Champagne and champagnization,

an area, a vineyard, a soil, men and one

mysterious and ancestral know-how

Of a surface of 31 500 ha vine, the Champagne vineyard is composed of 3 type of vines:

• 28% of Chardonnay: white type of vine

• 38% of Black Pinot: black type of vine with white juice

• 34% of Pinot Miller: black type of vine with white juice.

The champagne thus has encépagement of 75% of black type of vines, to work out a white effervescent wine. This thus forces important technical constraints to prevent that the wine obtained is not coloured i.e. stained.

These constraints and the exceptional character of the elaborate effervescent Champagne wines imply a certain number of technical specificities.

Vintage

On the level of the grape harvest, the regulation is thus very strict:

• Exclusively manual Grape harvest to avoid the trituration of the vintage and musts oxidized or stained.

 

• Transport of the grape harvest in cases of 50 kg maximum obligatory to avoid the car-pressing of the grape

• Cases bored to allow flow of musts (grape juice) released which would be stained (if the grape is black) and is oxidized.

• The shortest possible Time between harvest and pressing

• No mechanical treatment of the vintage: whole and intact vintage with the press.

Pressing

Pressing is also a key stage of champagnization.

This pressing must be:

• Direct, i.e. on the whole vintage, not having undergone no mechanical operation. That obliges the elaborative ones to use presses of great capacity.

Soft and progressive • : 160 kg of grape must give 102 liters of cleansed must, whereas only 130kg is needed grape to obtain 100 liters of must in the other areas. This pressing is long: approximately 3 hours, except cleaning.

• Split: 4000 kg of grape give:

• 20,50 hL of cleansed vintage: must of great quality

• 5,00 hL of cleansed size: less must of quality

3 to 5 roll up are realized during pressing to make pressing softer and progressive.

 

This pressing is followed of a thorough washing making it possible to extract from 2 to 4% of bourbes to obtain basic wines of a larger smoothness.

These 2 operations, as well as alcoholic fermentation at a temperature of 18 with 20°C make it possible to obtain basic wines of a great aromatic complexity.

Catch of foam

It is a delicate operation of the champagnization, which makes it possible to transform the basic wine into effervescent wine.

It is an alcoholic fermentation out of bottle.

It is the carbon dioxide produced by the 24 sugar g/L added to the basic wine during the pulling which makes it possible to obtain the 6 desired bars of pressure.

This catch of foam lasts 1 to 3 months.

The temperature must be close to 12°C during the catch of foam to obtain a good smoothness of the bubbles.

The rise in pressure is controlled by means of a aphrometer.

Ageing on slats

It is an important stage, which begins with the setting in bottles that one also calls pulling and finishes with discharging.

The duration of ageing on slats is regulated.

During ageing on slats, the yeasts which realized the catch of foam are autolysent. It is a degradation of dead yeasts.

This stage of maturation makes it possible future Champagne to reach the aromatic and gustatory richness which makes its inimitable quality.

The vintage Champagnes have one duration of ageing on slats much longer than Champagnes without year, and are discharged and marketed only with their optimum.

Moving

This operation consists in gathering the yeast deposit died in the neck of the bottle, or more exactly in the “thingummy”, for discharging.

Moving is carried out into 30 to 45 behaviours (abrupt rotation of one 8th of tower of the bottle on itself), while the bottle is rectified gradually in 4 times. When moving is finished, it is said that the bottle is in “blocked” position.

This operation is is:

• Manual on desks of 120 bottles for the special or “difficult” vintages

• Mechanical on “gyropalettes” for a saving of time and place.

Discharging

This operation consists in expelling the dead yeast deposit and the thingummy thanks to the pressure (6 bars) of the bottle.

This operation can be done:

• manually, it is “discharging with the flight”, which is delicate and requires a great gestural control

• mechanically. The deposit is then locked up in an ice floe, which makes it possible to rectify the bottle without being likely to make fall down the deposit and to make a “blue” bottle. It is “discharging with the ice”.

Discharging causes a loss from approximately 1 bar of pressure, which brings back the pressure in the bottle around 4,5 to 5 bars.

Proportioning

This operation consists in adding, at once after discharging, a certain quantity of sugar, variable according to the Champagne wine, to obtain organoleptic balance nearest possible to the perfection. In general, the “old” Champagnes more are proportioned.

This sugar is added in the form of very concentrated liquor, mixture of Champagne sugar and old wines.

According to sugar proportioning of Champagne, the obligatory lawful mention on the label is different.

Conclusion

At once proportioning carried out, the bottle is:

• Stopped with the final cork stopper

• Muzzled so that the stopper resists the pressure

• Equipped

• Dispatched

The Champagne wines are traditionally wines of assembly:

• Safe Assembly of years for Vintage Champagnes, the exceptional years

• Assembly of soils and vintages

• Assembly of type of vines:

• Chardonnay for the smoothness, freshness, the elegance and the flavours of citrus fruits

• Black Pinot for the power, the structure and the red flavours of fruits

• Pinot Miller for the fruit and the roundness

To that come to be added the particular vintages:

• mono type of vines, in particular the Champagnes White of White containing Chardonnay exclusively

• Breedings out of barrels of oak

Into growing old these Champagnes gain in complexity and generosity. The fresh fruit flavours evolve to dry fruit subtle candied fruits perfumes then. Promptness and freshness yield the place with happiness to softness, the roundness and heat. To finish roasted, buttered and torrefied notes appear delicately.

Thus, the Champagne is not a wine but a multitude of different and similar wines all at the same time, adapted to each festival and each met.