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  Quaffers® Feature - February 2002
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 Champagne has always been the quaff of choice when there is a celebration or a special toast to be made. Our reliance on well-known marques can be ascribed to the persistent marketing from these Champagne houses which focus on decadence and luxury to fuel our aspirations. Top champagnes are still expensive wines, but look around today and you will see some fantastic bargains in the supermarkets and in the wine merchants. Sparkling wines are in abundance and though they do not have the same cachet as traditional champagne, many of them can compete on taste very successfully.
The Background to champagne
Most people believe that the French created champagne. Certainly the French have protected champagne as their creation so vigorously that no other wine in the world may call itself by the same name, even if made in exactly the same way and with the same raw materials. The centre of champagne production is around the towns of Reims and Epernay with the grapes grown in three main regions - Valle de la Marne, the Cote des Blancs and Montagne de Reims - France's most northern vineyard area to the north east of Paris.
It was, however, not the French but the English who first established the methodology for creating the sparkle in wine, which was recorded in an eight-page document in 1662. The document was written by Christopher Merret thirty years before the earliest records of Champagne-making in France and seventy years before any of the French Champagne Houses were established.
There were two main reasons which enabled the English to experiment successfully and beat the French to creating sparkling wine:
1. Stronger bottles able to withstand the pressure. In the mid 17th century the English had introduced coal-fired furnaces in place of the old wood-fired furnaces. These new furnaces were capable of reaching far higher temperatures and as a result the glass that was made was far tougher.
2. Corks. The English re-discovered the cork as a stopper for the wine bottle before the French and therefore had a more effective way to contain such a volatile wine.
 As we know, however, being first to market does not always ensure success and in this example the French were able to copy the practice, perfect it and create worldwide demand. It was Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot who discovered the art of blending and the practice of rémuage respectively. It was Louis Pasteur, another French citizen, who actually understood how yeast and sugar combine to create alcohol and carbon dioxide and therefore was able to transform the process into something other than a haphazard one and it was Chaptal (Napoleon's interior minister) who further refined the process by standardising the addition of sugar to the wine. Furthermore it was the courts of the French kings, with all their decadence and notoriety, which popularised the new style of wine and created the demand.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the Champagne region firmly established itself as the centre of sparkling wine production and has not looked back since.
How Traditional Champagne is Made
The traditional method of making champagne is time consuming and expensive. The main champagne grapes are Chardonnay - used for its ability to age well and provide finesse; Pinot Noir - used to contribute backbone and complexity to the wine and Pinot Meunier - used to add a youthful fruity and flowery note to the blend. Once the grapes have been harvested they are brought into the winery, destalked and pressed. Black grapes used in the process of making white sparkling wine will have their skins discarded so that only the white pulp and colourless juice from inside the grape runs into the fermentation vats. Once in the vats, the grape juice begins to ferment. The yeasts feed on the sugar of the grape juice to create alcohol. This primary fermentation is short. The next stage of the process is to blend various still wines to create a final style. Most Champagne Houses will have a Îhouse styleâ made to a recipe and can be a blend of several different wines from several different years and vineyards. (Vintage Champagne will only be made in particularly good years and will be made from grapes only grown in that year.)
 Once the blending has taken place the wine is fined (sediment removed) and racked (filtered) into a clean vat. Next, unfermented still wine, sugars and yeasts (collectively known as Îliqueur de tirageâ) are introduced to the blended wine and the mixture bottled. The bottles are sealed with 'crown caps' and placed into pupitres. Pupitres are 'A' shaped racks that contain holes at 45 degrees in which the bottles are placed. The all-important second fermentation, which gives champagne its sparkle, happens while the bottles are slotted in these pupitres. The added yeasts feed on the new sugars to create more alcohol. The bi-product is carbon dioxide which cannot escape from the bottle and is therefore trapped in the wine as tiny bubbles. During the second fermentation and for many months after, the bottles are gradually rotated in their racks a few degrees each day. This process is known as riddling. After a while the bottles will have undergone a rotation such that they will end up facing downwards in an almost vertical position. The rationale for the riddling process is that the sediment in the bottle, made up of the dead yeasts, will gradually be collected at the neck of the bottle where it can be more easily removed. Vintage champagne must be matured for a minimum of three years and non-vintage for a minimum of fifteen months. Most Champagne Houses, however, age their champagnes for much longer in the dark cool cellars at a temperature of about 10-12 degrees Celsius.
Dégorgement is the term given to the removal of the sediment which has collected at the neck of the bottle. Often this is done by freezing the necks of the bottles. This has the effect of freezing a plug of wine and sediment which is then forced out under pressure when the cap is removed. The bottles are then topped up with some fermented wine and sugar (liqueur d'expédition) and corks are inserted. The finished champagne is often cellared for some months before it is transported to its final destination.
What is Sparkling Wine?
Sparkling wine can be champagne-like wine made anywhere in the World other than Champagne in France. Many of the very best sparkling wines are made in exactly the same way as champagne but may not be called champagne due to legal restrictions. An example is Spanish Cava. Many of the famous Champagne houses have set up operations in other countries to produce sparkling wine, such as Mumm's Cuveé Napa in California and MoŒt et Chandon's Green Point in Australia.
Sparkling wine made by the traditional method is an expensive product. Other methods where the second fermentation does not occur in the bottle (such as tank, transfer or pump methods) are significantly cheaper and are employed in many countries as a cost effective way to produce sparkling wine at the lower end of the market. These methods can result in an inferior product and the most common distinction is in the nature of the bubbles in the wine. Sparkling wine and champagne made by the traditional method have many many fine bubbles, which will continue to rise to the surface for the duration they are in the glass and create a pleasing mousse on the surface. Wines made by other methods tend to have fewer bubbles and these are often much larger and start to fade shortly after the wine is poured.
Our wines of the week this month are a mix of champagnes and sparkling wines. Take a look at our findings, but get out there and try a few different wines to find the ones you prefer. Remember in a recent Which? blind tasting of champagne and sparkling wine, Tesco's Premier cru NV own-label sparkler was rated more highly than many of the top names such as Bollinger, Mumm Veuve Clicquot etc. It is a matter, as always, of personal preference!
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| Coming up next month: Sherry - a wine for all occasions and ages - not just for Grandma on Christmas day! |
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