Champagne: What’s in a Name?

Written and photographed by Erika Sato

What’s in a name? As it turns out, a lot.

Many of us commonly refer to all bubbly, sparkling wines from bulk offerings, to Dom Perignon, and anything in between as Champagne. However, not all sparkling wines are made equal, and only a select few truly qualify as Champagne.

What makes a sparkling wine a Champagne? If we are being picky, which we are, Champagne must be made in the Champagne region of France, only from specific grapes that are grown in that region. In addition, there is a specific process by which it must be made – called the Traditional Method (a.k.a. Méthode Champenoise, méthode traditionnelle, etc.).

Champagne has its own mystique. Why is it so special? And what makes it so expensive compared to other sparkling wines?

Let’s talk about the region first. Champagne is a region in north central France, north and east of Paris. It’s in the interior, which means there is little moderation in climate from the ocean. In wine jargon, it’s cool Continental – It’s the northernmost wine growing region in France, cool and damp with threats of hail, frost, mildew. Not that hospitable for growing grapes. The region is also famous for its chalky soil – a huge contributor to the style.

The Marne River bisects the region from north to south, with the Montagne de Reims in the north and east, best known for growing red grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier). South is Epernay and the Côte de Blancs, known for growing Chardonnay. The Vallée de la Marne runs along the river (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier). These are widely considered to be the major regions in Champagne, but there are other regions, of course, including the Côte de Sézanne and Côte des Bar, considered to be up and coming regions, as well as other, smaller appellations.

It is commonly held that there are only 3 allowable grapes to be used for a Champagne. These are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. In reality, there are seven allowed grapes. While the white grapes Arbanne, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Petit Meslier are also permitted, in total, they account for less than 1% of plantings in the area and thus are not typically found in the final blend.

In broad brush terms, Pinot Noir adds richness and fine texture as well as aromatics. Pinot Meunier functions to add fruitiness and balance, and the Chardonnay the structure, minerality and acidity. Most champagnes are a blend of all three grapes; however, you will also commonly see a Blanc de Blancs – made using only white grapes, or a Blanc de Noir – made using only red grapes.

The last component is wine making style and technique. Is there a style for which the region is known? In the case of Champagne, the answer is a definite yes and the method used to make it is also a huge component.

What is the traditional method? In simplistic terms, it is a method of making a sparkling wine which utilizes a second fermentation in the bottle. When you start looking into the details, though, it becomes clear that it is a complex method involving both skill and art.

In the first fermentation, the grapes are fermented in the usual way to produce still wines (no bubbles) commonly referred to as base wines and represent the first way in which producers start to distinguish themselves. Decisions need to be made about whether to use oak or not, which yeast strains to use and whether and how much malolactic fermentation is allowed to occur. Grapes may be blended prior to fermentation, or, more commonly, are fermented separately by vineyard, village and/or region.

Once this first fermentation is complete, there are then decisions about how much aging on lees, and whether to save them as reserve wines. While most of the base wines from each vintage are used, those that have potential to age may be put aside for use in future years. Each producer makes their own decisions around these factors, contributing to the final house style.

The base and reserve wines are then blended, to undergo a second fermentation in the bottle. This is yet another area in which producers will differ.

Champagne Houses will blend wines from the current vintage with the reserve wines saved from previous vintages to produce a consistent cuvee from year to year (house style). The art comes in being able to predict which blend of base wines will produce the desired consistency of style once it undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle.

The other purpose of blending, is of course, to create something better than the sum of its parts. For high-quality producers, each wine in the blend should contribute something positive to the final, not just be filler. The amount of tasting this requires is mind-boggling – every tank, barrel or vat is tasted numerous times – to produce the final blend. This requires not only a knowledge of where the wine is now, but also the skill to predict how this will all play out after the second fermentation. As you can imagine, the high-quality producers all have blenders that have worked for years or decades perfecting this skill.

Once the final blend of base wines has been determined, wine mixed with sugar and yeast (called liqueur de tirage) is added to the bottle and a second fermentation is allowed to occur in the bottle. This is the step that creates the bubbles. The carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation is trapped inside the bottle. This is where another perhaps distinguishing factor is involved. The vast majority of bottles at this point are sealed using a crown cap, similar to that used on soda bottles. This allows for no transfer of oxygen during this process (although to be completely accurate, crown caps have been developed recently with different levels of oxygen permeability). However, some producers will use a cork enclosure for some of their premium products (e.g., Moët & Chandon with Dom Perignon) with the belief that corks add a desirable quality to the wine that is not present with crown cap.

This is also the step that determines the final pressure in the bottle. The rule of thumb is that 4 grams of sugar create 1 atmosphere of pressure – standard pressure is 6 atmospheres. However, as you can imagine, the pressure in the bottle is another stylistic choice. It is thought that a lower pressure level produces finer bubbles, which results in a creamier, richer mouth feel. There is, however, much research being done on this very subject. Smaller bubbles produce the desired mousse that forms at the top of a champagne glass and produces that signature pop in the mouth. The bubbles that pop at the surface also release a lot of the aroma components. On the other hand, too much pressure, too many bubbles, can irritate the drinker’s nose.

