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Champagne is an official AOC appellation of Champagne, France. It is given to world-famous sparkling wines.
edit Tasting
edit Facts and figures
- Varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier
edit Categories of Champagne
- Assembled Champagne: the most common form of Champagne, made from all three official varietals of Champagne region (Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay). They are assembled from different vineyards and harvests.
- Champagne Blanc de Blanc: made only from Chardonnay, produced mostly in the Côte des Blancs sub-region of Champagne.
- Champagne Blanc de Noir: made only from black grapes (Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier).
- Champagne Rosé: obtained through traditional red wine vinification, except grape fermentation is interrupted; a touch of still red wine from Champagne is generally added to produce the rosé color.
- Champagne Millesime: only produced in exceptional years (millesime means "vintage" in French), it must age for three years before reaching the market. 1976 is one of the most coveted Champagne millesimes.
- Champagne Cuvée Spéciale de Prestige: assembled from at least 75% Blanc de Noir.
edit Sugar levels
Every bottle of Champagne bears one of these indications:
- Ultra Brut: no added sugar
- Extra Brut: with 0-6g/ltr sugar
- Brut: with maximal 15g/ltr sugar
- Extra Sec: with maximal 20g/ltr sugar
- Sec: with maximal 35g/ltr sugar
- Semi Sec: with maximal 50g/ltr sugar
edit "Houses" vs. independent vintners
Two kinds of wineries operate in the Champagne appellation:
- Champagne Houses or Maisons de Champagne - mostly name-brands which buy their Champagne from smaller wineries to bottle and market it under their name.
- Independent Champagne producers - mostly family-owned wineries, which bottle their own Champagne and sell part of their production to Champagne "Houses".
edit History
Champagne as we know it today comes from the experiments of Dom Pérignon, a Monk in the Champagne region of France who shared the same birth and death dates as King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715).
Although sparkling wines existed in France before Dom Pérignon, he is credited to have invented the specific méthode champenoise used to make Champagne and other sparkling wines around the world today.
At that time, Champagne vintners mostly produced still wines (i.e. non-sparkling). When harvested late around October, these wines went through a two-step fermentation process due to the early arrival of low temperatures of winter.
Soon after harvest, they stopped fermenting as temperatures went below 11-12°C, to start again only in the following spring. This second fermentation or refermentation liberated a large amount of carbon dioxyde, which caused barrels to literally explode. This inspired Dom Pérignon to bottle up the wine before the spring refermentation, so that the carbon dioxyde was trapped with the wine, only to be freed when opening the bottle. Champagne was born!
Dom Pérignon was also the first to propose the use a red winegrape, Pinot Noir, in the making of white Champagne wines. This idea gave birth to the Blanc de Noir Champagne, which is made of 100% Pinot Noir.
Like all inventions in the French Kingdom at that time, this new kind of wine rose curiosity at the King's Court. Soon Champagne was flowing in Versailles, and praised as a noble wine associated with celebration, a reputation it still holds to this day.
edit Geography
edit Climate
edit Viticulture
Most Champagnes are a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, except for Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) and Blanc de Noir (100% Pinot Noir).
edit The science of Champagne bubbles
A French-Brazilian team of scientists developed in 2005 a theory that explains the patterns of fine bubbles that arise in a freshly poured glass of champagne.
Champagne bubble patterns evolve as the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide changes in the glass. They start out as strings of bubbles that rise in pairs, then gradually transition to bubbles in groups of threes, and finally settle down in a clockwork pattern of regularly spaced individual bubbles.
The researchers observed the carbon dioxide bubbles in a champagne glass as they rise from nucleation points on the glass wall. The nucleation points are small defects in the glass that trap tiny vibrating pockets of carbon dioxide. Dissolved gas in the champagne gradually collects in a vibrating bubble inside the defect, causing it to grow and soon expel gas, forming another bubble that sticks to the outside of the defect. That bubble, in turn, grows as more dissolved carbon dioxide collects inside it and it eventually breaks free of the defect to rise through the champagne. Then the process begins again with a new bubble expelled from the defect, forming rising strings of tiny bubbles.
The patterns are determined by the vibration rate of the gas trapped in the defect and the growth rate of the bubbles outside the defect, which are in turn determined by such things as the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the champagne, the champagne temperature, and the size of the nucleation defect in the glass, among other factors.
edit See also
- Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne - Official Champagne appellation website (in English)
