Sparkling Terminology

Question 0

The French terms ______ or _____ are used to refer to sparkling wine not made in the Champagne region. German, Austrian, Czech and Slovak sparkling wines are called _____.

Answer 0

“Mousseux” or “Crémant”; Sekt

Question 1

Definition of Pétillant

Pronunciation: [pay tee ya(n)]

Answer 1

pétillant (petijɑ̃)
adj
1. (Brewing) (of wine) slightly effervescent
[French, from pétiller to effervesce]
A French word meaning effervescent, used to describe wine that is slightly effervescent.

Question 2

Champagne climate: Atlantic-influenced climate - rain often interrupts flowering, resulting in a ______, or second crop, that rarely ripens and is left on the vine.

Answer 2

bouvreux–second crop, that rarely ripens and is left on the vine

Question 3

The word “mousseux”, implies what?

Answer 3

Effervescence

Question 4

What is the procedure that allows sediment to be easily removed from a bottle during dégorgement?

Answer 4

Remuage, or riddling

Question 5

What is the CIVC?

Answer 5

Comité Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne

Question 6

What is a tête de cuvée, or prestige cuvée?

Answer 6

A premier bottling often carrying a vintage date

Question 7

French term for the proportion of grape varieties used in a blend?

Answer 7

Encépagement

Question 8

Until 1990, the CIVC set the price of grapes through the Échelle de Crus, which means what?

Answer 8

A percentile system by which the villages, or crus, of the Champagne appellation are rated. Villages that achieve the maximum échelle (“scale”) of 100 are classified as grand crus; villages that achieve an échelle of 90 through 99 are classified as premier cru.

Question 9

The regulatory body responsible for mediating relations between growers and producers, oversees the production methods and promotion of Champagne. Regulates the size of harvests, authorizes blocage and deblocage—respectively the reserve and release of wine stocks for use in future vintages—and safeguards the protected designation of Champagne.

Answer 9

The CIVC

Question 10

Mareuil-sur-Ay in the Vallée de la Marne and Tauxières in Montagne de Reims are the only _____cru villages with a 99% ranking.

Answer 10

premier cru

Question 11

Villages with a rating below 90 are simply called what?

Answer 11

crus

Question 12

Every bottle of Champagne bears a series of digits—the ______—a code assigned to each producer by the CIVC. A set of initials precedes the number, denoting the type of producer who made the wine.

Answer 12

the matriculation number

Question 13

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.

Answer 13

NM (Négociant Manipulant)

Question 14

A grower-producer who makes Champagne from estate-grown fruit. 95% of the grapes must originate in the producer’s own vineyards.

Answer 14

RM (Récoltant Manipulant)

Question 15

A growers’ co-operative that produces the wine under a single brand.

Answer 15

CM (Coopérative Manipulant)

Question 16

A grower whose grapes are vinified at a co-operative, but sells the wine under his own label.

Answer 16

RC (Récoltant Coopérateur)

Question 17

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.

Answer 17

SR (Société de Récoltants)

Question 18

A middleman company that distributes Champagne it did not make.

Answer 18

ND (Négociant Distributeur)

Question 19

A buyer’s own brand, often a large supermarket chain or restaurant, that purchases Champagne and sells it under its own label

Answer 19

MA (Marque d’Acheteur)

Question 20

Generally brut in style, the NV cuvée represents a house’s signature style, and the blender’s job is to ensure its consistency from year to year. Non-vintage Champagne makes up at least three-quarters of the market.

Answer 20

Non-Vintage (NV) Champagne

Question 21

100% of the blend must come from the stated vintage, yet a maximum 80% of a year’s harvest may be sold as vintage Champagne. The better houses declare a vintage only in exceptional years. Usually brut in style, and good examples can age for a decade or more.

Answer 21

Vintage Champagne

Question 22

100% Chardonnay is required, but it is not always sourced from the Côte des Blancs. They may be vintage-dated or NV. The Blanc de Blancs category represents some of Champagne’s most ageworthy bottlings; while austere and often steely in youth, better examples develop an intense bouquet with maturity.

Answer 22

Blanc de Blancs

Question 23

White wine produced solely from black grapes. The wine usually displays richness, intensity, and weight, although it can lack the supreme elegance and finesse of Blanc de Blancs.

Answer 23

Blanc de Noirs

Question 24

Usually the finest and most expensive bottling that a house offers, is typically (but not always) vintage-dated and aged for a number of years prior to release. Usually only released in superior vintages, and may undergo more traditional vinification procedures, such as barrel fermentation, riddling by hand, and cork-finishing during the second fermentation. Many of the large houses produce from their own vineyards—even single vineyards in exceptional cases.

