Épernay

Find out more about Champagne wines below

About Champagne grapes

Champagne is a single Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. As a general rule, the only grapes used must be a combination of any of white Chardonnay, and the dark-skinned "red wine grapes" Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier.

Chardonnay is a white grape with high acidity. Wines produced using it have a very long life. In Champagne, where it is tended with expert care and reverence, they consider it a king of grapes, and it commands high prices. When Champagne is made from 100% Chardonnay, the Champagne is labelled Blanc de Blancs.

While it can have a floral bouquet of acacia and hawthorn, Chardonnay generally produces flavours and aromas of apples, pears, peaches and apricots. Its acidity can give it marvellous citrus harmonies, ranging from lemon and lime to orange and tangerine. Chardonnay Champagnes have a touch of the exotic, with a palate of tropical fruits: pineapple, the sweet tang of kiwi, banana, fresh guava juice, mango and the rich mellowness of melon.

Malolactic fermentation (when the tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid), often part of the chardonnay fermenting process, gives the wine nuances of butter, cream and nuts. Light oaking enriches vanilla, sweet wood and coconut tones, while heavier oaking develops in to deep rounded flavours of oak, smoke and toast; and can produce aromas of yeast and wine sediment.

Pinot Noir is a black grape. It is not as long-lived as Chardonnay but can impart far more complex flavours. As Champagne is a white sparkling wine, when it is made from 100% Pinot Noir or a Pinot Noir and Meunier mix, the Champagne is labelled Blanc de Noir.

The floral aroma of Pinot Noir is reminiscent of violets and rose petals. It has rich fruity flavours of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and currants. Pinot Noir Champagnes can be spicy, seasoned with sassafras, rosemary, cinnamon, caraway and even peppermint. It can also have herbal tones of rhubarb, beetroot, oregano, green tomato, green tea and sometimes black olives.

The soil and precise areas where Pinot Noir is grown impart their own flavours to the wine. These flavours can include truffles, mushroom, earth and leather. Further aromas and flavours are added if the wine is aged or fermented in oak barrels. Light oak aging will give essences of vanilla, coconut and sweet wood. Heavy oak age will give the Champagne with undertones of oak, smoke, toast and sometimes tar. The length of time the Champagne ages in the bottle, whether before or after the sediment has been removed, can add cedar, biscuit and toast to the mix.

The black Pinot Meunier is a hard grape, which has the advantage in Champagne of budding late and ripening early, thus avoiding frost in spring and rain in autumn. It also yields 10-15% more fruit than Pinot Noir.

It has a slightly higher natural acidity than Pinot Noir which gives a brightness and fruitiness to Champagne blends. However, Champagnes rely on Pinot Noir to provide more of the colour and tannin content. Champagnes that use Meunier in their blend are not as long-lived.

Pinot Meunier has an inherent fruitiness, rich in redcurrant, cassis, plum and cherry. It develops intriguing aromas toast or fresh bread, with caramel and spice. It gives a soft and mild palate, perfectly designed for Champagnes that are designed to be drunk young.

Soil in the Champagne region is either chalky or a clay-chalk mixture. The subsoil of most of the vineyards in the Marne department consists of chalk. There are sandy subsoils in the area to the west of Reims, Marl in the Aisne and Kimmeridgean Marl in the Côte des Bar. In Champagne, as a rule of thumb, the entire yield of one vine is required to make just one bottle. Or in other words it takes one sixth of a the entire yield of a vine to produce one Champagne flute of wine.

In addition to the white chalky soil reflecting sunlight back up to the vines, two other benefits arise from the high chalk content: During rainy periods the soil has good water retention due to the capacity of chalk to absorb up to 40% its volume. If there is too much rain then the chalk ensures excellent drainage. During dry periods, moisture in the chalk is available to the vine's roots and moisture in the subsoil rises to the surface by capillaric action. Heat from the sun builds up in the soil during the day and is then released during the night.

Champagne production

First the wine is made in the usual way (Vinification), using a combination of the grapes described above. This is followed by a secondary bottle fermentation:

	Tirage or Bottle Fermentation: the wine is poured into thick glass bottles and tirage, a mixture of yeast, sugar and reserve wines is added the bottle is capped with a crown cap and placed in the cellar the liqueur de tirage initiates secondary fermentation which releases carbon dioxide bubbles, which saturate the wine as a result of fermentation, the yeast turns into sediment (lees) the wine matures (aging) on the lees for four, five or more years
	Remuage or Riddling: the bottles are placed horizontally in riddling racks (pupitres) they are regularly shaken, rotated and gradually turned neck down - the yeast sediment gathers in the neck of the bottle the bottle is gradually advanced into a vertical position, neck down
	Degorgement, or Disgorging the neck of the bottle is placed in freezing brine the bottle is opened and the cap and sediment are removed the bottle is topped up with liqueur d'expedition, or dosage, a mixure of wine and sugar the bottle is stopped with a natural cork and wire

Champagne bottle sizes