CHAMPAGNE AND OTHER SPARKLERS

When extra dry means “not all that dry”
All champagne is not Champagne
The lowdown on the champagne method
Marrying bubblies with food
Sparkling wines from $8 to $200+

In the universe of wine, sparkling wines are a solar system unto themselves. They’re produced in just about every country that makes wine, and they come in a wide range of tastes, quality levels, and prices. Champagne, the sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France, is the brightest star in the sky, but by no means the only one.

Sparkling wines are distinguished (and distinguishable) from other wines by the presence of bubbles — carbon dioxide — in the wine. In the eyes of most governments, these bubbles must be a natural by-product of fermentation in order for a wine to be officially considered a sparkling wine. In many wine regions, sparkling wines are just a sideline to complement the region’s table wine production, but in some places, sparkling wines are serious business. At the top of that list is France’s Champagne region (where sparkling wine was — if not invented — made famous). Italy’s Asti wine zone is another important region, as is France’s Loire Valley, northeastern Spain, and parts of California. Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are also now making some interesting sparklers.

All That Glitters Is Not Champagne

Champagne, the sparkling wine of Champagne, France, is the gold standard of sparkling wines for a number of reasons:

1. Champagne is the most famous sparkling wine in the world; the name has immediate recognition with everyone, not just wine drinkers.

2. A particular technique for making sparkling wine was perfected in the Champagne region.

3. Champagne is not only the finest sparkling wine in the world, but also among the finest wines in the world of any type.

Within the European Union, only the wines of the Champagne region in France can use the name "Champagne". Elsewhere, because of Champagne’s fame, the name champagne appears on labels of all sorts of sparkling wines that don’t come from the Champagne region and that don’t taste like Champagne. Wineries call their bubbly wines “champagne” to make them more marketable, and despite tighter regulations regarding the use of the term, many wineries in the United States may still use “champagne” on their labels. Many wine drinkers also use the word “champagne” indiscriminately to refer to all wines that have bubbles.

Ironically, much of the sparkling wine sold in the United States that’s called “champagne” is not even made with the same techniques as true Champagne. Most imitation champagnes are made by a technique that takes only a few months from beginning to end (compared to a few years to make Champagne), is less costly, and works more effectively on an industrial scale.

Whenever we use the word Champagne, we are referring to true Champagne, from the region of the same name; we use the generic term sparkling wine to refer to bubbly wines collectively, and sparkling wines other than Champagne.

Sparkling Wine Styles

All sparkling wines have bubbles, and nearly all of them are either white or pink (which is far less common than white). That’s about as far as broad generalizations take us in describing sparkling wines.

Some sparkling wines are downright sweet, some are bone dry, and many fall somewhere in the middle, from medium-dry to medium-sweet. Some have toasty, nutty flavors and some are fruity; among those that are fruity, some are just nondescriptly grapey, while others have delicate nuances of lemons, apples, cherries, berries, peaches, and other fruits.

The sparkling wines of the world fall into two broad styles, according to how they’re made, and how they taste as a result:

1. Wines that express the character of their grapes; these wines tend to be fruity and straightforward, without layers of complexity.

2. Wines that express complexity and flavors (yeasty, biscuity, caramel-like, honeyed) that derive from winemaking and aging, rather than expressing overt fruitiness.

How sweet is it?

Nearly all sparkling wines are not technically dry, because they contain measurable but small amounts of sugar, usually as the result of sweetening added at the last stage of production. But all sparkling wines don’t necessarily taste sweet. The perception of sweetness depends on two factors: the actual amount of sweetness in the wine (which varies according to the wine’s style) and the wine’s balance between acidity and sweetness. Here’s how the balance factor operates. Sparkling wines are usually very high in acidity, because the grapes, having grown in a cool climate, weren’t particularly ripe at harvest. The wine’s carbon dioxide also gives an acidic impression in the mouth. But the wine’s sweetness counterbalances its acidity and vice versa. Depending on the actual amount of sugar and the particular acid/sugar balance a sparkling wine strikes, the wine may taste dry, very slightly sweet, medium sweet, or quite sweet.

Champagne itself is made in a range of sweetness levels, the most common of which is a dry style called brut (see “Sweetness categories” later in this chapter). Sparkling wines made by the traditional method used in Champagne are made in the same range of styles as Champagne.

