The news that Russia is challenging the longstanding French right to exclusively use the term Champagne surprises me greatly. The most famous wine in the world and its terroir (the wine’s specific individual environmental factors) is not an area that I thought Vlad Putin would get involved in. However, the news of Russia’s challenge piqued my curiosity about the origins of French bubbly. It prompted me to delve into the origin, history, and definition of Champagne and its importance to the very fabric of French identity, regional pride, and global wine production. The following article provides a beginner’s guide to Champagne, its definition, history, idiosyncrasies, and production. It makes a great little primer if you want to know more about what the kerfuffle is all about! Defining Champagne and Its Protection by Law

Merriam Webster defines Champagne as “a white sparkling wine made in the old province of Champagne, France. Champagne is a historic region and former province of northeastern France west of Lorraine and north of Burgundy.” The Comite Champagne extends the definition to include why the grape and terroir of the Champagne region – and the sparkling wine produced – is protected by law. This ancient law is known as the Protection of the Champagne appellation and is acknowledged by most of the world, although interestingly, not by the USA. “Champagne is a unique winemaking region in France. Ninety miles northeast of Paris, the region’s climate, chalky soil, strict regulations, and long history of winemaking combine to produce a sparkling wine that can only be produced in one place: Champagne. “There are many sparkling wines produced around the world but the Champagne name can only be used on a label if the grapes and the wines produced, under strict controls, in the French region that bears the name Champagne.” While they often use pinot noir grapes, have bubbles and in general look and taste, the same, sparkling wine and Champagne wine are classed differently because of this Protection of Champagne appellation.  Every element of growth and production in the champagne industry, from the farmer in the fields, the winemaker, and the Champagne House which bottles and sells your Moet Chandon, Veuve, Pommery, or Dom Perignon. The Champagne region’s wine production is afforded the same protection of origin as Cognac (also France), or Rhum Agricole (Martinique). Sparkling wine can be produced and bottled anywhere else in the world, it just can’t be called French Champagne, by name or by style. It should also be noted that French champagne producers have invested their money, experience, and esteem to take the U.S. from a sparkling wine outpost to a force in global sparkling white and red wine. The History of Champagne

Winemaking in the region commenced as far back as the Roman Occupation, however, Champagne was initially a poor producer. The much more popular red wine struggled in the North (especially in comparison to Burgundy further south) due to the colder winter temperatures, which left thinner, weaker-bodied wines. Over time, the Champenois made sparkling wine by accident. Bubbles had formed from fermentation halting during winter, then starting again for a second time during spring, they released carbon dioxide within the bottle. At first, there were a lot of upset winemakers in the North, including the monk Dom Perignon, as bottles burst continually and people weren’t a fan of the wine. In the 1700s, the wealthy and noble adopted French Champagne (and took it across to Britain) as a trendy, interesting change of pace to still, which meant the great Champagne houses were born, provided they could make their bottles strong enough to withstand the process. Famous French Champagne

The Champagne industry is dominated by a handful of the leading winemakers, all with ties to early production. Each of them is individually known as a Champagne House – they represent some of the most notable brand labels in the world. The leading Houses offer as much as 500 years experience in Champagne vineyards and drinking champagne production, including:

Verve and Madame Clicquot Moet et Chandon Pommery Roederer G.H Mumm Dom Perignon

These brands are notable for their luxurious quality and prestige but often come with a hefty price tag to match each Champagne bottle. Types of Champagne The most popular type of the many Chardonnay-based drinking Champagnes is Brut Champagne, which is dry but rich with flavor and minerality while offering lovely carbonation levels and elusive fruit flavor. A “Blanc de Blancs” (white of whites) means the winemaker has crafted a white wine from a white grape. In Champagne that grape is the chardonnay varietal, while elsewhere it could be another type. The most famous region for Blanc de Blancs is the Côte des Blancs, south of Epernay. While white Champagne wine dominates, red wine grapes can be used to make a quality rose or red wine, usually moving towards the sweeter end of the taste spectrum (see below). Blanc de Noirs is champagne made using the two black-skinned varieties of the Champagne region – Meunier and Pinot Noir grape – or a mixture of the two. To make a French Rose Champagne, you can either bleed a red grape (saignee) or mix the red and white wine varieties together prior to the second fermentation. Much as with other wines,  there is vintage Champagne – the top-quality stuff that’s crafted within a certain year of production and then aged for three years en tirage (in the bottle). Non-vintage champagne can come from grapes of a different combination across years. Sweetness in Drinking Champagne

