Table of Content

Overview

Methode Champenoise

Bottle Aging

Transfer Methods

California

Champagne is a process as well as a wine, here is an over simplification of the process:

Chardonnay and the red wine grape Pinot Noir are the main grapes. Pinot Meunier is also used regularly, but it is considered a poor cousin of Pinot Noir.

The villages of Champagne are host to a most unique and in many ways, fitting, form of economic rating. Every year an official price is set for a measure of grapes. Each village has a rating based on what percentage of this official price they can charge. Thus the finest grapes come from towns that rate 99% or more, and high average is 90% - 98%. Below 90% are not quality grapes, and are mostly used for rounding out the non vintage house styles of the numerous smaller Champagne houses that are almost never seen.

Only a few of the finest Champagnes are village designated, and it is hotly debated if this is marketing or if a distinct character can be found. Among these well known villages are Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil.

Within the area of Champagne are also the larger sub regions of the Montagne de Reims, home of quality Pinot Noir, the Valllee de la Marne with its vineyards full of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier and the Cote des Blancs covered throughout with Chardonnay.

No wine of vast and universal popularity is so misunderstood as the wine with the bubbles. The umbrella term for these carbon-dioxide-charged selections is sparkling wines --the sparkles being the bubbles. From the tradition-encrusted, labor-intensive French Champagne houses to the massive and shiny, totally automated transfer machines that produce Le Domaine in California, the common thread is a secondary fermentation of a once- fermented wine.

The hotelier should at least understand the two great and quite distinct methods of preparing sparkling wines, both created by enterprising Frenchmen. The first of these is the only sparkling wine legally entitled to the name Champagne. Champagne comes from the Champagne region. The second method was invented by a Frenchman named Charmat and it consists of a bulk method of achieving the secondary fermentation.

The Champagne region in France extends from Flanders in the north to Burgundy in the south, and from Lorraine in the east to Isle de France in the west. This territory, and only this territory, produces legitimate

Champagne. That is not to say that sparkling wines of similar finesse and style are not made elsewhere, only that the name is incorrectly used apart from France.

The most important city in this district is Reims, named for St. Remi, one of the first Roman archbishops of the land. In 496 A.D., Remi converted the first Frankish king to Christianity. Tradition says that Remi gave the king a barrel of Champagne' at his baptism, but the process we recognize as methode champenoise was to come many centuries later. The sparkle was deliberately retained in the 17th century by Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon.

THE METHODE CHAMPENOISE --AN ACCIDENT

The Marne River divides the Champagne vineyards roughly in half with the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier planted to the north and the Chardonnay to the south. These grapes are used exclusively in the cuvees. While these are the same grapes grown to the south in Burgundy, a much more hostile and chalky soil yields acidic, light wines without the noble attributes for table wines.

According to tradition, the happy monk cellar-master observed that many vintages fermented a second time, and that the result was a quite pleasant new drinking wine. It is probable that most wines had plenty of remaining residual sugar and they would often ferment again if exposed to yeast cultures in the crude barrels and bottles of the times. Whatever the truth, Dom Perignon did set himself to the task of keeping the bubbles in. His first stopper was cloth soaked in wax, and eventually the wire-held cork made certain that most of the bubbles would reach the consumer. The availability of French wines with bubbles rapidly developed a following in the British Court. Still today, the British favor the French bubbles.

In addition to creating the tradition of bubble retention, the skilled cellar-master Perignon devised a blending method which is retained today in the Champagne district. And that's half the story of Champagne, the blends or cuvees. Actually, each basket of grapes is deliberately picked over by skilled sorters to eliminate the shriveled or broken grapes that might introduce some off-flavor. Hydraulic presses gently separate the free-run segments from two subsequent pressings. Only the first and second are retained for Champagne, the rest goes to wines sold on the local market. A most important step in this pressing is to eliminate any off-colored or blush portions from the red-skinned Pinot Noir grapes. The wines are then fermented to natural dryness.

