THE CHAMPAGNE CHICK

There are many Champagne terms and navigating through them can sometimes be daunting.  Let’s try and demystify some of these terms in the ABC’s of Champagne terms …

Assemblage literally means what you think it does … assembling the Champagne. The base wine is blended from many different component parts and certain producers construct cuvées with anything from a few base wines up to hundreds of different base wines. Producers have developed their own distinct styles over the years and assemblage is a way of achieving their style consistency year after year.

Bâtonnage is when the lees is stirred, putting it into suspension which gives more richness to the wine, although it is not a very common practice in Champagne and only performed by a few producers.

Chef de Cave The cellarmaster or winemaker is the head of the winemaking team.  At bigger houses, the Chef de Cave could lead a winemaking team that could include numerous winemakers.

Dosage is the amount of sugar that is added to Champagne after disgorgement.  The amount of sugar determines the category of the Champagne, from Extra Brut to Doux, etc., with the bulk of Champagne today being dosed as Brut.

Extra Brut refers to a blend that has no more than 6gr of sugar per lt.  In some instances it contains no sugar at all and is often also referred to as Brut Nature.

Fermentation is the conversion of sugar into alcohol by the yeast.  Champagne typically undergoes 2 fermentations, firstly in the tank or barrel and secondly in the bottle.

Grand Cru is the highest classification that can be bestowed on a village.  Villages are classified to determine the pricing of grapes, and for a Champagne to be labelled as Grand Cru the grapes must only be from vineyards in one of these villages.  There are 17 Grand Cru villages in Champagne, i.e. Ambonnay, Avize, Aÿ, Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Bouzy, Chouilly, Cramant, Louvois, Mailly-Champagne, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Oiry, Puisieulx, Sillery, Tours-sur-Marne, Verzenay and Verzy.

Harvesting of Champagne grapes is done entirely by hand and about 120,000 pickers are contracted for the harvest. Working in teams of 4 per hectare, they have about a 3-week window in which to harvest, after that the grapes are beyond their best. However, just to add extra pressure to the harvest, all Champagne grapes reach ideal ripeness at about the same time.

International variety refers to a grape varietal used in the making of Champagne, like Chardonnay, that is grown in nearly every major wine region in the world.

Jeroboam is a 3 lt bottle of Champagne, which is the equivalent of 4 standard bottles.  This is generally the largest size bottle where Champagne is fermented in the bottle.  For bigger sizes, the finished wine is normally decanted from smaller bottles.

Kosher Champagne is produced under the supervision of a rabbi so that it is ritually pure.  Notable producers of kosher Champagne is Laurent-Perrier and Drappier.

Liqueur de Tirage is a blend of wine, yeast and sugar that is added at bottling to induce second fermentation of Champagne.

Millésime refers to a vintage year or a vintage Champagne.  In order for a house to state Millésime on their label all wine must come from a single year’s harvest.

Négociant is a Champagne producer that bottles and sells their Champagnes using grapes purchased from growers.  They often own their own vineyards as well, but sometimes not enough to meet their demand and would then purchase grapes from growers.  Champagnes produced by a négociant will be labelled NM, or négociant-manipulant.

Organic Champagne is Champagne that is produced without the presence of any synthetic products such as pesticides, herbicides or other chemical products.  Champagne Fleury is considered one of the leading pioneers in organic practices.

Prestige Cuvée is sometimes also called a tête de cuvée, and is generally the most exclusive (and often most expensive) Champagne in a house’s portfolio.  Prestige Cuvées you may be familiar with include Louis Roederer Cristal, Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne and the first ever Prestige Cuvée of all being Dom Pérignon by Moët & Chandon.

Q … can’t find anything here … help me out.

Remuage or Riddling is the process of turning and tilting Champagne bottles in a riddling rack in order for the sediment to work its way down into the neck of the bottle in preparation for disgorgement.  A skilled ‘remueur’ can turn roughly 40,000-50,000 bottles per day.

Saignée is a method used in the production of rosé Champagne whereby the pink colour is obtained by leaving the grapes to macerate on the skins, as opposed to the method where a small percentage of still red wine is added to the blend to achieve the right colour.

Terroir is the environment in which Champagne is produced and include factors such as soil, climate and topography contributing to the uniqueness of Champagne.

Ungrafted Vines are vines that are on their original rootstocks, however, because of the widespread incidence of phylloxera in Champagne this is very rare and the majority of vines are grafted onto American rootstocks.  In the simplests of definitions phylloxera is a microscopic louse or aphid, that lives on and eats the roots of grape vines.

Vignoble is essentially an area of vineyard and can refer to a particular producer’s vignoble covering a number of hectares or could in reference to the vignoble of Champagne mean the total vineyard area of Champagne.

Winemaker – in smaller producers the winemaker would be at the head of the winemaking team,  whereas in bigger houses teams are much larger and could include numerous winemakers under direction of the Chef de Cave.

Xylem is the woody tissue of a vine responsible for the transport of water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves.

Yeast is a micro-organism which occurs naturally in the air and on the ground especially in areas where fruit is grown.  Yeast metabolises natural sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide through fermentation and when most of the natural sugar in grape juice has been converted into alcohol, it is legally a wine.

Zymology is the science of fermentation.

And there you have it, the ABC’s of Champagne.  I’ve only picked out a few, there are obviously 101 other Champagne terms.  Oh, and if you find that elusive “Q” … let me know.

Pop, fizz, clink
The Champagne Chick
xo