Each Champagne maker tends to use a different sweetness level in constructing their signature wine. There’s a range of different sweetness – where the sugar content or “dosage” dictates its type. Sweetness often breaks down along the following lines:

Brut Nature: The driest of Champagne expressions Extra Brut: A bone-dry Brut Champagne that is also popular as a sparkling white wine Brut Champagne: The most popular offering, that balances bubbles, minerality, and acidity with a semi-sweet flavor Extra Dry: Dry, but not as dry as Brut Champagne, and the fruit taste is more prevalent Dry: This is the designation where you’ll find the sweeter white grapes and rose wines Demi-sec: Sweet, typically a dessert sparkling wine with lower alcohol content Doux: Very sweet, also typically a dessert wine. Matches up with other bubbly dessert wines such as prosecco

Making French Champagne Method Champenoise (The Champagne Method) Also known as the traditional method, Methode champenoise is where sparkling wine is produced by undergoing a second fermentation process in the bottle. This secondary fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which gives the sparkling champagne its unmistakable bubbly mouthfeel. This Champagne Method originated in the French Champagne region, where they are protective of the terminology, method, and terroir. Despite that, most sparkling wine producers adopt some variation of this process to make sparkling white wine, rose, or red wine variations. Methode Rurale Methode rurale is an even older designation for sparkling white wine production than Champagne and is still under operation in the Limoux area in the south of France. The appellation there is called Blanquette de Limoux. There is no secondary fermentation – the carbon dioxide is produced in the bottle during the fermentation process. Our Top 3 Picks When it comes to buying Champagne, there are literally hundreds of different brands and styles at all manner of price points. To help make sure you get a top drop, here are our three favorite bottles you’re sure to enjoy. Best Buy1. Dom Perignon Vintage Champagne

  Check Price   Arguably the most recognizable French Vintage Champagne, this bubbly is light-bodied and dry, with a fresh, floral minerality redolent of grapefruit and stone fruits. The flagship of the Dom Perignon range, there are few bottles that compare in terms of style and cultural cachet – it’s the ultimate celebratory Champagne.

  1. Louis Roederer Cristal Brut

  Check Price   A tremendously decadent and visually stunning bottle of French Champagne, Cristal is a brilliant luxury bottle well suited to expansive gestures, whether dining, celebrating, or commiserating. With the ability to keep for some 20 years, Cristal Brut offers a dry white Champagne with notes of white fruit and a fantastic, sparkling minerality that belies its smooth texture.

  1. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label

  Check Price   This bottle of Veuve offers a great Brut blend champagne at an acceptable price for bottle popping and excitement. The signature house blend offers exceptional minerality and great carbonation without compromising the elements of fresh fruit, vanilla, and brioche accents.

Conclusion In its simplest form, figuring out what constitutes Champagne is easy. Does it come from the Champagne region of France? If so, it’s legally allowed to be Champagne, if not, it’s a sparkling wine from somewhere else. With that being said, defining, understanding, and gaining knowledge about Champagne and its history is a fascinating subject. This article is enough to start your journey, but there’s plenty more for you to learn about in greater detail!

