Champagne

Champagne, sparkling wine produced by a traditional method in the Champagne region around Reims and Épernay in north-eastern France. The word is derived from the Latin campagna, meaning countryside, a name for this area of France since the Middle Ages. Although other French wine-producing regions claim to have made sparkling wine earlier, this was the first place to produce it in any significant quantity.

Vines were first planted in the area by monks from the local abbeys. At first, the only wines produced there were still table wines. In the late 17th century, however, clerical wine-makers made the transition from still to sparkling wines. Legend has it that the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon “invented” champagne. Although Dom Pérignon was an important figure in the development of viticulture (the cultivation of vines) and wine-making in the area, sparkling wine is more likely to have emerged gradually as a regional style, and probably by default, as the cold winters in northern France meant the table wines had a tendency to stop fermenting and then start up again in the spring, producing bubbles in the bottle.

It was not until the first half of the 19th century that a thriving commercial business sprang up to produce champagne, with such famous champagne houses as Veuve Clicquot, Krug, Bollinger, and Moët et Chandon established at this time. The method of production being used by them remains the same today: the first fermentation produces still, acidic wine. Before this is bottled, a small measure of wine, sugar, and yeast is added (known as the liqueur de tirage) and the bottle is sealed. The liqueur de tirage triggers off a second fermentation inside the bottle, and the carbon dioxide bubbles are trapped inside. The bottle is tilted upside down and turned at regular intervals to shake the yeasty deposits down into the neck. At the end of this process (known as remuage), the neck is frozen and the bottle opened to allow a plug of icy lees (sediment) to shoot out (dégorgement). The bottle is then topped up with a small amount of still wine and sugar solution (called liqueur d'expédition) and resealed. The amount of sugar used at this point determines whether the champagne is Brut (very dry), Sec (off-dry), or Demi-Sec (medium-sweet). Classic champagne characteristics produced by this labour-intensive method are a toasty or yeasty scent, high acidity, elegant fruit character, and a complex depth of flavour.

This process of making sparkling wine has been copied by wine-makers in many other parts of the vinous globe. These producers may put the words “ méthode traditionnelle” on their bottles to indicate that the champagne method has been used, but they may not use the words “champagne” or “méthode champenoise”. The three grapes used in champagne production are white Chardonnay and the black varieties Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Wine-makers have to be careful to acquire clear juice from the black grapes for standard champagne, but in order to make rosé champagne, a small proportion of still red wine made from Pinot vines is usually added after first fermentation. Rosé champagne tends to have a more fruity character. Champagne labelled blanc de blancs is made only from Chardonnay grapes; blanc de noirs from red grapes alone. Vintage champagne comes from the wine of a single year only; non-vintage can be a blend of wines from different years.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, due in part to increased competition from the New World, champagne producers tightened up the regulations applied to their wines, and general quality was seen to improve.