Billecart-Salmon: Lees aging of bottles prior to disgorgement

After the second fermentation is finished, the wine is then aged on its lees in the bottle until it is disgorged (lees removed from the bottle). The bottles are often aged on the lees for years, imparting more depth and texture to the wine and creates the sought-after savory, nutty and creamy notes that Champagne is known for. For some of the older houses, the bottles are stored underground in caves that can run for miles – until the bottles are ready.

The optimal time of lees aging, though, can depend upon the ultimate desired style as well as the main vintage. In riper years, earlier disgorgements can show better whereas more delicate vintages can benefit from longer aging prior to disgorgement.

For disgorgement, all the sediment is moved to the neck of the bottle through a process called riddling. Traditionally, this has been done by hand using an A-frame riddling rack (pupitre). A professional riddler (remueur) then turns the bottles, incrementally rotating and tilting them to gently move the sediment to the neck. More recently, however, many producers have switched to using a mechanical device called a gyropalette, which can complete the process more precisely and in a shorter period of time (7-10 days versus 5-6 weeks).

Pol Roger: Hand-riddling bottles prior to disgorgement

Once the sediment has settled in the neck of the bottle, the sediment is frozen, which then gets ejected when the cap is removed. The bottle is topped off with a wine and sugar mix called the liqueur d’expédition to replace the amount of wine that may be lost during disgorgement and to add a precise quantity of sweetness called the dosage. The dosage, however, not only adds sweetness, but also is intended to produce integration – an incorrectly dosed champagne (too high or too low) can lose expressiveness and complexity or feel out of balance.

After the disgorgement and dosage, the bottle is quickly stoppered with a cork covered by a wire cage. This is the only enclosure you will see from Champagne – synthetic corks are not possible because they are not elastic enough to properly seal champagne bottles, and it is illegal to release a wine under crown cap in Champagne. You will also never see a Champagne released with a twist-off cap.

Are Champagnes aged? There has been much discussion about lees aging prior to disgorgement. As mentioned before, lees aging can add complexity and a creaminess to the wine. More recently, there has also been more thought given to aging in the bottle after release. During lees aging, the yeast creates amino acids which remain in the wine and then react with the sugars in the dosage, called a Maillard reaction. It is this reaction that creates the brioche/biscuit flavors often cherished in Champagne. While most Champagnes are ready to drink upon release, there is a benefit to holding the bottles and allowing these aging characteristics to appear.

Phew! Lots of variables to consider! Which, of course, is part of what makes Champagne so fascinating – it’s all about reaching the proper balance.

How to start on your Champagne journey?

Well, first, it’s important to understand what you are buying. Luckily, there are a lot of hints on the bottle that can help you in making your decisions on what to buy and when to drink it. Recently, more and more producers have started to put information on their labels which can be quite helpful.

What’s on a Champagne label?

Let’s start with producer. The producer number is almost always somewhere on the label. While this has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the Champagne, you can learn a little about the producer from the code, which is two letters followed by the identification number. Some of the more common that you might see:

NM – Négociant manipulant. A producer that purchases grapes, grape must or wine to produce champagne. They also may also produce champagne from their own wines as well.

RM – Récoltant manipulant. A producer that makes champagnes from its own grapes. Commonly referred to as Grower Champagnes.

RC – Récoltant-coopérateur. A grower that sells grapes to a cooperative and receives champagne in return to sell under its own label.

CM – Coopérative de manipulation. A cooperative that sells champagne made from its members grapes.

ND – Négociant distributeur. A merchant that buys bottles of finished champagne to sell under its own label.

A majority of the big, famous producers, the Champagne Houses that are steeped in tradition and excellence are NM, producing champagne from grapes grown in their own vineyards as well as purchased from growers around the area. The RM producers tend to be much smaller, producing champagne solely from their own grapes.

Region and vineyard classification: As with Burgundy, and many other regions in France, the different villages and vineyards are classified according to quality, thus defining village/region, 1er (Premier) Cru (pronounced pru-meer croo) and Grand Cru (grond croo) level vineyards. There are (currently, as these numbers are continuously changing) 43 1er Cru and just 17 Grand Cru villages – representing elevated and top-quality designations, respectively. Consistent with labeling requirements in other regions, a quality designation reflects the lowest common denominator of the grapes in the blend. Therefore, to be labeled a Grand Cru, the resulting wine can only contain grapes from designated Grand Cru vineyards. If you mix in any grapes from, for example, a 1er Cru level vineyard, the resulting wine can only be labeled as Premier Cru.

Champagne style: Again, not a reflection of quality but of style. Most Champagne that you will see on the shelf is non-vintage (NV, see below) and a blend of both red and white grapes from multiple areas. Where this is not the case, you may see one or more of the following terms on the label.

