior to 2010)
Extra Dry
12 - 17 g/l
Sec/Dry (EU Sparkling)
17 - 32 g/l
Demi-Sec (EU Sparkling)
32 - 50 g/l
Doux
50+ g/l
Which of Champagne’s Grand Cru Villages were added after 1985?
Verzy (Montagne de Reims)
Choilly (Côte des Blancs)
Oiry (Côte des Blancs)
Oger (Côte des Blancs)
Les-Mesnil-sur-Oger (Côte des Blancs)
Champagne Grand Cru with most plantings by ha?
Chouilly at 522.5ha
*Le Mesnil-sur-Oger #2 at 433ha
Majority of Champagne vineyard is in which department?
Marne (66%)
(Aube (23%), Aisne (10%), Haute-Marne (0.002%), and Seine-et-Marne (1%))
Champagne’s “zone de l’élaboration”
637 communes - the outer limits of the region
*the only area where it is legal to vinify/transport un-commercialized Champagne and all of its materials
Champagne soils?
Belemnite chalk subsoil covered by a thin layer of sand and clay
*Aube’s dominant soil type is clay with Kimmeridgian, not chalk
What percentage of Champagne is released as NV?
85 - 90%
Champagne climate?
48 to 49º
Continental meets Atlantic
*diurnal shift in Sept/Oct is 10 - 15º; in Aug only 5ºish
1st time Champagne harvested in August?
2003
What is the 1st Champagne grape to bud first?
Chardonnay
Most planted grapes in Champagne?
Pinot Noir (38%)
Meunier (31%)
Chardonnay (30%)
Most planted Champagne District?
Vallée de la Marne (12,121ha)
Montagne de Reims (7989ha)
Côte des Bar (7900ha)
Cote des Blancs (3187ha)
Côte de Sézanne (1418ha)
Clos Pompadour
Pommery
22ha inside Reims’ city limits
(Lanson is also within city limits - just 1 mile west)
Mareuil-sur-Aÿ
- rank/region
- producers/bottles
“Super” Premier Cru
Grand Vallée / Vallée de la Marne
99pts on Echelle des Crus
*home of Philipponnat Clos des Goisses, A. Selosse Sous le Mont,
*Billecart-Salmon Clos Saint-Hilaire
échelle des crus
original purpose: formalize grape prices for negociants
*fixed pricing ended in 1990
*officially ended in 2010
*historic classifications remain labelled but no more “white grapes only” villages etc
NV vs MV
Multi-Vintage (unregulated and potentially misleading) can be used to insinuate a more defined set of vintages - like maybe 2 or 3 great years
Reason for Vintage Champagne’s typically richer style?
Base wine only = richer in proteins
*Proteins dissipate as the reserve wines age.. Autolytic process in vintage Champs is enhanced
*without all of the reserves aging at different rates, vintage wines have a significantly slower evolution
1st Champagne Prestige Cuvee?
Dom Perignon, in 1936 1st commercially available Prestige Cuvee
*1921 vintage was the 1st shipped/labelled vintage
(Roederer Cristal was 1st in 1876 but only for Russians until 1945)
Club Trésors
Original members remaining: Paul Bara, Pierre Gimonnet, Gaston Chiquet
*est 1971
*invitation only - 25 members today
1st commercialized Champagne single vineyard bottlings?
Amédée Tarin, 1860s - Clos du Chapitre sold as 2 different styles:
Clos du Chapitre (blanc des blancs)
Clos du Mesnil (rosé)
Blanc des Blancs Champagne may legally feature what varieties?
Chardonnay
Pinot Blanc
Pinot Gris
Petit Meslier
Arbane
(Voltis)
1st known example of Rosé Champagne?
Ruinart’s Oeil de Perdrix Mousseux, 1764
*made by maceration. Veuve C would follow up 3 years later with blended rosé
What can be used in Rosé Champagne’s Liqueur d’Expedition to stabilize color?
Gum arabic (acacia powder from hardened sap)
Champagne’s allowable “margin of error” for reported RS level?
+/- 3g/l
How much sugar in liqueur de tirage to create 1 bar pressure?
4g sugar = 1 atmosphere of pressure
so..
24g sugar = standard 6 bars
Examples of Demi-Sec Champagne?
Pol Roger Rich
Selosse Equise
Roederer Carte Blanche
Planting density in Champagne?
8000 vines/ha is average. 18k is a “practical max”
(No max. but… need to find if there’s a clear minimum)
4 vine training systems allowed in Champagne?
- Chablis (usually Cote des Blancs Chard)
- Cordon (usually Montagne des Reims Pinot)
- Guyot
- Vallée de la Marne (usually Meunier)
*Chablis, Cordon are the only permitted systems in Grand Cru vineyards
Best training system for Pinot Noir in Champagne?
Cordon (Cordon de Rayat)
*spur-trained, cane-pruned
Benefits of large crops/high yields for Champagne?
- large crop delays flowering past frost threat and extends ripening into September (cooler nights, more acid)
Déblocage
The maximum personal reserve to be released - a proportion of stored reserves that have finally been classified Champagne AOC and authorized for use to combat a shortfall of a small harvest
Champagne: de-stemmed or whole bunch?
Always whole bunch
Traditional Champagne press?
Coquard (17th century technology)
Marc (Champagne measurement)
a full Coquard press holds 4000kg of grapes which yields 2666L juice = 1 marc
(2050 is the cuvee, next 500 is the taille, 116 is the rebeche)
*2050L = fills 10 pieces
How many liters for Cuvée, Taille, and Rebeche?