See more about - The Best American Sparkling Wines To Try In 2021

The news that Russia is challenging the longstanding French right to exclusively use the term Champagne surprises me greatly. The most famous wine in the world and its terroir (the wine’s specific individual environmental factors) is not an area that I thought Vlad Putin would get involved in. However, the news of Russia’s challenge piqued my curiosity about the origins of French bubbly. It prompted me to delve into the origin, history, and definition of Champagne and its importance to the very fabric of French identity, regional pride, and global wine production. The following article provides a beginner’s guide to Champagne, its definition, history, idiosyncrasies, and production. It makes a great little primer if you want to know more about what the kerfuffle is all about! Defining Champagne and Its Protection by Law

Merriam Webster defines Champagne as “a white sparkling wine made in the old province of Champagne, France. Champagne is a historic region and former province of northeastern France west of Lorraine and north of Burgundy.” The Comite Champagne extends the definition to include why the grape and terroir of the Champagne region – and the sparkling wine produced – is protected by law. This ancient law is known as the Protection of the Champagne appellation and is acknowledged by most of the world, although interestingly, not by the USA. “Champagne is a unique winemaking region in France. Ninety miles northeast of Paris, the region’s climate, chalky soil, strict regulations, and long history of winemaking combine to produce a sparkling wine that can only be produced in one place: Champagne. “There are many sparkling wines produced around the world but the Champagne name can only be used on a label if the grapes and the wines produced, under strict controls, in the French region that bears the name Champagne.” While they often use pinot noir grapes, have bubbles and in general look and taste, the same, sparkling wine and Champagne wine are classed differently because of this Protection of Champagne appellation.  Every element of growth and production in the champagne industry, from the farmer in the fields, the winemaker, and the Champagne House which bottles and sells your Moet Chandon, Veuve, Pommery, or Dom Perignon. The Champagne region’s wine production is afforded the same protection of origin as Cognac (also France), or Rhum Agricole (Martinique). Sparkling wine can be produced and bottled anywhere else in the world, it just can’t be called French Champagne, by name or by style. It should also be noted that French champagne producers have invested their money, experience, and esteem to take the U.S. from a sparkling wine outpost to a force in global sparkling white and red wine. The History of Champagne

Winemaking in the region commenced as far back as the Roman Occupation, however, Champagne was initially a poor producer. The much more popular red wine struggled in the North (especially in comparison to Burgundy further south) due to the colder winter temperatures, which left thinner, weaker-bodied wines. Over time, the Champenois made sparkling wine by accident. Bubbles had formed from fermentation halting during winter, then starting again for a second time during spring, they released carbon dioxide within the bottle. At first, there were a lot of upset winemakers in the North, including the monk Dom Perignon, as bottles burst continually and people weren’t a fan of the wine. In the 1700s, the wealthy and noble adopted French Champagne (and took it across to Britain) as a trendy, interesting change of pace to still, which meant the great Champagne houses were born, provided they could make their bottles strong enough to withstand the process. Famous French Champagne

The Champagne industry is dominated by a handful of the leading winemakers, all with ties to early production. Each of them is individually known as a Champagne House – they represent some of the most notable brand labels in the world. The leading Houses offer as much as 500 years experience in Champagne vineyards and drinking champagne production, including:

Verve and Madame Clicquot Moet et Chandon Pommery Roederer G.H Mumm Dom Perignon

These brands are notable for their luxurious quality and prestige but often come with a hefty price tag to match each Champagne bottle. Types of Champagne The most popular type of the many Chardonnay-based drinking Champagnes is Brut Champagne, which is dry but rich with flavor and minerality while offering lovely carbonation levels and elusive fruit flavor. A “Blanc de Blancs” (white of whites) means the winemaker has crafted a white wine from a white grape. In Champagne that grape is the chardonnay varietal, while elsewhere it could be another type. The most famous region for Blanc de Blancs is the Côte des Blancs, south of Epernay. While white Champagne wine dominates, red wine grapes can be used to make a quality rose or red wine, usually moving towards the sweeter end of the taste spectrum (see below). Blanc de Noirs is champagne made using the two black-skinned varieties of the Champagne region – Meunier and Pinot Noir grape – or a mixture of the two. To make a French Rose Champagne, you can either bleed a red grape (saignee) or mix the red and white wine varieties together prior to the second fermentation. Much as with other wines,  there is vintage Champagne – the top-quality stuff that’s crafted within a certain year of production and then aged for three years en tirage (in the bottle). Non-vintage champagne can come from grapes of a different combination across years. Sweetness in Drinking Champagne

