Although the French monk Dom Perignon did not invent champagne, it is true he developed many advances in the production of this beverage, including holding the cork in place with a wire collar to withstand the fermentation pressure. In France, the first sparkling Champagne was created accidentally. Even when it was deliberately produced as a sparkling wine, Champagne was for a very long time made by the méthode rurale, where the wine was bottled before the first and only fermentation had finished. Champagne did not utilize the so-called méthode rurale until the 19th century, 300 years after Christopher Merret documented the process.

Champagne first gained world renown because of its association with the anointment of French kings. Royalty from throughout Europe spread the message of the unique sparkling wine from Champagne and its association with luxury and power. The leading manufacturers devoted considerable energy to creating a history and identity for their wine, associating it and themselves with nobility and royalty. Through advertising and packaging they sought to associate champagne with high luxury, festivities and rites of passage. Their efforts coincided with an emerging middle class that was looking for ways to spend its money on symbols of upward mobility.

In 1866 the famous entertainer and star of his day, George Leybourne, began a career of making celebrity endorsements for Champagne. The Champagne maker Moët commissioned him to write and perform songs extolling the virtues of Champagne, especially as a reflection of taste, affluence, and the good life. He also agreed to drink nothing but Champagne in public. Leybourne was seen as highly sophisticated and his image and efforts did much to establish Champagne as an important element in enhancing social status. It was a marketing triumph, the results of which endure to this day.

In the 1800s Champagne was noticeably sweeter than modern Champagne is today, with the Russians preferring Champagne as sweet as 300 grams per litre. The trend towards drier Champagne began when Perrier-Jouët decided not to sweeten his 1846 vintage prior to exporting it to London. The designation Brut Champagne, the modern Champagne, was created for the British in 1876. [5]

Champagne and the law

Main article: Champagne (wine region)

Regardless of the legal requirements for labeling, extensive education efforts by the Champagne region and the use of alternative names by non-Champagne quality sparkling wine producers, some consumers continue to regard champagne as a generic term for white sparkling wines, regardless of origin. The laws described here were intended to reserve the term as a designation of origin. In the European Union and many other countries, the name Champagne is legally protected by the Treaty of Madrid (1891) designating only the sparkling wine produced in the eponymous region and adhering to the standards defined for it an Appellation d'origine contrôlée; the right was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. This legal protection has been accepted by numerous other countries worldwide. Most recently Canada, Australia and Chile signed agreements with Europe that will limit the use of the term Champagne to only those products produced in the Appellation of Champagne in these countries. The United States has created a legal loophole that permits wineries to use the semi-generic term champagne on the label of their sparkling wines but does not allow new producers to use the term. [6].

Even the term méthode champenoise or champagne method was forbidden consequent to an EU court decision in 1994[7]. As of 2005, the description most often legally used for sparkling wines not from Champagne yet using the second fermentation in the bottle process is méthode traditionnelle. Sparkling wines are produced worldwide, and many producers use special terms to define them: Spain uses Cava, Italy designates it spumante, and South Africa uses Cap Classique. An Italian sparkling wine made from the Muscat grape uses the DOCG Asti. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other French wine regions cannot use the name Champagne, i.e. Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant. In addition, most quality producers refuse to use the term "Champagne" on their sparkling wines even if their countries' laws do not explicitly forbid such use.

