Champagne & Sparkling Wine
Champagne first gained notoriety due to its perceived association with the luxury and power of French royalty. Early Champagne & sparkling wine producers attempted to create a unique identity for their product; their efforts coincided with an emerging middle class that was looking for ways to spend its money on symbols of upward mobility. 1
History
- Although monks in St. Hilaire France had been making bubbly wine since 1531, Limoux, England claims to have made the first brut sparkling wine in the 16th century. Sir George Etheredge of England made mention of sparkling wine in his 1676 journals.
- In the late 15th century, temperatures dropped suddenly in northern France, changing the fermentation process so that there was a second fermentation, producing excess carbon dioxide and bubbles, and, in turn, creating sparkling wine.
- In 1729, in Epernay, Nicolas Ruinart created the first Champagne house.
- Today Taittinger is the third oldest Champagne house still in existence.
- The first Rose Champagne was produced in 1804 by Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin (born 12/16/1777). She became a widow (veuve) at age 27.
- In the early 1800s, in the Southern Ohio River Valley, Catawba sparkling wine was first produced in America.
- Veuve Clicquot is credited with developing both degorgement and remuage in the early 19th century (1816). Remuage (shaking) or riddling (a series of quarter or half quarter turns) removes the sugar and yeast sediment from the side of a slanted bottle to the neck. Remuage is an average 8- to 12-week process. Remuage is done on special A-frame racks called pupitres.
- In 1826 G.C. Kessler, the oldest sparkling wine firm in Germany, was established.
- Until the mid 1800s all "champagne" was sweet and sold to be drunk with dessert as a cold slush, primarily because the Russians (the biggest purchasers at that time) liked it that way. Looking to the British for a new market, Veuve (widow) Pommery cultivated brut Champagne for all courses so as to increase sales. Madam Pommery was the first to sell Champagne as we know it today.
- Champagne wasn't called Champagne until 1860; prior to that it was called vin mousseux.
- In 1862, America sent grapevines to France that accidentally included a root gobbling aphid louse called phylloxera that virtually wiped out most of Champagne's vineyards. Since America's rootstocks were naturally resistant to phylloxera, the French grafted their grapevines to newly shipped American rootstock.
- The first vintage Champagnes, as we know them today, were produced in 1870.
- There are over 980 million bottles stored in Champagne limestone chaulk caves. The widow Pommery was one of the first to buy old Roman chaulk pits under the hills of Reims for storage and production.
Clicquot |
Clicquot |
Denis Bouviere |
From Vine to Wine
A Grape is a Grape...is Champagne
Bonet - Varry |
Val De Loire (Mousseux) |
- Three types of grapes are used in making Champagne: Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, both black grapes; and Chardonnay, a white grape. These are called Noble grapes.
- Blanc de Blanc is exclusively Chardonnay grape.
- Blanc de Noirs is made entirely from black grapes but is white in color. The lack of color comes from gently pressing, extracting the juice but not the color from the black skins. All grape juice is white.
- Rose Champagne is made by a slow, gentle, short maceration of the black grape skins or by adding a small amount of red (Bouzy) wine. Until recently, rosé was only 5% of Champagne sales.
- Cremant is mildly effervescent wine. The best Cremant, ironically, comes from the village of Cramant. Cremant (which means creaming) has only half the normal amount of fizz than sparkling wine.
- Champagne presses are wide and shallow with press loads of 4,000 kilos; the first 2,666 liters are used for Champagne only.
- The blending of grapes is called assemblage.
- Dosage is the adding of sugar and old wine to top off the Champagne bottle after disgorgement.
- Champagne grapes are still hand picked.
Around the World
A Rose by Any Other Name...
Maurice Philippart |
Janisson |
- Sparkling wine is called Sekt in Germany and Austria; Asti, Spumante, Lambrusco or Prosecco in Italy; Cava in Spain; Methode Cap (pronounced cape) Classique in South Africa and sparkling wine or champagne, with a small "c" in most English speaking countries.
- German sekt is made from Riesling, Pinot Blanc Chardonnay and Pinot noir grapes.
- Cava is made from Masabeo Parellada and Xarel-lo grapes, sometimes with a splash of Chardonnay. Cava, known as Champana into the 1970s, means cellar.
Tiny Bubbles
"I'm drinking stars..."
Generic #634 |
Bouvet Ladubay (Mousseux) |
- Until the year 1500, wine from Champagne was still sans (without) bubbles.
- Champagne bubbles, dewdrops of wine, are escaping carbon dioxide caused by a natural process made possible by a cane sugar and yeast reaction as a result of a cold climate and short growing season. Sugar increases both the alcohol and the fizz in sparkling wine.
- A standard bottle of Champagne has 44 million to 50 million bubbles. The tiny carbon dioxide bubbles in Champagne are quickly absorbed by the stomach, which supercharges the circulation, carrying the alcohol directly to the brain.
- The pressure in a bottle of Champagne is 80 to 88psi (a car tire is normally 45 psi). The pressure behind a cork is the same as being 50 meters under water or 6 atmospheres.
- A train of bubbles rising through a liquid is called a Collar or collerette of bubbles. Gerbage is when excessive Champagne or bubbles spew out of a newly opened bottle of Champagne.
- As older Champagne ages in the bottle it loses carbon dioxide and subsequently produces smaller bubbles. Cremant (which means creaming) has only half the normal amount of fizz than sparkling wine.
1 Excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Champagne (wine)" and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