Inexpensive sparkling wines tend to be medium sweet in order to appeal to a mass market that enjoys sweetness. Wines labeled with the Italian word 'spumante' tend to be overtly sweet.

How good is it?

When you taste a sparkling wine, the most important consideration is whether you like it — just as for a still wine. If you want to evaluate a sparkling wine the way professionals do, however, you have to apply a few criteria that don’t apply to still wines (or are less critical in still wines than in sparkling wines). Some of those criteria are:

1. The appearance of the bubbles. In the best sparkling wines, the bubbles are tiny and float upward in a continuous stream from the bottom of your glass. If the bubbles are large and random, you have a clue that the wine is a lesser-quality sparkler. If you don’t see many bubbles at all, you could have a bad bottle, a poor or smudged glass, or a wine that may be too old.

2. Tiny variations in glassware can drastically affect the flow of bubbles. If the wine in your glass looks almost flat, but another glass of wine from the same bottle is lively with bubbles, blame the glass and not the wine. (In this case, you should be able to taste the bubbles, even if you can’t see many of them.)

3. The feel of the bubbles in your mouth. The finer the wine, the less aggressive the bubbles feel in your mouth. (If the bubbles remind you of a soft drink, we hope you didn’t pay more than $5 for the wine.)

4. The balance between sweetness and acidity. Even if a bubbly wine is too sweet or too dry for your taste, to evaluate its quality you should consider its sweetness/acid ratio and decide whether these two elements seem reasonably balanced.

5. The texture. Traditional-method sparkling wines should be somewhat creamy in texture as a result of their extended lees aging.

6. The finish. Any impression of bitterness on the finish of a sparkling wine is a sign of low quality.

How Sparkling Wine Happens

When yeasts convert sugar into alcohol, carbon dioxide is a natural by-product. If fermentation takes place in a closed container, that prevents this carbon dioxide from escaping into the air, the wine becomes sparkling. With nowhere else to go, the carbon dioxide (CO²) becomes trapped in the wine in the form of bubbles.

Most sparkling wines actually go through two fermentations: one to turn the grape juice into still wine without bubbles (that’s called a base wine) and a subsequent one to turn the base wine into bubbly wine (conveniently called the second fermentation). The winemaker has to instigate the second fermentation by adding yeasts and sugar to the base wine. The added yeasts convert the added sugar into alcohol and CO² bubbles.

Beginning with the second fermentation, the longer and slower the winemaking process, the more complex and expensive the sparkling wine will be. Some sparkling wines are ten years in the making; others are produced in only a few months. The slow-route wines can cost more than $100 a bottle, while bubblies at the opposite end of the spectrum can sell for as little as $4.

Although many variations exist, most sparkling wines are produced in one of two ways: through second fermentation in a tank, or through second fermentation in a bottle.

Tank fermentation: Economy of scale

The quickest, most efficient way of making a sparkling wine involves conducting the second fermentation in large, closed, pressurized tanks. This method is called the bulk method, tank method, cuve close (meaning closed tank in French), or charmat method (after a Frenchman named Eugene Charmat, who championed this process).

Sparkling wines made in the charmat (pronounced shar mah) method are usually the least expensive. That’s because they’re usually made in large quantities and they’re ready for sale soon after harvest. Also, the grapes used in making sparkling wine by the charmat method (Chenin Blanc, for example) are usually far less expensive than the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay typically used in the traditional or champagne method described in the next section.

The following occurs in the charmat method:

1. A base wine is seeded with sugar and yeast, and it ferments. The carbon dioxide created by the fermentation becomes trapped in the wine, thanks to the closed tank, pressure within the tank, and cold temperature.

2. The wine — now a dry sparkling wine with higher alcohol than the base wine had — is filtered (under pressure) to remove the solid deposits (the lees) from the second fermentation.

3. Before bottling, some sweetness is added to adjust the wine’s flavor, according to the desired style of the final wine.

The whole process can take just a few weeks. In some exceptional cases, it may be extended to a few months, allowing the wine to rest between the fermentation and the filtration.

Bottle fermentation: Small is beautiful

The charmat method is a fairly new way of producing sparkling wines, dating back barely 100 years. The more traditional method is to conduct the second fermentation in the individual bottles in which the wine is later sold.

Champagne has been made in this way for over 300 years and, according to French regulations, can be made in no other way. Many other French sparkling wines produced outside of the Champagne region use the same process but are allowed to use the term crémant in their names rather than champagne. The best sparkling wines from Spain, California, and elsewhere also use Champagne’s traditional method.