Answer 24

Prestige Cuvée (Tête de Cuvée)
Prestige cuvées may be Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs or rosé in style. Not all houses produce a prestige cuvée, and some produce several. Classic examples include Moët et Chandon “Dom Pérignon,” Taittinger “Comtes de Champagne,” Louis Roederer “Cristal,” Laurent-Perrier “Grande Siècle,” Perrier-Jouët “Belle Époque” (bottled as “Fleur de Champagne” for the US market), Pol Roger “Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill,” Ruinart “Dom Ruinart,” and Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin “La Grande Dame.”

Question 25

These Champagne bottlings may be produced by a large house or a smaller grower-producer, and may or may not be advertised as a prestige cuvée are not required to carry a vintage date, although they invariably do, and the style represents a stark departure from the blending philosophy of the region.

Answer 25

Single Vineyard Champagne
Philipponnat’s “Clos de Goisses,” originally released for the 1935 vintage from one of the few walled vineyards of the region, remains a benchmark bottling.

Question 26

The 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, they comprises over two-dozen RM producers as members. Estate-bottled, vintage-dated wines that represent the pinnacle of each individual grower’s style and production.

Answer 26

Special Club Prestige Cuvée: (Club Trésors)
Special Club bottles and labels share identical design. Current members include Marc Hébrart, Pierre Gimmonet, Paul Bara, J. Lassalle and Gaston Chiquet.

Question 27

Rose Vintage, NV, and prestige cuvées may also be produced in pink versions. What is the 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 and white wine. A rosé prestige cuvée, a novelty in years past, is usually the most expensive and rare product a house offers.

Answer 27

Rosé Champagne; traditional saignée method

Question 28

This is the oldest and 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 and rebottled in clean glass prior to sale.

Answer 28

Méthode Ancestrale: also known as the (méthode rurale),
Bugey Cerdon, Clairette de Die Méthode Dioise Ancestrale, and Gaillac Mousseux Méthode Gaillaçoise are examples of the style.

Question 29

This Method is quicker, cheaper, and less labor-intensive than the traditional method. After the 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. The wine is then filtered and bottled, usually with a dosage.

Answer 29

The Charmat Process/Cuve Close/Tank Method: Developed by Eugene Charmat in the early 20th century

Most Asti DOCG and Prosecco bottlings are produced in this method.

Question 30

Some appellations require the wine to remain in tank from Charmat process for a minimum period of time, such as one month for this sparkling?

Answer 30

Asti DOCG.

Question 31

Developed in the USSR, this method is similar to the tank method, but the base wine is pumped through a series of interconnected (continuous) tanks while undergoing the second fermentation. Liqueur de tirage is constantly added to the wine, and lees accumulate in the first several tanks, offering a higher degree of autolyzed flavors than the standard tank method.

Answer 31

Continuous Method/Russian Continuous Method:

The majority of German Sekt is produced by either the tank method or the continuous method.

Question 32

The cheapest method of sparkling winemaking involves a simple injection of carbon dioxide into still wine. The bubbles do not integrate into the texture of the wine at all, and fade quickly upon opening. This method is not used for quality wines.

Answer 32

Carbonation Method

Question 33

Fully sparkling wines from the aforementioned appellations will be labeled_____? Whereas, lightly sparkling wines are labeled______?

Answer 33

mousseux; pétillant

Question 34

Penedès is divided between three distinct altitude zones: what are the three? The Alt-Penedès, one of Europe’s highest altitude winegrowing regions, is perfectly suited to cultivation of the white Parellada grape, one of the principal grapes in the Cava sparkling blend.

Answer 34

Baix-Penedès, Medio-Penedès, and Alt-Penedès

Question 35

What is the dosage?

Answer 35

An addition of sugar and wine that determines the wine’s final sweetness.

Question 36

What is degorgement?

Answer 36

Expelling the sediment from the bottle after remuage?

Question 37

Which of the following methods involves a single fermentation that begins in tank but concludes in the bottle?

Answer 37

Methode Ancestrale

Question 38

Pupitres have been replaced by the mechanized gyropalettes for use in the process of remuage? T or F

Answer 38

True

Question 39

What is the name referred to the release of older vintages of base wine for use in assemblage?

Answer 39

Deblocage

Question 40

What is bouvreux?

Answer 40

A second crop, generally left on the vine at harvest.

Question 41

Prior to remuage, Champagne bottles are kept in a horizontal, or otherwise known as sur______position?

Answer 41

Latte