Blanc de blancs – White from whites. Champagne made from exclusively white grapes. This most commonly will mean 100% Chardonnay, although this designation doesn’t exclude the other allowable white grapes.

Blanc de noir – White from black. Champagne made exclusively from Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.

Rosé - Typically made by blending a little red base wine in with the white.

NV – non vintage. Blended from multiple vintages. Blending can be used to provide consistency to a house style year over year or to produce a higher quality, premium blend from a stricter selection of base wines.

Vintage (or millésimé) – made exclusively from base wines from a single year. Usually only made in years with the best quality harvests.

Prestige cuvée (or Tête de Cuvée) – Most meticulously selected, highest quality champagne that a producer makes. They are often vintage, with a couple notable exceptions, and are made from only the best selections of base wines in exceptional years. For example, Dom Pérignon is the Prestige cuvée for Moët & Chandon.

Vineyard and/or village names – Made from one parcel, as opposed to a blend of different vineyards, or from one village.

Special Club – a special bottling from a producer that is a member of the Club de Trésors. By invitation only, you must be a grower champagne producer, these wines are produced only in the best years and must undergo peer review testing before a Special Club bottling can be declared.

Dosage. Again, it is worthwhile to bear in mind that while there is a connection between the dosage and how sweet the champagne is perceived to be, the point of dosage is to produce a balanced, and well-integrated wine at whatever sweetness level.

Brut Nature (Non-dosé or Brut Zéro) – no dosage, and no more than 3 g/l residual sugar remaining from fermentation.

Extra Brut – 0-6 g/l sugar.

Brut – 0-12 g/l sugar.

Extra Dry – 12-17 g/l sugar.

Sec (or Dry) – 17-32 g/l sugar.

Demi-Sec – 32-50 g/l sugar.

Doux: > 50 g/l sugar.

Disgorgement date. More specific to the bottle in particular, dosage and disgorgement dates are typically also listed on the label. Producers often disgorge to order, which means that bottles from the same “batch” can be disgorged at different times, leading to differences in aging time on the lees and allowing for differences in aging in the bottle post-disgorgement.

This article would be slightly incomplete without a discussion around how to serve a Champagne and food pairings. Serve it chilled, but not cold. The optimal temperature to serve a champagne is around 45-50 degrees. Too warm and it can feel flat, too cold and the aroma and flavor will be suppressed.

The best glassware to use when serving a champagne is a tulip-shaped glass. Flutes and coupes (wide flat glasses) do promote bubble production and are beautiful to look at. However, the open shape to the rim of the glass allows all the aroma and bubbles to escape! Best to use a glass where the rim curves inward, to better trap the aroma in the glass.

What would you serve with a Champagne? Firstly, Champagne is wonderful to sip just on its own. But there are also classic pairings, such as raw oysters and caviar… but in all honesty, I have yet to find a food that doesn’t pair well with a glass of Champagne!

Let the Champagne Journey begin!

Clearly, there’s a lot of factors to consider. Do you prefer the racy structure of a blanc de blancs, or the fruitier richness found in a blanc de noir or a blend of all three grapes? How sweet do want your Champagne? Most Champagne in the market is Brut or drier. What producers do you prefer? What should you expect going from a Champagne House’s non-vintage blend to a Vintage or a Tête de Cuvée?

Here's a few suggestions to get you started – let the Champagne journey begin!

Gaston-Chiquet Tradition Premier Cru Brut - This is a classic blended Champagne with 40% Pinot Meunier, 35% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Noir, and using reserve wines from multiple vintages. The current release has base wines harvested mainly in 2014 from the villages of Hautvillers, Dizy and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, all Premier Cru villages from the Vallée de la Marne.

Gaston-Chiquet Special Club Brut 2014 - Only Grower Champagne producers belonging to the Club de Trésors can produce a “Special Club” bottling. This is a special bottling made from the best grapes/base wines and only in special years. This is a blend of 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, all from the 2014 harvest.

Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs Brut -- Diebolt-Vallois has been making wine in the village of Cramant since 1959 and is considered one of the premier producers in the region. This is their NV blanc de blancs, 100% Chardonnay from the villages of Cuis, Chouilly, Epernay and Cramant in the Côte de Blancs. Cuis, Chouilly and Cramant are all classified as Grand Cru villages.

Billecart-Salmon Brut Nature - A “Brut Nature”, there is no sugar added to the dosage. 30% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne, 30% Chardonnay from around the region, and 40% Pinot Meunier from the Vallée de la Marne and the southern slopes of Epernay. Billecart-Salmon is a family producer based in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ – they have been producing Champagne over 7 generations, each adhering to the same motto: “Give priority to quality, strive for excellence”.

Duc de Romet Brut Prestige Blanc de Noir - While this is a Négociant distributeur who buys finished Champagne to sell under its own label, this is a wonderful example of a Blanc de Noir- made entirely from the red grapes of Pinot Meunier (80%) and Pinot Noir (20%) from the village of Vandières in the Vallée de la Marne.

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