Other sparkling wines not from Champagne sometimes use the term "sparkling wine" on their label, while most countries have labeling laws preventing use of the word Champagne on any wine not from that region. Some – including the United States – permit wine producers to use the name “champagne” as a semi-generic name if they have used it before March 10, 2006. The term is banned from all new labels in the United States. One reason American wine producers are allowed to use European wine names is that the Treaty of Versailles, despite President Wilson's signature, was not ratified by the U.S. Senate. The Treaty of Versailles included a clause limiting the German wine industry and allowing use of the word Champagne only for wines from the Champagne region (the site of WWI battles). As the U.S. Senate did not ratify the Treaty, this agreement was never officially respected in the United States.[citation needed]

Sparkling wines mislabeled Champagne can and often are seized and destroyed by legal authorities. [8] The destruction often is completed using heavy machinery. [1]

Current U.S. regulations require that what is defined as a semi-generic name (Champagne) shall only appear on a wine's label if the appellation of the actual place of origin appears and the label was approved by the Federal Government before March 10, 1996 [9]. As US appellations can be quite general, many US sparkling wines use the terms "California champagne," "New York champagne" or even the more general "American champagne."

The Champagne winemaking community, under the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne, has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine produced in the region to protect its economic interests. They include codification of the most suitable growing places; the most suitable grape types (most Champagne is a blend of up to three grape varieties — chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier — though five other varieties are allowed); and a lengthy set of requirements specifying most aspects of viticulture. This includes pruning, vineyard yield, the degree of pressing, and the time that wine must remain on its lees before bottling. It can also limit the release of Champagne to market to maintain prices. Only when a wine meets these requirements may it be labeled Champagne. The rules agreed upon by the CIVC are submitted for the INAO's final approval.

The government organization that controls wine appellations in France, the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, is preparing to make the largest revision of the region's legal boundaries since 1927, in response to economic pressures. With soaring demand and limited production of grapes, Champagne houses say the rising price could produce a consumer backlash that would harm the industry for years into the future. That, along with political pressure from villages that want to be included in the expanded boundaries, led to the move. [10]

The village of Champagne, Switzerland has traditionally made a still wine labeled as "Champagne", the earliest records of viticulture dated to 1657. In an accord with the EU, the Swiss government conceded in 1999 that by 2004 the village would phase out use of the name. Sales dropped from 110,000 bottles a year to 32,000 after the change. In April 2008 the villagers resolved to the fight against the restriction following a Swiss open-air vote.[11]

Production

Main article: Champagne production

Méthode Champenoise is the traditional method by which Champagne (and some sparkling wine) is produced. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast (usually Saccharomyces cerevisiae, although each brand has its own secret recipe) and several grams of rock sugar. According to the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée a minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop all the flavour. For years where the harvest is exceptional, a millesimé is declared. This means that the champagne will be very good and has to mature for at least 3 years. During this time the champagne bottle is sealed with a crown cap similar to that used on beer bottles.

After ageing, the bottle is manipulated, either manually or mechanically, in a process called remuage (riddling, in English), so that the lees settle in the neck of the bottle. After chilling the bottles, the neck is frozen, and the cap removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the ice containing the lees, and the bottle is quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide in solution. Some syrup is added to maintain the level within the bottle. The process described above is the industrial one, the manual one is in fact no more used, it relied on the skills of the wine maker able to get rid of the lees that had accumulated just under the cap with as little wine as possible.

Champagne producers

Main article: List of champagne producers


There are more than one hundred champagne houses and 15,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) in Champagne. These companies manage some 32,000 hectares of vineyards in the region and employ more than 10,000 people.
An Edwardian English advert for Champagne, listing honours and royal drinkers
An Edwardian English advert for Champagne, listing honours and royal drinkers

Annual sales by all producers total more than 300 million yearly bottles, roughly €4.3 billion. Roughly two-thirds of these sales are made by the large champagne houses with their grandes marques (major brands). Fifty-eight percent (58%) of total production is sold in France, and the remaining 42% exported worldwide – primarily to the UK, the U.S., Germany, and Belgium. Generally, champagne producers collectively hold stock of about 1 billion bottles being matured, some three years of sales volume.

