About Champagne
Champagne Types | Champagne Producers
Although contested, some sources indicate the champagne process was invented by the English noting an English importer discovered that a batch of Chardonnay arriving from France had developed effervescence.He discovered that opening the bottles, adding a little sugar and the re-closing the bottle would indeed produce bubbly wine. While the tale of how it occurred may not be true.
It is probably more correct to say that early sparkling wines were the result of trade. In France, wine ‘vin gris’ in France was drunk young. When shipped abroad in casks, frequently a secondary fermentation started and this was still in progress when the wine arrived. These delicate new wines were bottled immediately upon their arrival, and retained, in more or less haphazard fashion a lively sparkle. This raised the the commercial interest on the part of the Champenois.
Champagne, or sparkling wine is a white wine where secondary fermentation is occurs, or is enhanced by sugar, in the bottle. Yeast produces carbon dioxide which remains dissolved in the wine, until it is released as bubbles when the wine is opened.
I think it is safer to say that Champagne was invented in France. More sources support the history the monasteries in the region of Champagne, the the link to producing wine for royal events.
Monasteries held significant vineyards, given to them after the crusades. The wines produced were used for scraments, coronations of kings and the wines for the royal table. By the 17th century the best wines of France were in the areas of Champagne and Burgundy.
Between 898 and 1825 the coronotions of the Kings of France took place in the city of Rheims which is located in the heart of the Champagne region and this provided a great avenue for the vineyards of the Champagne Region.
Two monastic orders, Piery and Epernay, and their cellarmasters, Frère Jean Oudart of Piery (1654 – 1742) and Dom Pierre of Pérignon (1639 – 1715) advanced the art of capturing the ‘mousse’ in the bottle. The abbeys of Saint-Pierre aux Monts de Châlons and Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers became the birthplace of naturally sparkling wine.
Champagne is often produced from a blend of red and white grapes. The only white grape permitted is the Chardonnay variety. The two red grapes permitted are the Pinot Noir and the Pinot Meunier. A champagne made from only Chardonnay grapes is known as a blanc de blancs. If the champagne is made from only "black" grapes is is known as a blanc de noirs. These terms are sometimes used to describe non-sparkling wines. A pink or rosé champagne is made either by allowing the skins of red grapes to impart a small amount of colour and then removing them, or by adding red wine to the finished product.
Generally, champagne is "non-vintage" - that is it is a blend of wines from several different years. The majority of the wine is typically the current year. A portion is made of wine from previous years, known as "reserve wine". This helps to even out some of variations of grape/wine differences that are caused by the marginal growing climate in Champagne Region itself.
Champagne producers actually strive for a consistent "house style" that goes from year to year and this is the challenge of the winemaker.
Champagne bottles also have particular names depending on the size. A "quarter bottle" is the smallest. Next, the split", or "piccolo bottle" usually has about 187 ml. The "half-bottle" is 375 ml and the standard bottle holds 750 ml. Larger bottles include the easily to recognize Magnum (1.5 litre). But there are even larger bottles such as the Jeroboam (3 litres), the Rehoboam (4.5 l), the Methuselah (6 litres), the Salmanazar (9 litres), the Balthazar (12 litres), Nebuchadnezzar (15 litres), and finally the Sovereign (a whopping 25 litres). The term magnum", latin for "great", the bottles were originally named for biblical kings. (The same terms are sometimes used for bottles containing wine or port, however up to the term Methuselah they merely refer to different bottle sizes.
The size of the bottle affects the quality of the effervescence produced and according to sources, champagne fermented in magnum bottles is of better quality.
| According to information published by the Champagne Region, the best producers of champagne are as follows: | ||
| PREMIER PRODUCERS
• Bollinger
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GREAT PRODUCERS • Henri Abele: Sourire de Reims |
DEPENDABLE PRODUCERS • Henri Abele |