Champagne

Champagne located northeast of Paris, is the most northerly of the AOC wine regions of France. Champagne wine region is famous for its sparkling wine – so called Champagne. A Champagne has to go through second fermentation process in bottle and age in the bottle for 15 months minimum.

The major grape varieties grown in Champagne are: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The red grapes are pressed very gently so that the colour on the skin will not pass to the juice, resulting bright, white wine. However, those two red grapes will give backbone and structure to the wine whereas Chardonnay adds on the elegance and finesses. Most champagne is a blend of those three grape varieties, whereas some specialty Champagne use one or two varieties only i.e. Blanc de Blanc only use Chardonnay whereas prestige Champagne only use Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.

Champagne is an AOC area. However, it is very hard to find ‘AC’ on the label. Also, Champagne has its own classification of their vineyard, thus to classify the final wine. Champagne uses a percentile system (Echelle des Crus), representing the percentage of the quality of the wine.

• Grand Cru Vineyard: 100% Echelle des Crus
• Premier Cru Vineyard : 90 – 99% Echelle des Crus
• The lowest rated villages : 80% Echelle des Crus

As most Champagne are the blend of different base wines from different vineyards, the percentile system will give an average point of view on the quality of the wine. There are two major factors making Champagne unique and un-replicated in any other wine region in the world:

Soil is one of the two. The up to 300 meters deep porous pure white chalk soil provides great drainage but also keeps a sufficient amount of water for the survival of vine from drought. High in lime content produces grapes with high acidity and mineral.

The other factor is the climate. Champagne is located on the 49th parallel, almost the limit edge for viticulture. It has the shortest growing seasons in the world of the wine. The Atlantic breeze also has a cooling effect on its summer. No other viticulture area has that kind of climate, which giving wine an extra level of freshness, crisp and finesse.

Food and Wine Pairing:

General speaking, Champagne is a great aperitif but also goes well with cold soup, puree, salad, shellfish and light fish as starter. More than that, Champagne is also a great company for celebration.