Each Champagne maker tends to use a different sweetness level in constructing their signature wine. There’s a range of different sweetness – where the sugar content or “dosage” dictates its type. Sweetness often breaks down along the following lines:

Brut Nature: The driest of Champagne expressions Extra Brut: A bone-dry Brut Champagne that is also popular as a sparkling white wine Brut Champagne: The most popular offering, that balances bubbles, minerality, and acidity with a semi-sweet flavor Extra Dry: Dry, but not as dry as Brut Champagne, and the fruit taste is more prevalent Dry: This is the designation where you’ll find the sweeter white grapes and rose wines Demi-sec: Sweet, typically a dessert sparkling wine with lower alcohol content Doux: Very sweet, also typically a dessert wine. Matches up with other bubbly dessert wines such as prosecco

Making French Champagne Method Champenoise (The Champagne Method) Also known as the traditional method, Methode champenoise is where sparkling wine is produced by undergoing a second fermentation process in the bottle. This secondary fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which gives the sparkling champagne its unmistakable bubbly mouthfeel. This Champagne Method originated in the French Champagne region, where they are protective of the terminology, method, and terroir. Despite that, most sparkling wine producers adopt some variation of this process to make sparkling white wine, rose, or red wine variations. Methode Rurale Methode rurale is an even older designation for sparkling white wine production than Champagne and is still under operation in the Limoux area in the south of France. The appellation there is called Blanquette de Limoux. There is no secondary fermentation – the carbon dioxide is produced in the bottle during the fermentation process. Our Top 3 Picks When it comes to buying Champagne, there are literally hundreds of different brands and styles at all manner of price points. To help make sure you get a top drop, here are our three favorite bottles you’re sure to enjoy. Best Buy1. Dom Perignon Vintage Champagne

  Check Price   Arguably the most recognizable French Vintage Champagne, this bubbly is light-bodied and dry, with a fresh, floral minerality redolent of grapefruit and stone fruits. The flagship of the Dom Perignon range, there are few bottles that compare in terms of style and cultural cachet – it’s the ultimate celebratory Champagne.

  1. Louis Roederer Cristal Brut

  Check Price   A tremendously decadent and visually stunning bottle of French Champagne, Cristal is a brilliant luxury bottle well suited to expansive gestures, whether dining, celebrating, or commiserating. With the ability to keep for some 20 years, Cristal Brut offers a dry white Champagne with notes of white fruit and a fantastic, sparkling minerality that belies its smooth texture.

  1. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label

  Check Price   This bottle of Veuve offers a great Brut blend champagne at an acceptable price for bottle popping and excitement. The signature house blend offers exceptional minerality and great carbonation without compromising the elements of fresh fruit, vanilla, and brioche accents.

Conclusion In its simplest form, figuring out what constitutes Champagne is easy. Does it come from the Champagne region of France? If so, it’s legally allowed to be Champagne, if not, it’s a sparkling wine from somewhere else. With that being said, defining, understanding, and gaining knowledge about Champagne and its history is a fascinating subject. This article is enough to start your journey, but there’s plenty more for you to learn about in greater detail!

See more about - The Best American Sparkling Wines To Try In 2021

The news that Russia is challenging the longstanding French right to exclusively use the term Champagne surprises me greatly. The most famous wine in the world and its terroir (the wine’s specific individual environmental factors) is not an area that I thought Vlad Putin would get involved in.

However, the news of Russia’s challenge piqued my curiosity about the origins of French bubbly. It prompted me to delve into the origin, history, and definition of Champagne and its importance to the very fabric of French identity, regional pride, and global wine production.

The following article provides a beginner’s guide to Champagne, its definition, history, idiosyncrasies, and production. It makes a great little primer if you want to know more about what the kerfuffle is all about!

Defining Champagne and Its Protection by Law

Merriam Webster defines Champagne as “a white sparkling wine made in the old province of Champagne, France. Champagne is a historic region and former province of northeastern France west of Lorraine and north of Burgundy.”

