What Makes a Great Champagne?

IN THE VINEYARDS

• Sustainable agriculture: It is impossible to make a successful vintage without taking the necessary care of the vineyard! Organic and biodynamic farming have long proven the success of the greatest Champagnes.

• The proximity of the press: The bunches must arrive whole and healthy. The press houses are found throughout the Champagne vineyards.

• The timing of the harvest: Although global warming is bringing forward the dates, the harvest must take place when the grapes are fully ripe. Champagne is often last one to harvest from the French regions due to the northern location. However, one should not wait too long! To be of high quality, a sparkling wine must be made from grapes that have retained a significant amount of acidity. It is therefore necessary to be very precise about the harvest date in order to preserve enough acidity and freshness while having sufficient maturity of the grapes to avoid green or acerbic taste which would be exacerbated by the bubbles.

• The selection of the must from the press : The best and first extraction of the must from the press is called cuvée and in premium Champagnes should never be mixed with the remaining must extracted from the press called tailles.

THE ART OF BLENDING

• Choosing the blend: Usually Champagne is a blend of different years, villages and varieties. With these so called Non-Vintage Champagnes the blender aims to maintain a specific style of the Champagne house year after year. Some Champagne houses can use as many as 120 wines in their blend. Even Vintage Champagnes are the result of blending different villages and varieties. However they are produced only on the best years and their grapes only come from the stated year of harvest.

• Choosing the varieties: Another important factor is the grape variety or varieties chosen. The most common varieties used in Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Chardonnay brings finesse, elegance and citrus fruit character to the blend. Pinot Noir brings body and structure. Pinot Meunieur on the other hand brings roundness and fruitiness to the blend. Blanc de Blancs are made exclusively from white grape varieties, mainly Chardonnay. Blanc de Noirs are made from black grape varieties Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.

• The reserve wines: These are wines from previous years kept in the cellar. Their percentage in the blend of Non-Vintage Champagnes is essential as it can help to maintain the house style or bring complexity to the blend.

• Tirage : After the first fermentation and the blending a small amount of liqueur de tirage (mixture of wine, sugar and yeast) is added before bottling the wine. The second fermentation then will take place inside the bottle. The added yeast generates carbon dioxide which will slowly dissolve into the wine creating the bubbles.

THE AGEING

Ageing is a source of enrichment for all wines, but for Champagne in particular, because one of the original features of its production process is a prolonged time in the bottle in contact with the yeasts of the second fermentation (the famous Champagne sparkling process). This crucial stage brings the specific aromas of the Champagnes and allows the progressive blossoming of the mature aromas known as "tertiary". Officially, there is a minimum of 15 months between bottling and marketing, of which 12 months must be spent on the lees (sediment of dead yeast cells) and 3 years for Vintage Champagne. But for the premium Champagnes, the period is often longer. The Champagne houses generally wait 5 to 10 years at least before offering the best vintages on the market... up to 20 years sometimes for the exceptional vintages.

THE DOSAGE

Discreet and perceptible, the liqueur d'expédition (wine and cane sugar solution) always influences the final blend. Its addition is the last step before the final packaging of a bottle. Far from being a detail, it offers exceptional gustatory nuances for the Champagne houses that know how to play with it. This operation allows the level of the bottle to be restored for the regulatory 75cl before corking. The Dosage, amount of sugar used in the liqueur d'expédition, defines the Champagne style: from Brut Nature (zero dosage) to Doux (more than 50 grams of sugar per litre). The most common Brut Champagne has a dosage up to 12 grams of sugar per litre. For each cuvée, for each vintage, there is an optimal balance that the cellar master will have to perceive. The beauty of subtlety!