Champagne is always a blend of wines as each cuvee is chosen by selective tasting and marrying of the exact quantities from any number of available wines. A small amount of cane sugar called dosage is then added to the cuvee along with yeast culture to create the right amount of bubbles and additional alcohol during the second fermentation. This wine is bottled and fastened with crown caps for its next working, and for its long period of aging in the bottle. The gas cannot escape, but the sediment thrown off from the second working must be handled. This is accomplished by turning and inverting the bottle periodically so that the lees settle in the neck.

The new wine then rests for periods of a year or more during which time it ages gracefully, assuming all parts of the carbon dioxide and gaining a distinguished new character as the yeast autolyzes in the bottle neck. This is the most important stage for methode champenoise, the bottle aging. There are hundreds of miles of caves dug deep into the ground around Reims and Epernay holding millions of bottles of aging Champagne.

The amount of the dosage has also determined the level of residual sugar that will be retained in the wine at retail for it is sold in the very bottle in which it ages. Sparkling-wine producers around the world generally use the following sugar levels for the label designations.

Brut or Nature Very Dry .5 to 1.5 percent sugar Extra Dry Off-Dry 1.5 to 3.0 percent sugar Sec Medium Sweet 3.0 to 5.0 percent sugar Demi-Sec Quite Sweet 5.0 to 7.0 percent sugar

The latter two categories are seldom seen in American distribution and are throwbacks to an earlier age when the 1.5 percent of Extra Dry was really considered an extremely dry wine. This is somewhat confusing to consumers who naturally expect the label Extra Dry to mean the bottling with the least sugar. It is exactly the opposite.

Also, note by tasting the higher sugar levels in Cold Duck and Asti Spumante which are quite sweet in comparison to the average sparkling wine.

BOTTLE AGING --A COSTLY PROCESS

After aging, the sediment must be released from the neck of the bottle before shipping. This is accomplished by temporarily freezing the lees by resting the neck in brine. The bottles are uncapped and the small amount of wine that escapes is replaced before the wire hood and heavy cork are affixed. These bottles then are laid to rest for another six months to a year before being shipped to an eager public.

Because of this blending process, nearly all Champagne is non-vintage, that is, it may contain wines from more than one year. In very select and

infrequent growing years, a Vintage may be declared by a producer. To meet the exacting AOC standards for a Vintage Champagne, the wines must be made from grapes limited as to tons per acre, specific gravity in the must, the methode champenoise procedure followed, and at least one year of bottle age before shipping.

Consider the logistics in this process, and the 17 miles of tunnels dug up to 100 feet deep in Epernay to understand the finesse of Champagne. One producer alone, Moet & Chandon, claims to have 30 million bottles in various stages of aging at anyone time. Since the second pressure fermentation can create pressure up to 100 psi, the breakage factor alone is an unimaginable expense in glass, not to speak of its precious cargo.

As mentioned earlier, there is another classic method of producing spark- ling wines, though aficionados would hardly agree to its virtues. In France, the process is known as methode charmat, in honor of its creator Henri Charmat. In the U.S. and elsewhere, it is simply termed bulk spark- ling wine.

It is simplicity itself, innovator Charmat mimicking the original Perignon method. A wine is placed in a vat of 500 gallons or more and sufficient amounts of sugar and yeast are introduced to create just the right amount of bubbles from the secondary fermentation. Instead of aging the wine in that large, steel vessel, the wine is pumped out, cleaned up, and rebottled under cold pressure. So, the signal differences in the charmat system are economy, speed, very little broken glass, and no long periods of resting on yeasty lees. As a consequence, the sparkling wines produced by this method are notably clean, more flowery in the nose, and just as good as the

original cuvee from which they were made.

A third sparkling procedure utilizes the best parts of the above two classic methods and that is called the transfer system. Here mechanics and economies of scale come into play. In a giant maze of tubing resembling a milking machine, the cuvee is pumped into bottles for fermentation, then pumped out for cleanup, and pumped back into bottles for capping and shipping. The large firms such as Gancia in Italy, Almaden, Paul Masson and Weibel in California, the tons of gallons of Sekt in Germany, and all the Russians use this economic method. For these transfer wines the label may read "Bottle Fermented", but not "Fermented In This Bottle" which is reserved for the real champenoise.