The Comite Champagne extends the definition to include why the grape and terroir of the Champagne region – and the sparkling wine produced – is protected by law. This ancient law is known as the Protection of the Champagne appellation and is acknowledged by most of the world, although interestingly, not by the USA.

“Champagne is a unique winemaking region in France. Ninety miles northeast of Paris, the region’s climate, chalky soil, strict regulations, and long history of winemaking combine to produce a sparkling wine that can only be produced in one place: Champagne.

“There are many sparkling wines produced around the world but the Champagne name can only be used on a label if the grapes and the wines produced, under strict controls, in the French region that bears the name Champagne.” While they often use pinot noir grapes, have bubbles and in general look and taste, the same, sparkling wine and Champagne wine are classed differently because of this Protection of Champagne appellation. 

Every element of growth and production in the champagne industry, from the farmer in the fields, the winemaker, and the Champagne House which bottles and sells your Moet Chandon, Veuve, Pommery, or Dom Perignon. The Champagne region’s wine production is afforded the same protection of origin as Cognac (also France), or Rhum Agricole (Martinique).

Sparkling wine can be produced and bottled anywhere else in the world, it just can’t be called French Champagne, by name or by style. It should also be noted that French champagne producers have invested their money, experience, and esteem to take the U.S. from a sparkling wine outpost to a force in global sparkling white and red wine.

The History of Champagne

Winemaking in the region commenced as far back as the Roman Occupation, however, Champagne was initially a poor producer. The much more popular red wine struggled in the North (especially in comparison to Burgundy further south) due to the colder winter temperatures, which left thinner, weaker-bodied wines.

Over time, the Champenois made sparkling wine by accident. Bubbles had formed from fermentation halting during winter, then starting again for a second time during spring, they released carbon dioxide within the bottle.

At first, there were a lot of upset winemakers in the North, including the monk Dom Perignon, as bottles burst continually and people weren’t a fan of the wine. In the 1700s, the wealthy and noble adopted French Champagne (and took it across to Britain) as a trendy, interesting change of pace to still, which meant the great Champagne houses were born, provided they could make their bottles strong enough to withstand the process.

Famous French Champagne

The Champagne industry is dominated by a handful of the leading winemakers, all with ties to early production. Each of them is individually known as a Champagne House – they represent some of the most notable brand labels in the world.

The leading Houses offer as much as 500 years experience in Champagne vineyards and drinking champagne production, including:

  • Verve and Madame Clicquot
  • Moet et Chandon
  • Pommery
  • Roederer
  • G.H Mumm
  • Dom Perignon

These brands are notable for their luxurious quality and prestige but often come with a hefty price tag to match each Champagne bottle.

Types of Champagne

The most popular type of the many Chardonnay-based drinking Champagnes is Brut Champagne, which is dry but rich with flavor and minerality while offering lovely carbonation levels and elusive fruit flavor. A “Blanc de Blancs” (white of whites) means the winemaker has crafted a white wine from a white grape. In Champagne that grape is the chardonnay varietal, while elsewhere it could be another type.

The most famous region for Blanc de Blancs is the Côte des Blancs, south of Epernay. While white Champagne wine dominates, red wine grapes can be used to make a quality rose or red wine, usually moving towards the sweeter end of the taste spectrum (see below).

Blanc de Noirs is champagne made using the two black-skinned varieties of the Champagne region – Meunier and Pinot Noir grape – or a mixture of the two. To make a French Rose Champagne, you can either bleed a red grape (saignee) or mix the red and white wine varieties together prior to the second fermentation.

Much as with other wines,  there is vintage Champagne – the top-quality stuff that’s crafted within a certain year of production and then aged for three years en tirage (in the bottle). Non-vintage champagne can come from grapes of a different combination across years.

Sweetness in Drinking Champagne

Each Champagne maker tends to use a different sweetness level in constructing their signature wine. There’s a range of different sweetness – where the sugar content or “dosage” dictates its type.

