Ever wondered about the journey your onboard glass of champagne has already made? Sara Turner reveals all
Champagne from outside Champagne simply isn’t champagne, it’s sparkling wine. But why? It’s true the French region has done an excellent job of marketing the wine it produces, but, as Pascal Leclerc, owner of the Leclerc Briant champagne house, reveals, there is substance behind the bubbles.
Leclerc’s family-owned business in Epernay has been in operation for five generations (see panel opposite). He says: “Champagne can only be produced in Champagne as the region has unique conditions – the difficult weather, the fact that only three grapes are grown to produce it, and the chalky soil the vineyards are on. There are also 330 pages of regulations [covering the trade].”
The growers and houses – many of which are represented in Business Traveller’s annual Cellars in the Sky awards – are all overseen by the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), known in the UK as the Champagne Bureau. Licences are strictly controlled by the bureau, which also carries out research into champagne (it has two experimental vineyards) and sues anyone who tries to use the brand to market products from outside the region. According to the CIVC, about 800 legal cases are currently open for protection of the name “champagne”.
While the Champagne region gives the wine its name, the drink itself has become an integral part of the area’s history and culture. Rheims Cathedral, where kings of France were once crowned, has a huge stained-glass window by master glass artist Jacques Simon showing the winemaking process. It begins with the vines, leads through to the harvest in September, the pressing of the grapes, the fermentation, the bottling of the wine, and finally the ageing in cellars deep underground.
The champagne-making process starts the same as for any wine – grapes are crushed to make juice, the natural yeast in which turns the sugar content into alcohol. A number of wines are then mixed together. Most champagne is non-vintage, so is blended from multiple wines from different years. However, if wine from a particular year is thought to be of a superior quality, it can be made into a vintage – it is likely still to be a blend, but with a minimum of 85 per cent taken from that year. While non-vintage champagnes need only be aged for 15 months, vintage fizz needs at least three years to allow it to develop a more complex flavour.
The vital difference between wine and champagne is that once it is bottled, a small amount of extra yeast is added, along with some sugar. A crown cap, similar to a beer bottle top, is then fitted, which is later removed and replaced with the familiar mushroom-shaped cork and wire muselet. Over several weeks, the yeast consumes the sugar and produces carbon dioxide, which is what makes the champagne fizzy. The yeast then dies and the wine is placed in underground cellars to age.
Next is the dégorgement (or disgorgement), when the yeast sediment is removed. To do this, the champagne is transferred to a riddling rack (reputed to have been invented by Madame Clicquot, founder of the Veuve Clicquot champagne house), which traditionally is two pieces of wood with bottle-sized holes, nailed together at the top to form an A-frame. The bottles are put into the holes at a 45-degree angle, cap down, and are then turned 90 degrees each day for at least six weeks. The person that does this job is called a “riddler”, and they can turn up to 60,000 bottles in a day. This process makes the yeast settle at the top, leaving the wine clear and golden.
The final stage is to take out the yeast itself. By freezing the top of the bottle, the yeast is trapped to form a sort of plug, which can then be easily removed. A small amount of champagne is lost, so the volume is replaced with some from a previous year. At this point, some sugar is also added, a varying amount depending on the type of champagne – for example, brut has less than 15g of sugar per litre added, while demi-sec has between 33g and 50g.
At last, the wine is ready to drink. When you buy a bottle of champagne, it has already been matured in the cellar so should be drunk within a few years. When tasting it, it’s worth bearing in mind that champagne makers use only wine made from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes. Each of the three has a different character, which means the art of champagne-making is all in the blend. If a champagne is labeled blanc de blancs, it means it is made only from chardonnay grapes, while blanc de noirs is made from black grapes, either pinot noir or pinot meunier, or a mix of the two.
Violaine de Caffarelli, an oenologue (or wine-making expert) for the CIVC, explains what the different grapes bring to the mix: “You are looking for something that is easy to drink. The pinot noir provides the structure of champagne, while the chardonnay adds that vital acidity, as well as citrus notes.” Pinot meunier, meanwhile, adds body and richness. “In blending champagne, you are looking for a balance between acidity and sugar,” she says. “There must be some acidity, as this gives the wine its sense of freshness.” So next time you savour a glass on board, take a moment to consider how it got there.
– Visit champagne-civc.co.uk.
See our next issue for the results of the Cellars in the Sky 2009 awards.
Food parings
Champagne is often drunk as an aperitif, but also works well with food – try these combinations…
- Blanc de blancs – fish, sushi
- Young blanc de blancs – oysters
- Brut natural (less than 3g of sugar per litre added) – shellfish
- Vintage rosé champagne (has more body and fruitiness) – duck
- Old vintage blanc de blancs (has a nutty edge) – cheese
- Champagne with a high percentage of pinot noir (has more structure) – beef
- Non-vintage rosé champagne – simple desserts
- Demi-sec (with 33-50g of sugar per litre added) – creamy desserts
- But, champagne and chocolate simply don’t mix!
Champagne houses to visit
Villa Demoiselle
Based in Rheims, about 130km from Paris, Villa Demoiselle is the official home of Champagne Vranken. The art nouveau and art deco interior has recently been restored and features a stunning fireplace by sculptor Paul Alexandre Dumas and stained glass by the Simon family. You can also try some of Champagne Vranken’s Cuvée Demoiselle, a feminine champagne made from the very first press of grapes, which contains 70 per cent chardonnay so tastes fresh and citrusy. Visit champagne-demoiselle.fr, vrankenpommery.fr
Leclerc Briant
Based in Epernay, about 30km from Rheims, this small, family-run champagne house is working towards becoming biodynamic, which means the vineyard must rely on home-produced compost, and external inputs are kept to a minimum, so chemical fertilisers, for example, are avoided. The cellars are traditional, with row upon row of riddling racks. Try the beautifully blended Les Chèvres Pierreuses, meaning “the Stony Goat”, or La Ravinne, a good aperitif champagne made entirely from pinot meunier. Visit leclercbriant.com
Veuve Clicquot
The lady on all Veuve Clicquot bottles is Madame Barbe-Nicole Clicquot. An astute businesswoman, she inherited a small champagne business from her husband (veuve means widow), bought some of the best vineyards in the region, perfected the méthode champenoise and succeeded in selling her product to Russian royalty. At the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin visitor centre you can investigate the 40km of underground chalk-walled cellars and see the oldest unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot, dating from 1893.
Visit veuve-clicquot.com