Nearly everyone who visits Paris visits Champagne. For this wondrous and famous wine-making region lies but a pleasant hour from the capital city of France. This is the most northerly wine-growing area on the continent, yet the fruit from the short growing season proves ideal for the methode champenoise wines. Every harvest suffers to some degree from the frosts of spring and the sudden coolness in the fall which stops maturation. As a consequence, the grapes tend to be slightly unripe and acidic, ideally suited for the two fermentations and the long period of bottle aging before shipping.

There are about 60,000 acres in wine-grape cultivation in Champagne. The three important growing districts are la Montagne de Reims, the valley of the Marne and the Cote des Blancs. The grapes also obtain character from the famous limestone clay shelf that undergirds the whole growing area. There are approximately 15,000 growers, many of whom make their own wines and sell them to the negociants and the great Champagne houses. The major cities of Eperney and Reims dominate the trade.

Since Champagnes are predominately blended wines, there is little identifi- cation with particular vineyards or chateaux --as in most other French

wine areas. As many as 20 or 30 vineyards are often represented in a single blend. Therefore, it is the region itself and the unique processing which distinguish the wines. Also, by consequence, it is the great Champagne producers, with ancient and distinguished reputations, which command respect and admiration among the wine cognoscenti. And, there are many elegant and stylish houses to choose from.

In the 18th century, Champagne could be enjoyed only by the very rich. The methods were so primitive and the glass so poorly blown that a high percentage of the product never reached the table. It blew up in handling and shipping. For this reason, negociants and shippers began to contract with farmers and other small producers to make certain of a continui~g supply for the market. Most of the famous Champagne houses date to this hurly-burly, one-hundred-year period between 1770 and 1870. So, the busi-

ness is today still dominated by large and tradition-encrusted firms. This handful of famous shippers today sell over 70 percent of all Champagne and well over 95 percent of the export trade.

The top firms are Moet & Chandon, Mumm, Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin, Marne,

Bollinger, Krug, Laurent-Perrier, Lanson, Taittinger, Perrier-Jouet, Piper-Heidsieck, Louis Roederer, Ruinart, Charles Heidsieck, Monopole, and Pol Roger. These few companies sell over half the wines produced in this rich area each year. In recent years, there have been a number of mergers and changes in ownership in the area, with many giant liquor firms gaining either majority ownership or control of distribution for the precious commodity. However, the tradition and the methode champenoise process remain inviolate, regardless of ownership, and the consumer can rely upon the quality in the bottle.

Some firms, such as Moet & Chandon, Ruinart, Pere & Fils, and Mumm, favor the light, delicately balanced and fruity Champagnes, with others such as Perrier-Jouet, Taittinger, Louis Roederer, Bollinger and Veuve Clicquot- Ponsardin producing big, assertive and well-balanced vintages. These are often more than subtle differences of style and they depend a lot on the maturity of the wines. Consult a wine steward or one of the many books available, such as Hugh Johnson's "Modern Encyclopedia of Wine" for a guide to establishing a comparative tasting of methode sparkling wines.

Passing mention should be made of a category called carbonated or petillant wines. The petillant style remains very popular in France and other European nations such as Germany. Essentially, these wines have lower than three atmospheres of pressure and some are actually made fizzy in the manner of a soda pop by charging the fluid with carbon dioxide from another source. Special naturals in California, like coolers, may also be carbonated. The tasting impact of high concentrations of bubbles is to confuse the taste buds. In this manner, lesser wines seem much more acceptable. Inexpensive sparkling wines are, therefore, easier to drink than similar inexpensive still wines.

Other popular sparkling wines from France outside the Champagne region are called Mousseux. A considerable amount of sparkling Burgundy is made and shipped as well as the delightful sparkling Vouvray and sparkling Saumur from the Loire. The most popular of Italian sparkling wines in our land is Asti Spumante from the Piedmont. This semi-sweet sparkler uses the aromatic Moscato grape and it is rapidly growing in popularity across the U.S.