The technique of conducting the second fermentation in the bottle is called the classic or traditional method in Europe; in the United States, it’s called the champagne method or méthode champenoise.

Bottle fermentation (or, more correctly, second fermentation in the bottle) is an elaborate process in which every single bottle becomes an individual fermentation tank, so to speak. Including the aging time at the winery before the wine is sold, this process requires a minimum of fifteen months and usually takes three years or more. Invariably, bottle-fermented sparkling wines are more expensive than tank-fermented bubblies.

The elements of bottle fermentation are as follows:

1. Each bottle is filled with a mixture of base wine and a sugar-and-yeast solution, closed securely, and laid to rest in a cool, dark cellar.

2. The second fermentation slowly occurs inside each bottle, producing carbon dioxide and fermentation lees.

3. As the bottles lie in the cellar, the interaction of the lees and the wine gradually changes the wine’s texture and flavor.

4. Eventually — 12 months to several years after the second fermentation — the bottles undergo a process of shaking and turning so that the lees fall to the neck of each upside-down bottle.

5. The lees are flash-frozen in the neck of each bottle and expelled from the bottle as a frozen plug, leaving clear sparkling wine behind.

6. A sweetening solution (called a dosage) is added to each bottle to adjust the flavor of the wine, and the bottles are corked and labeled for sale.

Actually, the classic method as practiced in Champagne involves several processes that occur way before the second fermentation. For example, the pressing to extract the juice from the grapes must be gentle and meticulous to prevent the grapeskins’ bitter flavors — and their color, in the case of black grapes — from passing into the juice. Another step crucially important to the quality of the sparkling wine is blending various wines after the first fermentation to create the best composite base wine for the second fermentation.

After the first fermentation, each Champagne house has hundreds of different still wines, because the winemaker keeps the wines of different grape varieties and different vineyards separate. To create his base wine, or cuvée, he blends these wines in varying proportions, often adding some reserve wine (older wine purposely held back from previous vintages). More than 100 different wines can go into a single base wine, each bringing its own special character to the blend. What’s particularly tricky about blending the base wine — besides the sheer number of components in the blend — is that the winemaker has to see into the future and create a blend not for its flavor today but for how it will taste in several years, after it has been transformed into a sparkling wine. The men and women who blend sparkling wines are true artists of the wine world.

Taste: The proof of the pudding

Tank-fermented sparklers tend to be fruitier than traditional-method sparkling wines. This difference occurs because in tank fermentation, the route from grape to wine is shorter and more direct than in bottle fermentation. Some winemakers use the charmat, or tank, method because their goal is a fresh and fruity sparkling wine. Asti, Italy’s most famous sparkling wine, is a perfect example. You should drink charmat-method sparklers young, when their fruitiness is at its max.

Second fermentation in the bottle makes wines that tend to be less overtly fruity than charmat-method wines. Chemical changes that take place as the wine develops on its fermentation lees diminish the fruitiness of the wine and contribute aromas and flavors such as toastiness, nuttiness, caramel, and yeastiness. The texture of the wine can also change, becoming smooth and creamy. The bubbles themselves tend to be tinier, and they feel less aggressive in your mouth than the bubbles of tank-fermented wines.

Champagne and Its Magic Wines

Champagne. Does any other word convey such a sense of celebration? Think of it: Whenever people, in any part of the world, want to celebrate, you may hear them say, “This calls for Champagne!” (“This calls for iced tea!” just isn’t quite the same.)

Champagne, the real thing, comes only from the region of Champagne (sham pahn yah) in northeast France. Dom Pérignon, the famous monk who was cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers, didn’t invent Champagne, but he did achieve several breakthroughs that are key to the production of Champagne as we now know it. He perfected the method of making white wine from black grapes, for example, and, most importantly, he mastered the art of blending wines from different grapes and different villages to achieve a complex base wine. (See the previous section to find out what “base” wine is.)