The type of champagne producer can be identified from the abbreviations followed by the official number on the bottle:

* NM: Négociant manipulant. These companies (including the majority of the larger brands) buy grapes and make the wine
* CM: Coopérative de manipulation. Co-operatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together
* RM: Récoltant manipulant. A grower that also makes wine from its own grapes (a maximum of 5% of purchased grapes is permitted). Note that co-operative members who take their bottles to be disgorged at the co-op can now label themselves as RM instead of RC.
* SR: Société de récoltants. An association of growers making a shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative
* RC: Récoltant coopérateur. A co-operative member selling Champagne produced by the co-operative under its own name and label
* MA: Marque auxiliaire or Marque d'acheteur. A brand name unrelated to the producer or grower; the name is owned by someone else, for example a supermarket
* ND: Négociant distributeur. A wine merchant selling under his own name

Marketing Champagne

See also: Champagne in popular culture

The popularity of Champagne is attributed to the success of Champagne producers in marketing the wine. Champagne houses promoted the wine's image as a royal and aristocratic drink. Laurent-Perrier's advertisements in late 1890 boasted their Champagne was the favorite of King Leopold II of Belgium, George I of Greece, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, and John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham, among other nobles, knights, and military officers. Despite this royal prestige, Champagne houses also portrayed Champagne as a luxury enjoyable by anyone, for any occasion.[12] This strategy worked, and, by the turn of the twentieth century, the majority of Champagne drinkers were middle class.[13]

In the 19th century, Champagne producers made a concentrated effort to market their wine to women. This was in stark contrast to the traditionally "male aura" that the wines of France had—particularly Burgundy and Bordeaux. Laurent-Perrier again took the lead in this area with advertisements touting their wine's favour with the Countess of Dudley, the wife of the 9th Earl of Stamford, the wife of the Baron Tollemache, and the opera singer Adelina Patti. Champagne labels were designed with images of romantic love and marriage as well as other special occasions that were deemed important to women, such as the baptism of a child.[14]

In some advertisements, the Champagne houses catered to political interest such as the labels that appeared on different brands on bottles commemorating the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789. On some labels there were flattering images of Marie-Antoinette that appealed to the conservative factions of French citizens that viewed the former queen as a martyr. On other labels there were stirring images of Revolutionary scenes that appealed to the liberal left sentiments of French citizens. As World War I loomed, Champagne houses put images of soldiers and countries' flags on their bottles, customizing the image for each country to which the wine was imported. During the Dreyfus Affair, one Champagne house released a Champagne Antijuif with anti-Semitic advertisements to take advantage the wave of anti-Semitism that hit half of France.[15]

Use in society

Champagne is typically drunk during celebrations. For example Tony Blair held a champagne reception to celebrate London winning the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games[16].

It is also used to launch ships when a bottle is smashed over the hull during the ship's launch. If the bottle fails to break this is often thought to be bad luck.

Varieties

Champagne is a single Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. Grapes must be the white Chardonnay, or the black Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier. Also permitted but rare in usage are Pinot Blanc, Arbane and Petit Meslier.

The black Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier give the wine its length and backbone. They are predominantly grown in two areas - the Montagne de Reims and the Valée de la Marne. The Montagne de Reims run east-west to the south of Reims, in northern Champagne. They are notable for north-facing chalky slopes that derive heat from the warm winds rising from the valleys below. The River Marne runs west-east through Champagne, south of the Montagne de Reims. The Valée de la Marne contains south-facing chalky slopes. Chardonnay gives the wine its acidity and biscuit flavour. The majority of Chardonnay is grown in a north-south-running strip to the south of Epernay, called the Côte des Blanc, including the villages of Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-Sur-Oger. These are east-facing vineyards, with terroir similar to the Côte de Beaune. The various terroirs account for the differences in grape characteristics and explain the appropriateness of blending juice from different grape varieties and geographical areas within Champagne, to get the desired style for each Champagne house.

