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Champagne

| Alsace |  Bordeaux | Burgundy | Champagne | Loire Valley | Rhône Valley |

  • Situated in eastern France and is the coldest of France’s major wine regions
  • Champagne wines can be both white and rosé
  • A small amount of still wine is produced in Champagne (as AOC Coteaux Champenois) of which some can be red wine
  • The primary grapes used in the production of Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier

Sparkling wines are produced worldwide:

  • Spain uses cava
  • Italy designates it spumante (from the muscat grape uses the DOCG asti)
  • South Africa uses cap classique
  • In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine
  • Other French wine regions cannot use the name Champagne, i.e. Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant
  • Most Champagnes are made from a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
  • Blanc de blanc (“white from white”) Champagnes are made from 100% Chardonnay
  • Blanc de noir (“white from black”) Champagne is pressed from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a mix of the two
  • The dark-skinned Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier give the wine its length and backbone
  • Chardonnay gives the wine its acidity and biscuit flavor (especially when aged on the lees)

Rose wines of Champagne are produced by:
1. Leaving the clear juice of black grapes to macerate on its skins for a brief time (known as the saigneé method)
2. More commonly, by adding a small amount of still Pinot noir red wine to the sparkling wine cuvee

  • Rosé Champagne is one of the few wines that allows the production of Rosé by the addition a small amount of red wine during blending (ensures a predictable and reproducible color from year-to-year)

Champagne

Types of Champagne:

  • Most of the Champagne produced today is “Non-vintage”, meaning that it is a blended product of grapes from multiple vintages
  • Most of the base will be from a single year vintage with producers blending anywhere from 10-15% (even as high as 40%) of wine from older vintages
  • Some producers will make a “Vintage” wine when the conditions were better that particular year (Has to be at least 85% from that “vintage” year)
  • Under Champagne wine regulations, houses that make both vintage and non-vintage wines are allowed to use no more than 80% of the total vintage’s harvest for the production of vintage Champagne (saving the 20% for the non-vintage blends)
  • A cuvée de prestige is a proprietary blended wine that is considered to be the top of a producer’s range (ex: Louis Roederer’s Cristal or Moët & Chandon’s Dom Pérignon)

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