2666L of juice = 1 marc
2050L = Cuvee
500L = Taille
116L = Rebeche
Débourbage
12- 24 hours post-press where the junk in the juice (bourbes) settles before the juice is piped to the fermenter
*double débourbage can minimize amount of sulfur necessary
Most Champagne’s final ABV?
12 - 12.5%
size of Champagne pièces?
205L (vin de cuvee fits 10)
Components of the liqueur de tirage?
*Yeast
*Sugar
*Yeast nutrients (not always tho)
*Fining agents/riddling aids (sodium bentonite, calcium bentonite - standard practice since 1947
Remise en cercles (Champagne)
“Return to Hoops”
*the wine is technically correct but secondary is ineffective OR a decision was made not to commercialize - the wine returns to vat to be re-blended
Why is choice of bottle color most important for sparkling wine production?
Dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) = volatile sulfur compound that increases in light struck wine
*CO2 enhances its presence
*heavier glass and deeper hue = more protection
DARK AMBER is the most effective at blocking UV/all harmful light
GREEN is most traditional but 50% effective
Jeroboam
3L / 4 bottles
Rehoboam
4.5L / 6 bottles
Methuselah
6L / 8 bottles
Salmanazar
9L / 12 bottles
(= 1 case)
Balthazar
12L / 16 Bottles
Nebuchadnezzar
15L / 20 bottles
How does Prise de Mousse in a Magnum differ from 750ml?
Ratio of wine to oxygen
* 2nd ferment typically starts 2 days later and lasts a week longer
* yeasts are converting 2x the sugar to alc with 1/2 the oxygen
* longer stop-start fermentation alters the process
Terms related to cork-sealed secondary ferment
Bouchon de tirage = cork
Agrafe = the clip that goes over the cork
**no bidule can attach to cork; dead yeasts create layer on bottom of cork and create a very controlled flow of oxygen and a more graceful long aging period
Bidule
small silicon pot that captures sediment during riddling to be disgorged
Lifespan of Autolysis
- begins 2 - 4 months after secondary
- Most active period lasts until 4-5 yrs
- Generally not doing anything after year 10
Autolysis / Disgorgement date considerations
Enzymatic breakdown - yeasts decompose protein into simpler amino acids.
*aminos are the precursors to the familiar aromas
*levels of aminos rise and fall so potential aroma levels are in flux
*Chef de Cave can taste for the creamy mellowness/1st window of opportunity to disgorge
*disgorgement date might be a corporate decision and not done by feel
*18 months is the optimum length of time for mousse retention and finest bead
**not the whole flavor story tho
Remuage
*hand riddling = 8 week process, moving bottles sur latte to sur pointe on pupitre
*gyropalettes = 4 to 5 days
*ultrasonic vibrations can minimize this to 1hr
Pupitre
“desk”
60 holes
Who invented the gyropalette as we know it?
Claude Cauzals and Jacques Ducoin, 1960’s
*Piper-Heidsieck was the 1st Champagne house to order one, then Taittinger and eventually Roederer
of bottles in a gyropalette?
504
2 riddling methods?
- Dégorgement à la glace: most common
*dip neck in freezing bath (propylene glycol), turn upright and put on bottling line - à la volée: by hand (necessary for cork/agrafe)
liqueur d’expédition
Dosage: sugar (except brut nature), base wine, SO2
(also…. absorbic acid, citric acid, gum arabic, spirit, sulficorbate)
Jetting
Method to minimize oxygen ingress between dosage and corking.
Sulfited water is injected, exciting the CO2 on surface. Bubbles rise, push oxygen out of the bottle, then the cork is inserted, compressing the CO2
Gold standard Champagne cork?
Mytik Diam
- TCA free
- uniform CO2 retention
- uniform oxygen ingress
Classic (5) and Access (3) - might see MDA and MDC printed on cork. Numbers refer to aging guarantee. Mytik 10 debuted in 2022
Vieilles Vignes Françaises
Bollinger, Aÿ
Blanc des Noirs
Chaudes Terres + Clos Saint-Jacques
*ungrafted Pinot Noir, cultivated by provignage
*1st vintage 1969
R.D.
Bollinger, Aÿ
“Recently Disgorged”
Extra Brut
60 - 70% Pinot + Chard
*made in barrel, bottled under cork, hand riddled
*1952 vintage released in 1967 was 1st
~15 years on lees
Oldest Champagne house to produce sparkling wine exclusively?
Ruinart, est 1729
When did the technique of making heavier glass suitable for holding bubbles reach France?
Around 1700
Verre Anglais - English glass came about the in 1600s
Champagne Press process
- Autopressurage: 1st ~100L of free run; dusty, usually discard
- Cuvée: first and finest portion of the pressing. No more than 2050L. First three serre.
- Taille: coarser pressing with skin contact; another 500L
- Rebeche: any further pressing; not allowed for wine - only for distillery
*from loading to scooping out pomace, this is about 4 hours
*Serre = each action of the press going down
What is the first variety to bud in Champagne?
Chardonnay .. followed by Pinot Noir then Pinot Meunier
1st certified biodynamic Champagne House? Largest biodynamic vineyard holder?
Fleury = 1st
Louis Roederer has the most biodynamic vineyard
Chouilly
Côte des Blancs, Grand Cru
*warmer microclimate, Marne River influence
* 2 sectors: Les Parcelaines (lesser), Butte de Saran (better)
*added after ‘85
Important Vineyard: Montaigu
Oiry
Côte des Blancs, Grand Cru
*added after ‘85
Avize
Côte des Blancs, Grand Cru
Agrapart, Jacques Selosse
Les Chantereines = Selosse’s important vineyard
Oger
Côte des Blancs, Grand Cru
*added after ‘85