Sweetness often breaks down along the following lines:

  • Brut Nature: The driest of Champagne expressions
  • Extra Brut: A bone-dry Brut Champagne that is also popular as a sparkling white wine
  • Brut Champagne: The most popular offering, that balances bubbles, minerality, and acidity with a semi-sweet flavor
  • Extra Dry: Dry, but not as dry as Brut Champagne, and the fruit taste is more prevalent
  • Dry: This is the designation where you’ll find the sweeter white grapes and rose wines
  • Demi-sec: Sweet, typically a dessert sparkling wine with lower alcohol content
  • Doux: Very sweet, also typically a dessert wine. Matches up with other bubbly dessert wines such as prosecco

Making French Champagne

Method Champenoise (The Champagne Method)

Also known as the traditional method, Methode champenoise is where sparkling wine is produced by undergoing a second fermentation process in the bottle. This secondary fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which gives the sparkling champagne its unmistakable bubbly mouthfeel.

This Champagne Method originated in the French Champagne region, where they are protective of the terminology, method, and terroir. Despite that, most sparkling wine producers adopt some variation of this process to make sparkling white wine, rose, or red wine variations.

Methode Rurale

Methode rurale is an even older designation for sparkling white wine production than Champagne and is still under operation in the Limoux area in the south of France. The appellation there is called Blanquette de Limoux. There is no secondary fermentation – the carbon dioxide is produced in the bottle during the fermentation process.

Our Top 3 Picks

When it comes to buying Champagne, there are literally hundreds of different brands and styles at all manner of price points. To help make sure you get a top drop, here are our three favorite bottles you’re sure to enjoy.

Best Buy1. Dom Perignon Vintage Champagne

  Check Price   Arguably the most recognizable French Vintage Champagne, this bubbly is light-bodied and dry, with a fresh, floral minerality redolent of grapefruit and stone fruits. The flagship of the Dom Perignon range, there are few bottles that compare in terms of style and cultural cachet – it’s the ultimate celebratory Champagne.

  1. Louis Roederer Cristal Brut

  Check Price   A tremendously decadent and visually stunning bottle of French Champagne, Cristal is a brilliant luxury bottle well suited to expansive gestures, whether dining, celebrating, or commiserating. With the ability to keep for some 20 years, Cristal Brut offers a dry white Champagne with notes of white fruit and a fantastic, sparkling minerality that belies its smooth texture.

  1. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label

  Check Price   This bottle of Veuve offers a great Brut blend champagne at an acceptable price for bottle popping and excitement. The signature house blend offers exceptional minerality and great carbonation without compromising the elements of fresh fruit, vanilla, and brioche accents.

Conclusion

In its simplest form, figuring out what constitutes Champagne is easy. Does it come from the Champagne region of France? If so, it’s legally allowed to be Champagne, if not, it’s a sparkling wine from somewhere else.

 

Check Price

Arguably the most recognizable French Vintage Champagne, this bubbly is light-bodied and dry, with a fresh, floral minerality redolent of grapefruit and stone fruits. The flagship of the Dom Perignon range, there are few bottles that compare in terms of style and cultural cachet – it’s the ultimate celebratory Champagne.

A tremendously decadent and visually stunning bottle of French Champagne, Cristal is a brilliant luxury bottle well suited to expansive gestures, whether dining, celebrating, or commiserating. With the ability to keep for some 20 years, Cristal Brut offers a dry white Champagne with notes of white fruit and a fantastic, sparkling minerality that belies its smooth texture.

This bottle of Veuve offers a great Brut blend champagne at an acceptable price for bottle popping and excitement. The signature house blend offers exceptional minerality and great carbonation without compromising the elements of fresh fruit, vanilla, and brioche accents.

With that being said, defining, understanding, and gaining knowledge about Champagne and its history is a fascinating subject. This article is enough to start your journey, but there’s plenty more for you to learn about in greater detail!

See more about - The Best American Sparkling Wines To Try In 2021

See more about - The Best American Sparkling Wines To Try In 2021