How many bubbles are in a bottle of Champagne? Open a bottle with a sigh, not at pop, and delight your Valentine with fun facts about Champagne, its history and the tender loving care that goes into every bottle.
Champagne Or Sparkling Wine?
Many countries make sparkling white wine, by only those from a small region in the Champagne district of France, northeast of Paris, can be called Champagne. The chalky subsoil and northern climate make the wine unique. The grapes are the most expensive in France, as is the land on which they are grown, accounting for just 2.5 percent of the country’s wine-producing region.
This Champagne AOC, or Appellation of Controlled Origin, is legally binding and regulates how the grapes are grown and harvested and how the wine is processed.
Roman Vineyards and Dom Perignon
The Romans grew grapes in the Champagne region, but it was not until the 17th century that Champagne wine existed when its natural effervescence was discovered and controlled. Monks made wine during the medieval era, but used barrels that allowed the bubbles to escape. When bottles were first used, they often exploded from the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation.
After years of experimentation, Benedictine monk Dom Perignon came along. Though he did not invent Champagne, he improved its production, using wire to hold the cork in place and establishing methods for pruning the vines and blending the grape varieties and vintages.
Champagne had become the coronation wine of French kings, and in the 19th century it was the drink of the aristocracy. After World War II and Prohibition in the United States, its popularity skyrocketed. More than 300 million bottles of Champagne now are produced annually, with the U.K. and the U.S. the biggest markets.
Veuve Clicquot and the Champagne Method
The Champagne appellation is unusual for its double fermentation method, a long and labor-intensive process that adds to its cost. Grapes are picked by hand between mid-September and mid-October and pressed under low pressure so the skin of black grapes doesn’t color the must, or juice. Only three types of grapes may be used: the black Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier and the white Chardonnay.
The must stays in vats until particles settle to the bottom and are removed. Yeast, and in some years, sugar, is added to the clarified juice to start fermentation, which takes place in stainless steel vats, or sometimes oak barrels. At this point, most Champagne is blended using reserve wine from a previous year. If it is a particularly good year, pricey vintage Champagne will be made only from the most recent harvest. The wine is bottled and capped for second fermentation and aging.
The bottles are then placed in riddling racks that hold them at a downward angle. Each bottle is turned a sixteenth, eighth or quarter turn in the rack over a period of days or weeks until all the sediment in the wine collects in the neck. It is then plunged into a saline solution cooled to minus 25 degrees C until the sediment freezes. When the cap is removed, the frozen sediment pops out.
The bottle is topped off with reserve wine blended with sugar and is corked, wired and set aside for further aging. The entire process takes anywhere from 15 months to three years.
The first riddling rack was invented in 1816 when Madame Clicquot, of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, had holes cut in her dining room table to hold the bottles. Madame Clicquot was a 27-year-old widow when she took over her husband’s wine business and remained a feisty businesswoman until her death at age 89.
Great Champagne Houses of Mumm, Taittinger, Pommery
Veuve Clicquot, with its copyrighted shade of yellow on its label, is one of the great Champagne houses in Reims. It, along with Mumm, Taittinger, Pommery, Martel, Lanson and others, are built over crayeres, old limestone mines and chalk quarries that form a 75-mile web of cellars under the city. During World War I residents took shelter in them, setting up schools and hospitals.
Veuve Clicquot’s cellar is 65 feet below ground and hovers around 10 to 12 degrees C. Every one of its bottles sold around the world has passed through this spot.
Charles De Gaulle Drank Drappier
In other areas of the Champagne region, Champagne houses may be smaller, family-run businesses. At Champagne Drappier in the hamlet of Urville the family has toiled in the vineyards since 1809 and its oldest cellars were built for an abbey there in 1152.
Drappier has the distinction of being French President Charles De Gaulle’s favorite Champagne, the one he chose for private receptions at his home in the area. A receipt for 24 bottles he purchased on March 3, 1965, is displayed in its tasting area.
Drappier is also famous for its oversize bottles. Riddling racks hold bottles from a quarter-bottle to the world’s largest, the Melchizedek, holding the equivalent of 40 bottles. It’s the only Champagne House to carry out the Champagne method using these massive vessels.
Big Champagne Bottles with Biblical Names
Most of the largest Champagne bottles take their names from the Bible. Their capacity in liters:
- Magnum: 1.5
- Jeroboan: 3
- Methuselah: 6
- Balthazar: 12
- Nebuchadnezzar: 15
- Solomon: 18
- Primat: 27
- Melchizedek: 30
How Sweet It Is: Brut and Demi-Sec
Champagne comes in several levels of sweetness, determined by the amount of sugar per liter added with the reserve wine before the bottle is corked.
- Extra Brut: less than six grams
- Brut: less than 15 grams
- Extra Dry or Extra Sec: 12-20 grams
- Sec: 17 to 35 grams
- Demi-sec: 33 to 50 grams
- Doux: more than 50 grams
In the 19th century, Champagne was much sweeter than it is now. Today the most common variety is brut.
Pink Champagne and Other Varieties
Among the different varieites of Champagne are:
- Pink or rose: Either red wine is added to the blend or the juice is exposed to the skins of red grapes
- Blanc de blanc: Made entirely from white Chardonnay grapes
- Blanc de noir: Made only from black Pinor Noir and/or Meunier grapes
Storing and Serving Champagne
Keep Champagne at 10 to 12 degrees C and store away from light and strong odors.
When opening, do not pop the cork. Remove the foil and untwist the wire, but don’t remove it. Cover the wire and cork with one hand and hold the bottom of the bottle with the other at a 45-degree angle. Twist in opposite directions until the cork is released with a sigh or whisper. The average bottle contains 50 million bubbles. Enjoy them in a tulip-shaped glass to release the aroma. Add Crème de Cassis to make a kir royale cocktail.
Katherine Rodeghier - During more than 30 years as a travel writer and editor, I have visited, researched and photographed destinations in more than 75 ...
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