General Champagne Flashcards
Producers who bottle Piccolo Champagne
Moet
Deutz
Mumm
Feuillate
Departments of Champagne (5)
Aube
Aisne
Marne
Haute-Marne
Seine et Marne
How many producing communes in Champagne
319 villages
What is a Marc
4000 Kg goes into a coquard that gets pressed
produces 2550 liters
What is fromenteau
Pinot Gris in champagne
this percentage of a year’s harvest may be sold as vintage champagne
Max 80%
Addition of liqueur d’expedition may not lead to an increase in volume of this
1.12% per 1% increase in alcohol during second ferment
Volume of wine percentage =
1.266 x alcohol percent increase +.0666 x sugar increase
Max planting density in Champagne
2.5 sq. meters per vine
Elevage for non vintage/vintage Champagne
Non Vintage 15 mos (Cant be disgorged until after 12 months)
Vintage 36 mos
Encepagement Rosé de Riceys
100% Pinot Noir Rosé
10% abv
sizes of champagne formats small to large
Piccolo 187
demi 375
bottle 750
Magnum 1.5L
Jeroboam 3L
Rehoboam* 4.5L (discontinued 89)
Methusaleh 6L
Salamanthar 9L
Balthazar 12L
Nebuchadnezzar 15L
Solomon 18L
Sovereign
Primat
Melchizedek
*discontinued in 89
What is bouvreaux
When rain interrupts flowering, so there is a second crop after first harvest producing high acid second crop
What is ratrousse
Using a pitchfork to move grapes to center of press
Alfred Gratien (Epernay) tete
Cuvee Paradis NV (1985)
Brut, Brut Rosé
Chard/PN
minimum potential alcohol for champagne base wines
9%
Max RS Champagne (base wines)
10g/l
Oldest Champagne houses
1522 Philipponnat (still wine house)
1542 Gosset (still wine house)
1729 Ruinart (Champagne house)
1874 Pommery first brut
First commercial tete de cuvée
1921 Dom Perignon
Coteaux Champenois:
1974
90% or greater: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier, Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris
Maximum 10%: Voltis
Rebeche (Champagne) used for this and may account for this % of the total
for distillate and must account for 0-10% of total
Chartogne-Taillet 100% Meunier
(Merfy)
“Les Bar”
Also “Rive Gauche” from Bereche
100% Arbane from Moutard
“Cepage Arbane Vielles Vignes”
Champagne Press is called
Cocquard
When was eschelle des crus abolished?(Champagne)
2010
Amount of sugar required to create 6 atmospheres of pressure
24 g/l
Who makes Ace of Spades
Armand de Brignac
This producer has a bottling of all 7 grapes
Nombre d’Or by Aubry
1914 made this vintage
Vin d’enfant, parents fighting, children harvested
One of the finest vintages in Champagne history
Grapes permitted in Champagne AOP
Pinot Noir
Chardonnay
Meunier
Pinot Blanc (Vrai)
Pinot Gris
Arbane
Petit Meslier
No more than 5% Voltis
What is Ratafia Champenois? Name a producer
Eau de Vie made from Champagne grapes fortified with brandy
Champagne Dumangin
What is Marc de Champagne?
Brandy made with pomace of Champagne grapes
Soil types of Champagne
Belemnite: high limestone content, promotes acidity*
Micraster: found on valley floor
Clay: found in Aube over kimmeridgian chalk
Champagne vintages to be avoided
2001
2003
rivers of champagne
Marne
Seine
Aube
what year was the CIVC formed
1941
training methods in Champagne
Cordon de Royat
Chablis
Vallée de la Marne (pinot Meunier)
Guyot (double and simple)
in which size bottles is transfer method permitted
Larger than a Jeroboam smaller than a half bottle
For NV bottlings, up to 20% of 375 ml bottles may also be transferred into new bottles.
How many bottles on a gyropallette
504
six recent champagne vintages
2000
2002 excelellent vintage
2004
2006
2008
2012
2015
2018
How many holes on a riddling rack
pupitre
60 each side
How many GC in Champagne
How many Premier Cru in Champagne
17 GC
42 PC
Best champagne vintages of 2000s
2000
2012
2015
2018
Best champagne vintages of the 80s
1982
1985
1988
Best champagne vintages of the 90s
1990
1996
What year were the Champagne riots
1911
What is reserve perpetuelle
Solera Champagne,
one large barrel
Kinds of Champagne producers
NM (Négociant Manipulant): A house that purchases grapes and or base wines from growers and other smaller houses. Some NM houses own a significant portion of their own vineyards; others own none at all. Large Champagne houses with the most international presence are invariably in this category: Moët et Chandon, Louis Roederer, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Billecart-Salmon, Lanson, Taittinger, Pol Roger, Perrier-Jouët, Mumm, and Laurent-Perrier. Quality varies widely, although prices are uniformly high. Many houses often fall under the same corporate parentage; for example, Moët et Chandon, Krug, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, and Mercier fall under the umbrella of the luxury conglomerate LVMH.
RM (Récoltant Manipulant): A grower-producer who makes Champagne from estate-grown fruit. 95% of the grapes must originate in the producer’s own vineyards.