Champagne is the most northerly vineyard area in France. Most of the important Champagne houses (as Champagne producers are called) are located in the cathedral city of Rheims (French spelling, Reims) — where 17-year-old Joan of Arc had Prince Charles crowned King of France in 1429 — and in the town of Epernay, south of Rheims. Around Rheims and Epernay are the main vineyard areas, where three permitted grape varieties for Champagne flourish. These areas are:

1. The Montagne de Reims (south of Rheims), where the best Pinot Noir grows

2. The Côte des Blancs (south of Epernay), home of the best Chardonnay

3. The Valleé de la Marne (west of Epernay), most favorable to Pinot Meunier (a black grape) although all three grape varieties grow there

Most Champagne is made from all three grape varieties — two black and one white. Pinot Noir contributes body, structure, and longevity to the blend; Pinot Meunier provides precocity, floral aromas, and fruitiness; and Chardonnay offers delicacy, freshness, and elegance.

What makes Champagne special

The cool climate in Champagne is marginal for grape growing, and the grapes struggle to ripen sufficiently in some years. Even in warmer years, the climate dictates that the grapes are high in acidity — a sorry state for table wine but perfect for sparkling wine. The cool climate and the region’s chalky, limestone soil are the leading factors contributing to Champagne’s excellence.

Three other elements help distinguish Champagne from all other sparkling wines:

1. The number and diversity of vineyards (over 300 crus, or individual vineyards), which provide a huge range of unique wines for blending

2. The cold, deep, chalky cellars — many built during Roman times — in which Champagnes age for many years

3. The 300 years of experience the Champenois (as the good citizens of Champagne are called) have in making sparkling wine

The result is an elegant sparkling wine with myriad tiny, gentle bubbles, complexity of flavors, and a lengthy finish. Voilá! Champagne!

Non-vintage Champagne

Non-vintage (NV) Champagne — any Champagne without a vintage year on the label — accounts for 85 percent of all Champagne. Its typical blend is two-thirds black grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and one-third white (Chardonnay). Wine from three or more harvests usually goes into the blend. And remember, the wines from 30 or 40 different villages (or more) from each year can also be part of the blend. The Champagne winemaker is by necessity a master blender.

Each Champagne house blends to suit its own house style for its non-vintage Champagne. (For example, one house may seek elegance and finesse in its wine, another may opt for fruitiness, and a third may value body, power, and longevity.) Maintaining a consistent house style is vital because wine drinkers get accustomed to their favorite Champagne’s taste and expect to find it year after year.

Most major Champagne houses age their non-vintage Champagne for two and a half to three years before selling it, even though the legal minimum for non-vintage is just 15 months. The extra aging prolongs the marrying time for the blend and enhances the wine’s flavor and complexity. If you have good storage conditions, aging your non-vintage Champagne for one to three years after you purchase it usually improves the flavor, in our opinion.

Most non-vintage Champagnes sell for $25 to $50 a bottle. Often, a large retailer buys huge quantities of a few major brands, obtaining a good discount that he passes on to his customers. Seeking out stores that do a large-volume business in Champagne is worth your while.

Vintage Champagne

Historically, only in about five of every ten years has the weather in Champagne been good enough to make a Vintage Champagne — that is, the grapes were ripe enough that some wine could be made entirely from the grapes of that year without being blended with reserve wines from previous years. Since 1995, the climate in Champagne (and throughout Europe) has been much warmer than normal, and Champagne producers have been able to make Vintage Champagne almost every year. (2001 was the one exception).

Even in the 1980s, Champagne had exceptionally good weather; many houses made Vintage Champagne every year from 1981 to 1990, with the exception of 1984 and 1987. The early ’90s were more typical; four years — 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 — were unremarkable, and few producers made vintage-dated Champagne.

The Champagne region has had a string of really fine vintages since 1995, especially the 1996 vintage. The three years that followed — 1997, 1998, and 1999 — all have been good. Both 2000 and 2003 were no more than average (too hot, especially 2003), but 2002 and 2004 are fine vintages (with 2002 the best since 1996), and 2005 is variable. Champagne lovers should seek out 1996 Vintage Champagnes; 1996 is exceptional, one of the best long-lived vintages ever!

Champagne houses decide for themselves each year whether to make a Vintage Champagne. Factors that might come into consideration — besides the quality of the vintage — include the need to save some wine instead to use as reserve wines for their non-vintage Champagnes (85 percent of their business, after all), and/or whether a particular vintage’s style suits the “house style.” For example, although 1989 was a rather good vintage, a few houses decided that Champagnes made from this vintage would be too soft (low in acidity) and/or too precocious (lacking longevity) for them, and did not choose to make a Vintage Champagne in 1989.