Most Champagnes are made from a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, for example 60%/40%. Blanc de blanc (white of white) Champagnes are made from 100% Chardonnay. Possibly the most exquisite, and definitely the most expensive of these is grown in a single Premier cru vineyard in Le Mesnil-Sur-Oger for Salon. Blanc de noir (white of black) Champagne is pressed from 100% Pinot Noir or black grapes, using a special quick-pressing, so that the black colour of the skin does not stain the vin de presse (pressed grape juice).

Champagne is typically light in color even if it is produced with red grapes, because the juice is extracted from the grapes using a gentle process that minimizes the amount of time the juice spends in contact with the skins, which is what gives red wine its colour. Rosé wines are produced throughout France by leaving the clear juice of black grapes to macerate on its skins for a brief time. Rosé Champagne is notable as it is the only wine that allows the production of Rosé by the addition a small amount of red wine during blending. This ensures a predictable and reproducible colour, allowing a constant Rosé colour from year-to-year. The amount of sugar (dosage) added after the second fermentation and aging also varies:

* Brut Natural or Brut Zéro (less than 3 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Extra Brut (less than 6 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Brut (less than 15 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Extra Sec or Extra Dry (12 to 20 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Sec (17 to 35 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Demi-Sec (33 to 50 grams of sugar per liter)[17]
* Doux (more than 50 grams of sugar per liter)[17]

The most common is brut, although throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century Champagne was generally much sweeter than what we see today.

Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend of years (the exact blend is only mentioned on the label by a few growers), while that produced from a single vintage is labelled with the year and Millésimé.

Many Champagnes are produced from bought-in grapes by well known brands such as Veuve Clicquot or Mumm.

Blanc de noirs

Blanc de noirs is a French term (literally "white of blacks") for a white wine produced entirely from black grapes. It is often encountered in Champagne, where a number of houses have followed the lead of Bollinger's prestige cuvée Vieilles Vignes Françaises in introducing a cuvée made from either Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a blend of the two (these being the only two black grapes permitted within the Champagne AOC appellation). Although Bollinger's wine is famed for its intense richness and full-bodied nature, this has more to do with the way the grapes are planted and when they are harvested than any intrinsic property of blanc de noirs Champagne, which is often little different from cuvées including a proportion of Chardonnay.

Blanc de blancs

Conversely, blanc de blancs means "white of whites" and is used to designate champagnes made only from Chardonnay grapes. The term is occasionally used in other sparkling wine-producing regions, usually to denote Chardonnay-only wines rather than any sparkling wine made from white grape varieties.

Prestige cuvée

A prestige cuvée, or cuvée de prestige, is a proprietary blended wine (usually a Champagne) that is considered to be the top of a producer's range. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.

The original prestige cuvée was Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, launched in 1936 with the 1921 vintage. Until then, Champagne houses produced different cuvées of varying quality, but a top-of-the-range wine produced to the highest standards (and priced accordingly) was a new idea. In fact, Louis Roederer had been producing Cristal since 1876, but this was strictly for the private consumption of the Russian tsar.

Cristal was made publicly available with the 1945 vintage. Then came Taittinger's Comtes de Champagne (first vintage 1952), and Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle 'La Cuvée' in 1960, a blend of three vintages (1952, 1953, and 1955). In the last three decades of the twentieth century, most Champagne houses followed these with their own prestige cuvées, often named after notable people with a link to that producer (Veuve Clicquot's La Grande Dame, the nickname of the widow of the house's founder's son; Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, named for the British prime minister; and Laurent-Perrier's Cuvée Alexandra rosé, to name just three examples), and presented in non-standard bottle shapes (following Dom Pérignon's lead with its eighteenth-century revival design).

The Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne

Main article: Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne

All of the over 15,000 growers, cooperatives and over 300 houses that are central to producing Champagne are members of the Comite Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), established in 1941 under the auspices of the French government (now represented by the Ministry of Agriculture). This organization has a system in which both the houses and the growers are represented at all levels. This includes a co-presidency where a grower representative and a representative of the houses share the running of the organization. This system is designed to ensure that the CIVC's primary mission, to promote and protect Champagne and those who produce it, is done in a manner that represents the interests of all involved. This power structure has played an important role in the success of Champagne worldwide and the integrity of the appellation itself.

