Champagne

The Champagne house of Gosset was founded as a still wine producer in 1584 and is the oldest Champagne house still in operation today. Ruinart was founded in 1729 and was soon followed by Taittinger (1734), Moët et Chandon (1743) and Veuve Clicquot (1772).

Classifications and vineyard regulations

In 1927, viticultural boundaries of Champagne were legally defined and split into five wine producing districts - the Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. This area covers 34,000 hectares of vineyards around 300 villages that are home to 5,000 growers who make their own wine and 14,000 growers who only sell grapes.

The different district produces grapes of varying characteristics that are blended by the champagne houses to create their distinct house styles. The Pinot Noir of the Montagne de Reims that are planted on northern facing slopes are known for their high levels of acid and the delicacy they add to the blend. The grapes on the southern facing slope add more power and character. Grapes across the district contribute to the bouquet and headiness. The abundance of southern facing slopes in the Vallée de la Marne produces the ripest wines with full aroma dominated by Pinot Meunier. The Côte des Blancs is dedicated almost exclusively to Chardonnay, the grapes are known for their finesse and the freshness they add to blends with the extension of the nearby Côte de Sézanne offering similar though slightly less distinguished traits.

Champagnes made exclusively from Chardonnay are known as blanc de blancs, and those exclusively from the red grapes as blanc de noirs.

Champagne is typically a white wine even if it is produced with red grapes, because the juice is extracted from the grapes using a gentle process that minimizes the amount of time the juice spends in contact with the skins, which is what gives red wine its colour. Rosé wines are also produced, either by permitting the juice to spend more time with the skins to impart a pink colour to the wine, or by adding a small amount of red wine during blending. The Champagne winemaking community, under the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), has developed the comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine that comes from the region in order to protect the economic interests of that community. They include a codification of the most suitable places for grapes to grow; the most suitable types of grapes and a lengthy set of requirements that specifies most aspects of viticulture. This includes vine pruning, the yield of the vineyard, the degree of pressing applied to the grapes, and the time that wine must remain on its lees prior to bottling. It can also limit the release of Champagne into the market in order to maintain prices. Only if a wine meets all these requirements may the name Champagne be placed on the bottle.

All of the growers, cooperatives and over houses that are central to producing Champagne are members of the CIVC, established in 1941 under the auspices of the French government. This organization has a system in which both the houses and the growers are represented at all levels. This includes a co-presidency where a grower representative and a representative of the houses share the running of the organization. This system is designed to ensure that the CIVC's primary mission, to promote and protect Champagne and those who produce it, is done in a manner that represents the interests of all involved. This power structure has played an important role in the success of Champagne worldwide and the integrity of the appellation itself.

The CIVC is charged with organizing and controlling the production, distribution, and promotion of Champagne. Until 1990, it set the price for grapes and still intervenes to regulate the size of the harvest, to decide if any should be withheld from production into Champagne and, if so, the amount to be withheld from the market. In 1942, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) was formed with the purpose of protecting Champagne's reputation and marketing forces as well as setting up and monitoring regulations for vineyard production and vinification methods. Champagne is the only region that is permitted to exclude AOC or Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée from their labels.

For each vintage, the CVIC rates the villages of the area based on the quality of their grapes and vineyards. The rating is then used to determine the price and the percentage of the price that growers get. The Grand Cru rated vineyards get 100 percent rating which entitles the grower to 100% of the price. Premier Crus are vineyards with 90-99% ratings while Deuxième Crus have 80-89% ratings.

Under appellation rules, around 8,820 pounds of grapes can be pressed to create up to 673 gallons of juice. The first 541 gallons are the cuvée and the next 132 gallons are the taille. Prior to 1992, a second taille of 44 gallons was previously allowed. For vintage champagne, 100% of the grapes must come from that vintage year while non-vintage wine is a blend of vintages. Vintage champagne must spend a minimum three years on its lees with some of premier champagne houses keeping their wines on lines for upwards of five to ten years. Non-vintage champagne must spend a minimum of 15 months on the lees.

Méthode Champenoise is the traditional method by which Champagne (and some sparkling wine) is produced. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast and sugar. At this time the champagne bottle is capped with a crown cap, just like a beer bottle. The bottle is then riddled (shaken), so that the lees settles in the neck of the bottle. The neck is then frozen, and the cap removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the lees, and the bottle is quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide in solution.

The first commercial sparkling wine was produced in the Limoux area of Languedoc about 1535. They did not invent it; nobody knows who first made it. The English can make a reasonably good claim: it is recorded that in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period they added sugar and molasses to imported wine and bottled it. The English had developed sufficiently strong bottles to withstand the very high pressures created by fermentation.

Contrary to popular belief, the French monk Dom Perignon did not invent champagne, although it is almost certainly true that he developed many advances in the production of this beverage, including the method in which the cork is held in place with a wire collar due to pressure building up during the fermentation process. Some people believe that champagne was created quite by accident, but no one has been able to prove that this is the case.

Somewhere in the end of the 17th century, the sparkling method, including smooth pressing and dosage, was married to the stronger bottles (invented in England) that could hold the added pressure. Around 1700, sparkling Champagne, as we know it today, was born.

