The Beauty and Bliss of the Bubbles

Champagne is the world's most famous celebratory drink of which nothing can compare. Those tiny little bubbles, dancing vertically to the surface, virtually exploding the aromas of the Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes into the atmosphere; before tingling the palate, and delighting the senses beyond belief all the while invigorating the sprit. While the experience of one's first taste of Champagne may only take a moment in time, the memory will usually last a lifetime, to be remembered over and over again with great pleasure in the company of family and friends ; this is also the great beauty of Champagne!

While Champagne may be the darling of the world it is the sole possession and pride of France. Champagne is grown in one of the world's most northern wine growing regions in Northeastern France in the chalky soils around the towns of Rheims and Epernay and nowhere else. This cold northern exposure produces Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay that struggle hard in most years to get ripe and makes still wine that is very strong and very high in natural acidity, perfect and essential in making fine Champagne. Sparkling wine is produced in various regions around the world and quite well I would add in places like California and Australia, but only grapes grown in the Champagne region can be used in the production of Champagne and legally titled as such.

There are dozens of large and world famous Champagne producers such as Moet {Dom Perignon}, Krug, Bollinger, Louis Roederer {Cristal}, Pol Roger, Salon, Laurent Perrier, Mumm, Pommery, Taittinger, Billecart-Salmon and Veuve Cliquot to name a few, that dominate most of the worlds Champagne production. Recent years have brought into the market many artisan producers making fine small production Champagnes that for generations have sold their fruit under contract to the big guys.

The world's most popular Champagnes are without question Non-Vintage Brut Champagnes. The Non-Vintage/Multi-Vintage product gives the producer the ability to use a current-young vintages and blend them with smaller amounts of reserve wines to create a "house style/taste" that can be reproduced as consistently as possible for a in large agricultural product and production. The blend is historically 2/3 Pinot and 1/3 Chardonnay and the style is Brut; {this is explained below} and seems to fit perfectly well most of the worlds taste buds.

Vintage Champagnes and Luxury "Tete de Cuvees" are also gaining in popularity but they represent only a drop of world production and these Champagnes are of course made from grapes all from the same  brutally young vintage, and only made in vintages that are deemed to be of exceptional quality. Because of the vivacious nature of the strong young juice vintage Champagnes have great aging potential, sometimes of many decades with proper storage conditions, sadly most are consumed young without the consideration of aging, but that is also slowly changing in our world today as more and more young adults around the globe discover the virtues and complexity that only fine older Champagne can offer; much like older Bordeaux wine.

Champagnes and the bubbles themselves are created by the addition of a mixture of wine, sugar and yeast to the specially crafted still wine and then capped, this infusion starts the secondary fermentation and the bubbles. It is then left to age on its lees {the natural floating byproducts/particles and yeast} and riddled regularly {the moving of these lees} in preparation for bottling. Right before the wine is corked a "Dosage" is added, this is a mixture of wine and sugar syrup that determines the sweetness and style of the Champagne as a Brut {less than 15 grams per liter of sugar} or an Extra Dry {12-20 g/L},yes it is true and a little confusing that "Brut" is in fact drier Champagne than "Extra Dry",  Sec {17-35} and  Demi- Sec {33-50}. In a few Champagnes today where Zero dosage is used, making bone, bone dry  Champagne.

Special blends of Champagne are always noted on the label and by far the two  most popular are Blanc de Blanc ,which means all the grapes used are white/Chardonnay and Blanc de Noirs where all the grapes are black/Pinot. The pulp of the red grapes have no color and the only color in the wine comes from absorbing color while in contact with the skins. Rose Champagne is made by brief skin contact, or not so brief resulting in a darker color Rose. These same results can of course also be obtained by blending a bit of red wine into the white cuvee.

Being an Expert on the wines of Bordeaux with over 35 visits to the region I have great appreciation and love for Champagne . The French Tradition of a glass of Champagne before Lunch and dinners is a love of mine. This is especially the case after tasting 50-100 young barrel samples/wines before a nice, but very quick by French standards lunch while working. That glass of cold Champagne tastes so great and also works as the world's greatest palate cleanser! That glass refreshes me and gets me ready for lunch where I will most likely taste a few a really special wines with a nice meal at a famous Chateaux . But just a small taste of the special wines will sufice, the great wines are great but when you have to go back and taste another 50-100 wines after lunch, you have to pace yourself and be focused! In the back of my mind while tasting after lunch I start to look forward to the end of my working day which is that same refreshing glass of Champagne this time before a lovely dinner.

Cheers... I hope to share a glass of the Bubbly with you soon!