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15 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Overview |
One appellation - covers all qualities. 44 premier cru and 17 grand cru villages. 19000 growers. 300 champagne houses and co-ops. 5 concentrations of vineyards Montagne de Riems Vallee de la Marne Cotes des Blanc Cote se Sezanne - 30 km SW. Cote des Bar - 100km south The region is reviewing the delineation of sites to see if further surface area can be used. |
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Climate |
Cool continental. Winter freezes, spring frosts, bad weather are all issues. Grapes struggle to ripen even in warm years. Avg 16 C temp. 650 mm rain. |
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Viticulture |
Chalk soils provide good drainage and good water retention. Soil are poor in nutrients. Growers committed to sustainability and have ambitious targets to reduce synthetic fertiliser. Vines planted on slopes, and pruned to help with frost. Large amount of permanent wood helps to grow second crop if first is destroyed. |
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Chardonnay |
Most planted in Cote des Blancs and Cote des Sezanne. light body, high citrus and floral. |
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Pinot Noir |
Dominates in Montagne de Reims and Cote des bar. Provides structure, body. and length. |
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Meunier |
Dominates in Vallee de la Marne. late budding. easy to drink fruitiness. |
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Pressing |
2/3 are black grapes. No destemming. Pressing take places in Coquard press or modern pmeumatic presses and needs to happen as quickly and gently as possible. 102 litres extracted from 160 kg of grapes. First 82 litres - Cuvee - next 20 - Taille |
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Primary fermentation |
Parcels of wine fermented separately in temp controlled steel vats. Base wine is neutral, acidic, dry, 10%alc. |
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Blending |
Key to champagne vintage consistency, house styles. Can use up to 70 wines. |
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Secondary fermentation |
Wine, sugar, yeast, yeast nutrients - Liqueur de Tirage added before bottling. Stored at 10-12°C. Slow fermentation 1.5 - 2% abv adds flavour development. Creates pressure of 6 atmospheres. |
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Yeast Autolysis |
Yeast Autolysis is the dead yeast break down over months and years and releases chemical compounds. Adds bread, biscuit flavours. Can last 4-5 years, but can be up to 10. Lees can keep wine fresh for decades, but once disgorged, the longer the lees time the quicker it will mature. |
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Riddling |
Moving the bottle slowly to vertical so sediment catches in the cap. Trad done by Remueur by hand over 8 weeks, wines stored in a pupitres A frame. Now done in Gyropalate in 8 days. |
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Disgorgement |
Neck of bottle is submerges in cold brine and frozen. The frozen wine is removed with the sediment. Dosage - liquer d'expedition a mixture of wine and cane sugar solution replaces lost wine. |
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Dosage |
Trend towards lower levels. Takes a few months to integrate fully.
Brut Nature mean no dosage. Max is 12g/l for brut. Brut nature - dry 0-3 g/l Extra brut - dry - 0-6 g/l Brut - dry\off-dry- 0-12 g/l Extra-Sec - off-dry\med dry- 12-17 g/l Sec - med dry- 17-32 g/ Dem-Sec - sweet - 32-50 g/ Doux - lucious - 50 g/l |
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Prestige Cuvee |
Catch all term that producers use for the very best parcels of wine of all levels.
No Meunier. |
