Champagne, Explained: A Snobbery-Free Guide to the Best of Bubbly
Five takeaways:
- Let’s start with the basics: champagne is a sparkling wine that bears the name of the region it comes from- the Champagne region of northeastern France.
- Champagnes are generally known for their bright acidity and light, lively body, often with a brioche-y and/or nutty quality thanks to required minimum aging on the lees, or dead yeast cells
- Champagne differs from other sparkling wines in its fermentation process. It’s second fermentation happens naturally, inside the bottle– a natural carbonic gas that cannot escape the sealed bottle naturally makes the wine sparkling.
- Champagne producers fall into two categories: Récoltant-Manipulant and Négociant-Manipulant.
- A Récoltant-Manipulant grower, independently makes his or her wines onsite under his or her own label using grapes grown on the house’s vineyards exclusively.
- A Négociant-Manipulant — such as Veuve Clicquot, Moët Chandon, and other big, well-known brand names — is defined as a group that buys outside grapes then produces the champagne on their premises. These make up most of the international market.
- Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meunier are the most commonly used grapes in the production of champagne.
From Céline Bossart for Food & Wine
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