CM (Coopérative Manipulant): A growers’ co-operative that produces the wine under a single brand.
RC (Récoltant Coopérateur): A grower whose grapes are vinified at a co-operative, but whose wines are sold under the grower’s own label.
SR (Société de Récoltants): 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.
ND (Négociant Distributeur): A middleman company that distributes Champagne it did not make.
MA (Marque d’Acheteur): A buyer’s own brand, often a large supermarket chain or restaurant, that purchases Champagne and sells it under its own label.
Average climate in Champagne
50degrees F
Parallels of champagne
48-49 parallel
What is MCR in Champagne production?
MCR (Moût concentré et rectifié)—Concentrated and rectified grape must, preferred by many smaller growers for the dosage, instead of the traditional liqueur d’expédition.
Two major subsoil layers in Champagne:
belemnite: best grand cru vineyards on this type of soil, fossilized cuttlefish
micraster: late cretaceous, more on flat lands
Who invented the modern gyropalette?
1968, in Champagne, Jacques Ducoin and Claude Cazals, had the patent for the automated gyropalette
What is the maximum amount of a récoltant manipulant’s production that may be from purchased grapes?
5%
These three regions of France comprise the “Grand Est” region
Alsace, Champagne, moselle and Cotes de Toul
Who truly encouraged second fermentation and basically discovered it
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.
The man who invented Chaptalization
Jean-Antoine Chaptal identified the relationship between sugar and fermentation in a seminal 1801 work.
Instrumental in Champagne
This man figured out the measurement of the precise amount of sugar required to induce second fermentation without breaking the bottle
pharmacist André François’
In what year did the French government delimit the Champagne region
AOC in 1936, delimited in 1908, further delimited in 1927
Only AOC/AOP that does not need to include Appellation Contrôlée (or Protégée) on the label.
Champagne
When was “Les bleus de ville” outlawed in Champagne? Champenoise have a long history of relying on recycled Parisian garbage to fertilize their vineyards, blue plastic bags
1998.
In 1992, the CIVC set pressing limits for Champagne:
102 liters of must for every 160 kg of grapes, or 2,550 liters per 4,000 kg—a marc of grapes, the amount held in a traditional Coquard basket press. This restriction brings the final yield to 66 hl/ha.
Prior to 1990, villages that achieved an échelle of____ were classified as premier cru
90 through 99
What does the INAO stand for?
What did it previously stand for?
Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité
(Institut National des Appellations d’Origine)
CIVC stands for this
Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne
This year had the earliest harvest start date in history in Champagne
2020
August 17
Grand Marques Champagnes that are still family owned
Louis Roederer
Jacquesson
Drappier
Henriot
Bollinger
Pol Roger
Cattier
What are cendrieres?
Lignite Mines found in the Grand Montagne
What was the first single vineyard Champagne?
Philliponat Clos des Goisses
Mareuil Sur Ay
1935
Most famous property in Region d’Epernay (Vallée de la Marne)
Tattinger Chateau de la Marquettrie (Pierry)
In the cote des blancs, which side of the D9 are vineyards planted
Eastern side.
In which department of Champagne are ALL 17 Grand cru villages located
Marne department
Why are there 42 premier crus in Champagne today opposed to 44 prior to 2007?
INAO reforms of 2007 removed the premier cru status for black grapes in Chouilly and white grapes in Tours-sur-Marne
Term for “fully sparkling Champagne” 5-6 atm pressure
“Grand Mousseux”
Mumm’s “Mumm de Cramant” was once called this prior to EU law banning the term “methode Champenoise” ourside of Champagne
Mumm “Cremant de Cramant”
Old definition of “Cremant” in Champagne prior to EU reform
pressure of 3.6 atmospheres
Why have vintage Champagne sales declined
Used to be released in only great vintages, now 5-6 vintages out of 10 released (used to be 3 years of 10)
Why is the autolytic process enhanced in Vintage Champagne?
Fewer reactive proteins in reserve wines used for NV.
When was the first August Champagne harvest?
2003
Lawrence Venn is credited with this in Champagne in response to Great Depression hitting market in 1929
Developing concept of “Prestige cuvée” for the Syndicat de Grandes Marques de Champagne
The Dom Perignon 1921 vintage was released in this year as the first prestige cuvée?
1936
When was the last Vintage release of Perrier-Jouët’s Belle Époque
1998
Special club panel tastes the wines twice during assessment. When?
Once as vin clair, another after three years aging
These two Clos vineyards surround the city of Reims itself and are surrounded by walls in the city limits
Pommery Clos Pompadour
Clos Lanson
Ways Champagne can be categorized
pressure, chronology, prestige, origin, style, and sweetness
What is unique about the production of Cristal Rosé?
Hybrid maceration process:
Pinot noir grapes soaked in Chardonnay juice, juice drained off
Pinot noir pressed, juices combined. Then 20-50% acidic chardonnay juice added to stabilize color
Regulations in Champagne allow for this variation in stated and actual g/l rs?
3 g/l variation
Riche was once used as an alternative to this level of dosage?
Demi Sec
32-50g/l rs
Roederer’s Demi Sec?
Carte Blanche
