Definition: Champagne (the)

The Champagne method:

Legend attributes the principle of sparkling wines, developed at the end of^{the 17th} century, to the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon. In fact, it involves causing secondary fermentation in a closed bottle by adding liqueur de tirage (old wine + sugar) to the base wine. The sugar breaks down, producing carbon dioxide which remains trapped in the wine as there is no air for it to escape. This delicate method also involves the process of riddling the bottles to move the sediment towards the neck, followed by disgorging to remove the sediment that has formed near the cork. The cork is ejected at a low temperature.

The different types of Champagne:

Blanc de blancs: produced exclusively from Chardonnay grapes.

Blanc de noirs: made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes.

Rosé: a small amount of red wine is added to the cuvée before bottling.

Millésimé: only very good years are vintage. This involves blending different crus and different vintages. This wine is therefore of superior quality.

Crémant: less sparkling champagne produced with less liqueur de tirage.

Sweet: the liqueur added in larger quantities masks all the wine's flaws.

Brut intégral: natural wine, with no added liqueur.

Champagne should be drunk between seven and nine degrees and served in narrow, slender flutes. Champagne coupes are a relic of the past. They do not show champagne to its best advantage. They can be used for the presentation of certain desserts. A few clarifications are necessary to remedy the almost total ignorance of many genuine wine lovers about Champagne wines: if someone says, "I drank South African Chablis, Californian Bordeaux or Australian Cognac," everyone understands that this is a deception. On the other hand, if, as we have experienced, you hear a reputable and serious producer from the French Jura region say to his customers during a cellar visit, before offering them a taste of his crémant (which, like many others, is produced by a subcontractor or cooperative): "To finish the tasting, we will move on to our Champagne"...!

To be clear, what follows does not mean that elsewhere it is not possible to make very pleasant sparkling wines that are better or worse than certain wines from Champagne. Everyone has their own tastes, and no one would dispute that some wine lovers prefer red Bordeaux to red Burgundy. Let's just say that these wines are so different that comparing them is pointless.

There is a wine-growing region called Champagne, comprising three AOCs: the AOC Champagne for sparkling wines subject to very specific rules regarding planting density, grape varieties, pruning, harvest limits, minimum alcohol content, chaptalisation limits, minimum maturation time on lees in the bottle, dosage, labelling and marketing.

The AOC Coteaux Champenois, corresponding to still wines, often red, more rarely white and very rarely still rosés, which are also subject to specific rules, and finally an AOC Rosé des Riceys authorised only for still wines produced in the village of Les Riceys in the Aube region. They are subject to strict rules that require tasting to authenticate the "goût des Riceys" (Riceys taste).

Champagne is divided into several production areas: the Marne Valley from Saacy-sur-Marne in Seine-et-Marne to the junction with the Montagne de Reims north of Épernay (Aÿ region), the Montagne de Reims, the Côte des Blancs, the Ardre Valley, the Massif de Saint-Thierry and the Vesle Valley, the Côte de Sézanne, the Côte de Bar-sur-Aubois in Aube and Bar-Séquanais in the Ource Valley. Across four departments in the Champagne-Ardenne region (Ardennes, Seine-et-Marne, Haute-Marne, Aube), there are approximately 32,000 hectares under production. As in all French wine-growing regions, these 32,000 hectares include exceptional, excellent, very good, good, mediocre and sometimes unsuitable terroirs. At the same time, it is important to note that there are talented, serious, average and, unfortunately, mediocre winegrowers and merchants. These superb terroirs were identified very early on, and from the^18th century onwards, the wines of Aÿ were a famous example of this.

The term Champagne therefore refers to a production area and not to a method of production. This name is so attractive that producers in other regions of the world would prefer the second option to the first, which is easier to counterfeit.

Furthermore, comparing sparkling wines from other regions with Champagne wines is of little interest. Comparing wines that have nothing in common except a few fundamental principles of the production method makes little sense. This would be like comparing Sauternes sweet wines with Coteaux du Layon, a Côte-Rôtie Hermitage with a Burgundy Pinot Noir, a Graves Blanc with a Chablis, etc., to better understand the nonsense. Generally speaking, sparkling wines, which are very diverse and among the most renowned in their production areas, rarely achieve the finesse, precision and structure of the best champagnes. This statement is true when compared to the great wines of Champagne. On the other hand, when it comes to the many very average wines, the answer is easy: in all appellations, you only look for the best, the cream of the crop. So why make an exception in Champagne and accept whatever comes along? More than anywhere else, given the size of the vineyard, it is essential to select the good, the representative, even the excellent, as you do everywhere else.