The Germans are purported to consume more sparkling wine per capita than any other nationality. It could be conjectured that the U.S. will one day catch up to the Germans, so strongly identified is our population with beer and soda pop and their high carbon dioxide levels. Look for very fine, classic methode champenoise wines from such German shippers as Henkel, Deutz & Golderman and Sekt-Keller.

The phenomenal success of wine coolers in the U.S. over the past several years demonstrates once again this predilection for the bubbly, as well as does the copious amount of inexpensive, charmat sparkling wines that we imbibe over the holidays. California sparkling-wine producers confidently predict a solid growth factor through the 1990s. This confidence is based on our love affair with anything that has bubbles --from soda pop, through coolers, and into sparkling wines.

Wines & Vines, the authoritative trade journal for the U.S. wine industry, publishes an annual, categorical roundup of Champagnes consumed. (The magazine still reports all sparkling wines as Champagnes.) These figures over the past decade demonstrate significant increases in all bubblies. The charmat or bulk wines doubled to nearly 10 million cases. The transfer sparklers produced primarily by Taylor Cellars in New York and Le Domaine in California held their own at a million and a half cases, while all types of methode champenoise spurted from barely over one hundred thousand cases to a healthy million and a half.

To understand this phenomenon is to appreciate the unique contributions of each production method to providing a special market with quality at an appropriate price. Americans nurtured on fizzy soft drinks have equally strong identity with light and inexpensive Champagnes, especially during the holidays and at festive receptions. The consumer looks for pleasant satiation, rather than for depth of color, yeastiness and fine bubbles. For this reason, the huge bulk sparkling-wine lines at E. & J. Gallo churn out better than five million cases a year of Andre and Gallo-labeled wines. The largest gainer in recent years in this category has been New York-based Canandaigua, which rose from 60,000 cases to over a million.

In addition to leaders Korbel and Domaine Chandon, many California wineries use the methode champenoise to produce outstanding wines. One cannot think of fine California Champagne apart from Jack and Jamie Davis, who con- structed the abandoned Schramsberg property in 1965 to produce fine Champagnes. Only three others were then utilizing the French method and now the total is nearly 30. These include Hanns Kornell and B.V. in the Napa Valley and the fine vintages from south of San Francisco from Wente, Weibel and Mirassou. There is Sonoma's Chateau St. Jean, Sonoma Vineyards, as well as Corbet Canyon from the central coast.

Gary Heck, president of Korbel Champagne Cellars, sees a nearly two- million-case market for his firm alone for fine Champagnes from their hundred-year-old winery by the end of this decade. The firm has mastered and adapted technology while maintaining the highest standards of quality. A trip to their picturesque winery nestled in the hills near Guerneyville will convince you there is no conflict between quality and the mechanical wizardry --such as the huge machines which tilt thousands of bottles at a time to gently settle the lees into the necks.

While Domaine Chandon has burst on the scene in a few scant years to over 300,000 cases, it is not the only foreign Champagne house that sees the

potential in California production. Taittinger is now planning a $10- million Domaine Taittinger in the Carneros district south of Napa. Louis Roederer of Reims has produced its first 20tOOO cases of methode champenoise in Mendocino County and is now planting over 400 acres to grapes. Spanish firms Torres and Freixenet will soon be on the markett as will Seagram's entryt Domaine Mumm.

The great bulk of sparkling wines in California are produced either by the transfer method --where wine is pumped into bottles for fermentation and out again --or in giant bulk charmat tanks. These mechanical economies allow the production of very pleasant, though undistinguished, sparkling wines that can be stacked in grocery stores and consistently sold for under five dollars. These same bulk sparkling wines provide for thousands of wedding receptions and social events in the hotels and restaurants of our land.

It should be obvious that each type of sparkling wine has its place in the hospitality industry. A Schramsberg Brut or a Domaine Chandon Blanc de Blancs is ideal for the fine hotel dining room. An Andre from Gallo or Jacques Bonet from Heublein also fills the bill perfectly for a massive wedding reception or as a refreshing cooler at pool-side.

Take your sparkling wines as you find them, full of grace, dignity, promise and romance or as pleasant, fleeting refreshers. They are both.