Bubbles

See also: Carbonation

Bubbles from rosé champagne
Bubbles from rosé champagne

An initial burst of effervescence occurs when the champagne contacts the dry glass on pouring. These bubbles may form on imperfections in the glass that facilitate nucleation or on cellulose fibres left over from the wiping/drying process as shown by Gérard Liger-Belair, Richard Marchal, and Philippe Jeandel with a high-speed video camera.[18][19] . However, after the initial rush, these naturally occurring imperfections are typically too small to consistently act as nucleation points as the surface tension of the liquid smooths out these minute irregularities.

"Contrary to a generally accepted idea, nucleation sites are not located on irregularities of the glass itself. The length-scale of glass and crystal irregularities is far below the critical radius of curvature required for the non-classical heterogeneous nucleation." G. Liger-Belair et al [20]

The nucleation sites that act as a source for the ongoing effervescence are not natural imperfections in the glass, but actually occur where the glass has been etched by the manufacturer or the customer. This etching is typically done with acid, a laser, or a glass etching tool from a craft shop to provide nucleation sites for continuous bubble formation (note that not all glasses are etched in this way)

In May 2008, the New York Academy of Sciences hosted a lecture on the science behind the bubbles in champagne given by Gérard Liger-Belair. It was later released as a Science of Champagne podcast.

Dom Pérignon was originally charged by his superiors at the Abbey of Hautvillers to get rid of the bubbles since the pressure in the bottles caused many of them to burst in the cellar. [21] As sparkling wine production increased in the early 1700s, cellar workers would have to wear heavy iron mask that resembled a baseball catcher's mask to prevent injury from spontaneously bursting bottles. The disturbance caused by one bottle's disintegration could cause a chain reaction, with it being routine for cellars to lose 20-90% of their bottles to instability. The mysterious circumstance surrounding the then unknown process of fermentation and carbonic gas caused some critics to call the sparkling creations "The Devil's Wine". [22]

Champagne bottles

For more details on this topic, see Wine bottle.

Side-by-side comparison of champagne bottles. (L to R) On ladder: magnum (1.5 litres), full (0.75 litre), half (0.375 litre), quarter (0.1875 litre). On floor: Balthazar (12 litres), Salmanazar (9 litres), Methuselah (6 litres), Jeroboam (3 litres)
Side-by-side comparison of champagne bottles. (L to R) On ladder: magnum (1.5 litres), full (0.75 litre), half (0.375 litre), quarter (0.1875 litre). On floor: Balthazar (12 litres), Salmanazar (9 litres), Methuselah (6 litres), Jeroboam (3 litres)

Champagne is mostly fermented in two sizes of bottles, standard bottles (750 mL), and magnums (1.5 L). In general, magnums are thought to be higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume to surface area favors the creation of appropriately-sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. Other bottle sizes, named for Biblical figures, are generally filled with Champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums.

Sizes larger than Jeroboam (3.0 L) are rare. Primat sized bottles (27 L) - and as of 2002 Melchizedek sized bottles (30 L) - are exclusively offered by the House Drappier. The same names are used for bottles containing wine and port; however Jeroboam, Rehoboam and Methuselah refer to different bottle volumes. Unique sizes have been made for special occasions and people, the most notable example perhaps being the 20 fluid ounce / 60 cL. bottle (Imperial pint) made specially for Sir Winston Churchill by Pol Roger. In order to see a side-by-side comparisen, see this site: Champagne sizes

Champagne corks
Corking a Champagne Bottle: 1855 engraving of the manual method
Corking a Champagne Bottle: 1855 engraving of the manual method

Champagne corks are built from several sections and are referred to as aglomerated corks. The mushroom shape that occurs in the transition is a result of the bottom section, which is in contact with the wine, being composed of two stacked discs of pristine cork, cemented to the upper portion which is a conglomerate of ground cork and glue. Prior to insertion, a sparkling wine cork is almost 50% larger than the opening of the bottle. Originally they start as a cylinder and are compressed prior to insertion into the bottle. Over time their compressed shape becomes more permanent and the distinctive "mushroom" shape becomes more apparent.