In the 1800s Champagne was noticeably sweeter than modern Champagne is today with the Russians preferring Champagne as sweet as 300 grams per litre. The trend towards drier Champagne began when Perrier-Jouët decided not to sweeten his 1846 vintage prior to exporting it to London. The designation Brut Champagne, the modern Champagne, was created for the British in 1876.

The name "Champagne" and the law

In the European Union and many other countries, the name "Champagne" is legally protected to mean only sparkling wine produced in the region to rules laid down for the AOC. Even the term méthode champenoise, or champagne method was forbidden following a court case in 1994. As of 2005, the description most often legally used for wines produced like champagne is méthode traditionnelle. There are sparkling wines made all over the world, and many producers use special terms to define their own sparkling wines: Spain uses Cava, Italy calls it spumante, and South Africa uses Cap Classique.. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other regions of France are forbidden to use the name Champagne; for example, wine-makers in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant.

Other sparkling wines not from Champagne sometimes use the term "sparkling wine" on their label. While most countries have labelling laws which prevent the use of the term Champagne on any wine not from the region, some - including the United States - permit wine producers to use the name "Champagne" as a semi-generic name.

Champagne producers

There are over 300 champagne houses and 15,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) operating in Champagne. These companies manage some 31,000 hectares of vineyards under production in the region, and employ over 10,000 people.

Annual sales by all producers total over 300 million bottles per year, equating to roughly €4.3 billion of revenue. Roughly two-thirds of these sales are made by the large champagne houses and their grandes marques (major brands). 58% of total production is sold within France, with the remaining 42% being exported around the world - primarily to the UK, the U.S., and Germany.

At any one time, champagne producers collectively hold a stock of about 1 billion bottles which are being matured, equating to more than three years of sales volume. The type of champagne producer can be identified from the abbreviations followed by the official number on the bottle :

• NM: Négociant manipulant. These companies (including the majority of the larger brands) buy grapes and make the wine
• CM: Coopérative de manipulation. Co-operatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together
• RM: Récoltant manipulant. A grower that also makes wine from their own grapes
• SR: Société de récoltants. An association of growers making a shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative
• RC: Récoltant coopérateur. A co-operative member selling Champagne produced by the co-operative under its own name
• MA: Marque auxiliaire or Marque d'acheteur. A brand name unrelated to the producer or grower; the name is owned by someone else, for example a supermarket
• ND: Négociant distributeur. A wine merchant selling under his own name

Bubbles

An initial burst of effervescence occurs when the champagne contacts the dry glass on pouring. These bubbles may form on imperfections in the glass. However, after the initial rush, these naturally occurring imperfections are typically too small to consistently act as nucleation points as the surface tension of the liquid smooths out these minute irregularities.

It is widely accepted that the smaller the bubbles the better the Champagne.

Dom Perignon was originally charged by his superiors at the Abbey of Hautvillers to get rid of the bubbles since the pressure in the bottles caused many of them to burst in the cellar. As sparkling wine production increased in the early 1700s, cellar workers would have to wear heavy iron mask to prevent injury from spontaneously bursting bottles. The disturbance caused by one bottle's disintegration could cause a chain reaction, with it being routine for cellars to lose 20-90% of their bottles to instability. The mysterious circumstance surrounding the then unknown process of fermentation and carbonic gas caused some critics to call the sparkling creations "The Devil's Wine".

Champagne bottles

Champagne is mostly fermented in three sizes of bottles, half bottles (37.5cl), standard bottles (75cl), and magnums (150cl). Traditionally magnums are thought to be higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume to surface area favours the creation of appropriately-sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. Other bottle sizes, named for Biblical figures, are generally filled with Champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums.

Champagne corks

Champagne corks are built from several sections. Originally they start as a cylinder and are compressed into the bottle. Over time their compressed shape becomes more permanent. The mushroom shape that occurs in the transition is due to the bottom section being less horizontally compressible than the material above.

Aging

There is a debate about the aging of champagne. Champagne's freshness has contributed to most people's impression that it should be enjoyed soon after purchase. Vintage champagne is often put aside to be enjoyed years after its release. As champagne ages, it deepens in colour and often develops bready, caramelized flavours and aromas. In general the British like bottle-aged champagne with its flavours of toast and mushrooms, and the French prefer young champagne with brighter fruit and acidity.

The French producers are aware of both sides of the argument and produce wines for both groups of consumers. In the last fifty years, there has been a movement to produce complex wines that have aged for very long periods of time on the lees, meant for immediate consumption after release.

Serving Champagne

Champagne is usually served in a champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl and opening. The wider, flat champagne coupe; which has a saucer-shaped bowl and is commonly associated with Champagne, is no longer preferred because it does not preserve the bubbles and aroma of the wine as well.

Glasses should initially only have a little poured in, then when you top up it does not bubble over.

Champagne must be served cold, and is best drunk at a temperature of around 7 to 9 °C (43 to 48 °F). Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water before and after opening.

The deliberate spraying of Champagne has become an integral part of some sports trophy presentations, such as the famous podium presentation at the conclusion of a Formula 1 Grand Prix. However, this opening will waste lof the champagne. To reduce the risk of spilling Champagne and/or turning the cork into a projectile, a Champagne bottle can be opened by holding the base and rotating the bottle (rather than the cork). By using a 45 degree angle, the surface of the champagne has the maximum surface area, thus minimizing the excessive bubbling. The cork can ease out with a sigh or a whisper rather than a pop.