champagne

champagne, classic sparkling wine named for the site of its origin and exclusive production, the traditional region of Champagne in northeastern France. The term champagne is also applied generically, with restrictions, outside France, to many white or rosé wines that are characterized by effervescence. In the United States, sparkling wines made in a similar manner are designated first by place of origin, as in New York state champagne. Similar wines from Spain and elsewhere are often called “champagne-style.”

The region that produces champagne includes certain parishes in the départements of Marne, Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, Aube, and Haute-Marne. The best champagne comes from vineyards along the Marne River from Château-Thierry eastward to Épernay and on the plain from Épernay stretching north to Reims, which is dominated by a hill called the Montagne de Reims. Champagne is made from only three grapes: pinot and meunier, both black, and chardonnay, white. Characteristic of champagne is a crisp, flinty taste, sometimes ascribed to the chalky soil. A small amount made from green grapes only is called blanc des blancs. Pink champagne is made by adding a little red wine, or by leaving the crushed grapes in contact with their skins for a time.

Champagne is initially fermented in stainless steel vats, after which the wine is blended. If the year has been excellent, only wines of that year are used and the product is vintage champagne; if not, a blend with wines of different years will be made, improving and strengthening the wine and producing a nonvintage champagne. After blending, a mixture of wine, sugar, and yeast is added to the wine before it is transferred to pressure tanks or to strong, dark bottles for a second fermentation that yields carbon dioxide and effervescence. This second fermentation is completed after a few weeks or months. Wine thus fermented in tanks is then transferred to another tank, where it is chilled, sweetened, and bottled. Wine in bottles is left to mature; during this period the bottles are shaken daily and gradually turned and tipped until they are upside down and the impurities (sediment) have settled onto the bottom of the cork. This procedure, called riddling, or remuage, has been largely mechanized since the 1970s. When the wine is mature and ready for the market, the deposits are removed in a process called dégorgement. In this process, the cork is carefully pried off, allowing the internal pressure in the bottle to shoot the sediment out; this is sometimes done after the neck of the bottle and the deposits have been frozen. After dégorgement, a small amount of syrup melted in old champagne is added to the bottle and the wine is recorked. Champagne to which little or none of this sugar is added is labeled brut, or extra dry; somewhat sweeter is sec, and wine with larger quantities is demi-sec. All of these are sweeter than the words indicate.

Champagne bottles are made in many sizes: the split (equal to 1/4 bottle), the half-bottle, the bottle (0.75 litres), the magnum (equal to two bottles), the jeroboam (equal to four bottles), the methuselah (equal to eight bottles), the salmanazar (equal to 12 bottles), the balthazar (equal to 16 bottles), the nebuchadnezzar (equal to 20 bottles), and the most recent creation, the sovereign (equal to more than 33 bottles). The larger bottles (from the balthazar on up), originally handblown, proved to be so dangerous that they were discontinued until 1986, when a safer method of production was introduced.