The aging of the champagne post disgorgement can to some degree be told by the cork, as the longer it has been in the bottle the less it returns to its original cylinder shape.

Serving Champagne

Champagne is usually served in a champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl, thin sides and an etched bottom. Riedel makes such glasses for vintage and non-vintage Champagnes. Other manufacturers have copied Riedel's design and make similar, more affordable flutes. Another notable manufacturer is Schott Zwiesel. The Victorian coupe (according to legend, approximating the breast of Marie Antoinette) is not recommended as it disperses the nose and over-oxygenates the wine. More information is found in Champagne stemware.

Additionally one should hold the flute by the stem or base as opposed to the bowl and refrain from overzealous clinking.

Alternatively, when tasting Champagne, a big red wine glass (e.g; a glass for Bordeaux) can be used, as the aroma spreads better in the larger volume of the glass. Glasses should not be overfilled: flutes should be filled only to ⅔ of the glass, and big red wine glasses not more than ⅓ of the glass.

Champagne is always served cold, its ideal drinking temperature at 7 to 9 °C (43 to 48 °F). Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water before opening. Champagne buckets are made specifically for this purpose, and often have a larger volume than standard wine-cooling buckets (to accommodate the larger bottle, and more water and ice).

The ice bucket only serves to chill the wine prior to opening. Chilling allows one to remove the cork without losing any of the wine and carbonation. Once opened the Champagne should not be returned to the ice bucket but allowed to 'warm' so that its flavor profile can be tasted more apparently.

Champagne etiquette

In Australia, Champagne and other sparkling wine, is sometimes served with a cut or whole strawberry inside the flute, thought to enhance the flavor. In France, an alcoholic fruit liqueur such as crème de Cassis is added to create kir royal.

The deliberate spraying of Champagne has become an integral part of some sports trophy presentations, beginning with the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, this opening will waste much of the champagne. To reduce the risk of spilling Champagne and/or turning the cork into a dangerous projectile, a Champagne bottle can be opened by holding the cork and rotating the bottle (rather than the cork). By using a 45 degree angle, the surface of the champagne has the maximum surface area, thus minimizing the excessive bubbling. The cork can ease out with a sigh or a whisper rather than a pop. The flavor will be largely the same, irrespective of the method used, but the volume left in the bottle will differ. The whispering noise made while opening the bottle is sometimes named "le soupir amoureux" (loving whisper).

A sabre can be used to open a Champagne bottle with great ceremony. This technique is called sabrage.

Health benefits

In April 18, 2007, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published the results of a recent joint study by the University of Reading and University of Cagliari that showed moderate consumptions of Champagne may help the brain cope with the trauma of stroke, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. The research noted that the high amount of the antioxidant polyphenols in sparkling wine can help prevent deterioration of brain cells due to oxidative stress. During the study scientist exposed two groups of mice with blanc de blancs (100% Chardonnay composition) and blanc de noir (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier based) and a control group with no exposure to Champagne. All groups were then subjected to high levels of neurotoxicity similar to what the human brain experiences during inflammatory conditions. The study found that the groups pretreated with exposure to Champagne had the highest level of cell restoration compared to the group that wasn't. The study's co-authors noted that it was too early to conclusively say that drinking Champagne is beneficial to brain health but that the study does point researchers to more exploration in this area.[23]

Alcohol absorption

It is a common perception that people become drunk more quickly on champagne. It has been shown that alcohol is more rapidly absorbed when mixed with carbonated water, and this may explain this anecdotal assertion.[24]