Champagne: its terroir, its production, its price and how to taste it properly

The Champagne terroir

Now that we know more about the history of our famous sparkling wine, let's analyze the Champagne terroir.

First of all, in Champagne,  the climate is rather cold  and the soils are clayey-calcareous . There chalk is often put forward here to explain freshness and minerality wines,  two key features of our favorite effervescent. The latter also allows for a fantastic water regulation  : when it rains too much, the excess is absorbed and redistributed the following year, when it is too dry, this limestone plays a role a sponge role and keeps water underground.

On these soils,  3 grape varieties  represent almost all of the grape varieties  : THE  pinot noir  (38% of the vineyard), the  pinot meunier  (32%), as well as the  chardonnay  (30%). Other varieties such as  pinot gris ,  the arban  or even the  pinot blanc  can be used but are still uncommon. Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are red grape varieties while Chardonnay is a white grape variety. So if you read  "  White of whites  »  on a bottle, it simply means that your champagne is a 100% chardonnay (white grape variety producing a white champagne). Conversely a  "  White of blacks  »  will be a champagne made from Pinot Noir and Meunier (or just one of the two) because these are black-skinned grape varieties that produce a white champagne.

And the Pink champagne  in all this? Well the  oldest traces of its creation  would go back up  year-round  1764  when the Ruinart house developed a rosé of maceration  (the juice coloring on contact with the black skins of the grapes) called "oeil-de-perdrix". However, the more common method today of blending a small proportion of red wine with a majority of white wine to create a rosé wine (a process only authorized in Champagne and nowhere else!) was not officially created until 1818 by Nicole Clicquot ( Veuve Clicquot Champagne ). 

Let's see now  the important stages of the production of our bubbles. Champagne is a wine that knows  two fermentations  (you know, that process of converting the sugar in grapes into alcohol). Once the first fermentation is complete, the wines obtained here are called "  clear wines  " and are around 11% alcohol. At this stage, the bubbles do not yet exist and the acidity of these juices being very high, they are not very pleasant to taste.

In order to be able to display the mention “  Champagne  ", clear wines will therefore have to know  aging on slats , that is to say a period of 15 months minimum (for a classic champagne) or 36 months minimum (for a vintage champagne) where they will be kept in the cellar and in the bottle horizontally. And it is during the first weeks of this aging on slats that our effervescence will form  ! It is indeed at this moment that the winemaker will add to the clear wines  "  a liqueur of tirage  » , mixture of wine, sugar (often cane) and yeast .  These will then once again convert the added sugar into alcohol, while releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) which will this time be trapped in the bottle.  It is therefore the second fermentation in the bottle which gives our Champagne its bubbles.  as well as its final alcohol content  around 12.5%.

Beyond the creation of this effervescence (called  "  foam intake  » ),  Aging on slats is a crucial step  with a view to obtaining a high quality champagne  : it is thanks to these long months of rest in the bottle that the wines, in contact with the lees (dead yeasts remaining in the bottle after generating the second fermentation) will acquire a patina and gain in complexity, sometimes giving these gourmet aromas of toast and hazelnut.

Finally,  our effervescent will be "  disgorged  »  (the lees are expelled from the bottle in order to obtain a clear liquid and not potentially start a new fermentation) and we add  "  there dosage liqueur  », a mixture of wine and sugar defining the style of champagne  : Brut nature, Extra-brut, Brut etc. If you would like to find all the information concerning these terms, do not hesitate to take a look at  This article that I was able to write concerning sweet wines  where everything is explained.

And there you have it, our champagne is finally ready to be sold and enjoyed in good company.  !

Example of bottles aging on slats

Why is Champagne so expensive?  ?

First of all,  the price of grapes  in Champagne varies between €4 and €7/kg depending on the plots and vintages. Knowing that it takes on average 1.2kg of grapes for a bottle, we are already around €8  ! If the raw material is so expensive, this is notably due to the  high land prices  so of the  fact that every year,  The players in the sector set the authorized yields among themselves  in order to adjust production according to global demand (so as not to cause prices to drop too significantly). Finally, the great power of brands like  ruin t ,  Moët & Chandon , Dom Perignon  or even  Roederer  is quite unique in the French wine landscape.  Champagne is, thanks to these groups (particularly LVMH ), a particularly well-marketed product conveying a luxury image from which the entire sector benefits.

As other factors, we could also mention the manual harvests which are obligatory in Champagne or the time needed to develop the product because these long years  in the cellar of course impact the final cost. But these elements are ultimately common to other products. Let's take the example of the  Vouvray Brut from the Pinon estate  : its manufacturing method is the same as a champagne (traditional method), the harvests are also manual here and the rest time in the cellar (aging on slats) is 30 months (same or even longer than some champagnes). The remaining elements explaining the difference  price differences between the two products are therefore good much more highly valued land in Champagne ,  a certain rarity deliberately sought  as well as  the power of marketing  making champagne  a luxury product.

To conclude, let us address  the tasting part! First of all,  Most of the champagnes we buy are made to be drunk within 3 to 5 years. . They are not intended to be preserved and, while they are no less enjoyable at the end of this period, they will not gain in complexity either.

Other vintages are nevertheless made for aging. We are talking here about certain  vintage champagnes  (like the  Millennial White  from the house Charles Heidsieck ) or other large bottles often sold at high prices. There is no universal rule for determining when to open these bottles as it will depend on the style of the champagne, its quality as well as the vintage.

The best thing to do in this case will therefore be to  ask your favorite wine merchant for advice  ( The Illuminated Cellar  GOOD  heard) or directly to the winemaker concerned.Nevertheless,  although no precise custody duration can be defined in advance,  A wait of 15 to 20 years will already be a great demonstration of patience!  Beyond that, champagnes often lose a lot of their effervescence and can turn to aromas of honey, undergrowth and humus. Personally I love it, but that's not the case for everyone.  !

Regarding the serving temperature, it is generally agreed to serve our bubbles between  8° and 10°C Below this, the cold will have an anesthetic effect on the taste buds and above this, we will appreciate less the lively and refreshing character of the champagnes.

Finally, (and I know this is going to be hard to hear) but  It is better not to serve champagne in flutes  classic or cuts . If that's all you have in stock at home, don't throw away all your dishes, but since a glass is by definition very flared, it won't be ideal for best tasting the aromas on the nose and will cause the champagne to lose its effervescence more quickly once served. As for the flute, it will bring up the carbon dioxide present in a way that is too concentrated, which can sometimes "sting" our noses (we call it  this phenomenon  "  carbonic sting  » ). Therefore , a wine or champagne glass with an open bottom but a slightly narrow neck will be perfect  !