The minimum aging requirement for Vintage Champagne is three years, but many houses age their Vintage Champagnes four to six years in order to enhance the wines’ flavor and complexity. Vintage Champagnes fall into two categories:

1.Regular vintage, with a price range of $45 to $70 a bottle; these wines simply carry a vintage date in addition to the name of the house.

2. Premium vintage (also known as a prestige cuvée or tête de cuvée), such as Moët & Chandon’s Dom Pérignon, Roederer’s Cristal, or Veuve Clicquot’s La Grande Dame; the typical price for prestige cuvées ranges from $75 to $150 per bottle, with a few even more expensive.

Vintage Champagne is almost always superior to non-vintage for the following reasons:

1. The best grapes from the choicest vineyards are put into Vintage Champagne (this is especially so for prestige cuvées).

2. Usually, only the two finest varieties (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) are used in Vintage Champagne. Pinot Meunier is saved mainly for non-vintage Champagne.

3. Most Champagne houses age Vintage Champagnes at least two years more than their non-vintage wines. The extra aging assures more complexity.

4. The grapes all come from a year that’s above average, at least — or superb, at best.

Vintage Champagne is more intense in flavor than non-vintage Champagne. It is typically fuller-bodied and more complex, and its flavors last longer in your mouth. Being fuller and richer, these Champagnes are best with food.

Non-vintage Champagnes — usually lighter, fresher, and less complicated —are suitable as apéritifs, and they are good values. Whether a Vintage Champagne is worth its extra cost or not is a judgment you have to make for yourself.

Blanc de blancs and blanc de noirs

A small number of Champagnes derive only from Chardonnay; that type of Champagne is called blanc de blancs — literally, “white (wine) from white (grapes).” A blanc de blancs can be a Vintage Champagne or a non-vintage. It usually costs a few dollars more than other Champagnes in its category. Because they are generally lighter and more delicate than other Champagnes, blanc de blancs make ideal apéritifs. Not every Champagne house makes a blanc de blancs. Four of the best all-Vintage Champagnes, are Taittinger Comte de Champagne, Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs, Deutz Blanc de Blancs, and Pol Roger Blanc de Chardonnay.

Blanc de noirs Champagne (made entirely from black grapes, often just Pinot Noir) is rare but does exist. Bollinger’s Blanc de Noirs Vieilles Vignes Francaises (“old vines”) is absolutely the best, but it is very expensive ($400 to$450) and hard to find. The 1985 Bollinger Blanc de Noirs is one of the two best Champagnes we’ve ever had; the other is the 1928 Krug.

Rosé Champagne

Rosé Champagnes — pink Champagnes — can also be vintage or non-vintage. Usually, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the only grapes used, in proportions that vary from one house to the next.

Winemakers create a rosé Champagne usually by including some red Pinot Noir wine in the blend for the base wine. A few actually vinify some of their red grapes into pink wines, the way that you would make a rosé still wine, and use that as the base wine. Colors vary quite a lot, from pale onion-skin to salmon to rosy pink. (The lighter-colored ones are usually dryer.)

Rosés are fuller and rounder than other Champagnes and are best enjoyed with dinner. (Because they have become associated with romance, they’re popular choices for wedding anniversaries and Valentine’s Day.)

Like blanc de blancs Champagnes, rosés usually cost a few dollars more than regular Champagnes, and not every Champagne house makes one. Some of the best rosés are those of Roederer, Billecart-Salmon, Gosset, and Moët & Chandon (especially its Dom Pérignon Rosé).

For some people, rosé Champagne has a bad connotation because of the tons of sweet, insipid, cheap pink wines — sparkling and otherwise — on the market. But rosé Champagne is just as dry and has the same high quality as regular (white) Champagne.

Sweetness categories

Champagnes always carry an indication of their sweetness on the label, but the words used to indicate sweetness are cryptic: extra dry is not really dry, for example. In ascending order of sweetness, Champagnes are labeled

Extra brut, brut nature, or brut sauvage: Totally dry
Brut: Dry
Extra dry: Medium dry
Sec: Slightly sweet
Demi-sec: Fairly sweet
Doux: Sweet

The most popular style for Champagne and other serious bubblies is brut. However, the single best-selling Champagne in the United States, Moët & Chandon’s White Star, actually is an extra dry Champagne. Brut, extra dry, and demi-sec are the three types of Champagne you find almost exclusively nowadays.

By Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan in "Wine for Dummies", Wiley Publishing, USA, 2006, excerpts pp. 265-277. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.