Champagne is many things: Decadent, celebratory, dramatic, chic. The first image that comes to mind is a black-tie event—a gala, perhaps—where a woman wearing white elbow-length gloves tinkles her spoon against a Champagne flute to raise a toast. Champagne is delicious and complex yet, more than anything, it embodies a particular feeling. In a literal and metaphorical sense, it allows euphoria to bubble up inside of its drinker. Winemakers in Champagne, France would attribute this feeling to the art that is Champagne production. Like any famous painting, Champagne is a product of ingenious minds. It’s estimated that once a standard bottle of Champagne is opened, there are “approximately 100 million” (MacNeil, 187) bubbles in that bottle. Let’s talk about how these bubbles are brought to your table and why we celebrate them.

What Makes Champagne, Champagne?

Champagne comes exclusively from Champagne, France, a region known as “one of the coolest wine-producing areas in the world” (MacNeil, 174). There are many other delicious bubbly wines from all over the world, but if they don’t come from Champagne, France they are referred to as sparkling wines rather than Champagne. Champagne, France is a region that can cultivate lush Champagne as we know it for two reasons: Its cool northern climate and limestone-rich soils. The particular limestone found in Champagne, France is chalk, a type of limestone that is compatible with high-acid grapes and allows for “easy root penetration” (MacNeil, 179).

Also crucial for distinguishing Champagne is a critical moment in its production where the wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. This is a production technique for sparkling wines known as the Traditional Method, and it makes for tiny, crisp, effervescent bubbles. Other sparkling wines may use this method to mimic real Champagne, but all Champagne from Champagne, France is made in the Traditional Method.

The Grapes of Champagne

Champagne is made (mainly) using three grapes: chardonnay, pinot meunier, and pinot noir. The three grapes are manipulated by way of the winemaker to create still blends that are then transpired through time and a second fermentation in the bottle.

Chardonnay

The main white grape grown in the region.
Contributes zippiness and minerality to champagne

Pinot Meunier

The least age-efficient of Champagne’s three grapes.
Contributes fruitiness and body to champagne.

Pinot Noir

The more revered of Champagne’s two red grapes.
Contributes body, texture, and aroma.

Champagne Production: Beginning to End

The Champagne winemaker starts production by first making hundreds of still wines using chardonnay, pinot meunier, and pinot noir. These still wines are considered the base of Champagne. The grapes to create each still wine are harvested by hand and pressed. The juice is fermented in stainless steel vats or very old wooden barrels to avoid any oakiness.

After this first fermentation, base wines are blended and combined with “a small amount of yeasts plus a…combination of sugar and wine” (MacNeil, 185). The artistry of Champagne winemaking hinges on this part of the process. There is no way to know how these blends will taste until the entire process has come to fruition. Therefore, the winemaker “blends these base wines with an idea, an imagining of what the blended wine will taste like years later” (MacNeil, 181). These bottles of blends are capped and the second fermentation process can begin. Fermentation occurs when the yeasts eat the sugar and release carbon dioxide gas. As this happens in the bottle, the gas can’t escape which is what creates the bubbles we know and love.

After the second fermentation, bottles must rest for at least fifteen months—the legal standard. However, most producers allow the bottles to rest for much longer. The French call this “resting sur lie (on the yeasts)” (MacNeil, 185). This period of time has a grand impact on the wine, even after the second fermentation is complete. The yeasts often account for a Champagne’s “magical sense of creaminess, and a greater complexity” (MacNeil, 185).

The last—and riskiest—part of the process comes at the end when the yeasts must be removed from the bottle. If yeasts were left in the bottle, the Champagne’s color would be cloudy rather than clear. Therefore, a bottle must be riddled: “[T]urned upside down, then slightly rotated some twenty-five times” (MacNeil, 185). This slowly separates the yeasts from the wine and moves them to the neck of the bottle. Once all the yeasts have separated, the neck of the bottle and the yeasts inside of it are frozen while upside down. Then, the bottle is turned right-side-up so that the yeasts can explode out of the bottle and the Champagne can be corked for the last time. Before this final corking, winemakers might add what is called a dosage—or a bit of sugar—to the wine. This amount of sugar determines the sweetness of the Champagne.

Finally, the production is complete and you can finally drink a wine that only patience and precision can breed: Crisp, high-quality Champagne. Cheers!

Non-vintage, Vintage, and Prestige Cuvée

Now that the process of making Champagne has been covered, it’s good to have a baseline for what the words non-vintage, vintage, and prestige cuvée mean. Each word gets its meaning through a combination of where the grapes are from, what grapes are used, how they are blended, and how much time the bottles spend sur lie (on the yeasts).

Non-vintage

Non-vintage Champagne is a blend of wines from various vintages and often from various vineyards, usually done to match a house style of the winemaker. It’s the most affordable style because a non-vintage champagne can be made every year, regardless of the quality of that year’s harvest.

Vintage

Only the best grapes are used for vintage Champagnes. Vintage indicates that all the grapes in that bottle are from a single vintage or harvest, truly capturing the essence of that moment. Vintage champagnes can only be made in the very best years and thus are less common and more expensive than their non-vintage counterparts.

Prestige Cuvée

Prestige Cuvée gets its grapes from the best vineyards in Champagne, France. A blend of the best wines from the best vineyards, not necessarily all from the same harvest. It will spend four to ten years sur lie.

What is a “Grower” Champagne?

Grower (RM) Champagne is a type of Champagne where the winemaker is also the wine grower. There are two other ways that allow grapes to get to a producer: Co-op (CM) and Negotiants (NM). In comparison to Grower Champagne, Co-op and Negociant producers buy their grapes from growers all over Champagne, France.

Grower Champagne is very fun and especially trendy right now, but all three types of Champagne production are high-quality and delicious!

It’s Time to Pop Some Bottles (Quietly)!

If you ever watch someone open a bottle of bubbles in the shop, you’ll notice that they do it with great care. The pressure that builds up to create the infamous pop! is the same amount of pressure you would find in a car tire. When opening bottles of Champagne, the goal is actually to hear as little sound as possible, as quiet as a nun’s fart, as they say.

All this is to say that we will be popping bottles (quietly!) all weekend to celebrate Annual Champagne Day—our favorite day of the year! This is our annual TWO-day celebration of all things Champagne because, really, we just can’t get enough. We’ll be opening ten bottles on Friday and Saturday for this event, so grab your ticket for one of those days and let’s get bubbly!

Work Cited

MacNeil, Karen. The Wine Bible. 2nd ed., 2001. Workman Publishing, 2015.

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