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The wines of Champagne are defined not just by the region’s history, geography, and laws but also by its unique viticultural and winemaking practices. This guide follows Champagne production from the vineyard to the glass, diving into the specific farming practices, decisions made in the cellar, and biological processes that together result in one of the world’s great sparkling wines.
Achieving a vineyard that is balanced year after year to produce sparkling rather than still wine requires adhering to certain criteria. It is not practical to be dogmatic about how each grape variety should be grown in every location within such a large and varied region as Champagne. But it is true that a variety destined for Champagne production, when compared with the same variety grown in the same place for a still wine, generally requires the following in a classic vineyard:
In Champagne, the space between vines within the same row can range between 0.9 meters and 1.5 meters (roughly 3 feet and 4.9 feet), while the distance between rows must not exceed 1.5 meters. The relatively wide-spaced minimum of 0.9 meters is determined by the space necessary to accommodate all obligatory methods of training and the number of fruiting buds required. There is also a maximum sum of spread—the summation of the distance between each vine and each row—of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). This is equivalent to, for example, 1 meter (3.3 feet) between vines and 1.5 meters between rows.
The average density in Champagne is 8,000 vines per hectare. There is no maximum vine density, although 10,000 vines per hectare is not uncommon and 18,000 is considered a practical maximum even for nonmechanized vineyards. This practical maximum is lower, however, than pre-phylloxera vineyards planted en foule. French for “in a crowd,” this term refers to a method of planting vines that relies on a layering system; these vineyards would have had a vine density of over 25,000 per hectare. Rare examples survive today, such as Clos Saint-Jacques, a walled vineyard in Aÿ that belongs to Bollinger and is half planted en foule.
Very low vine densities have been allowed by special dispensation for experimental plots, such as Moët’s trialing of the Lyre system, which has a sum of spread of 4.4 meters (14.4 feet) and just 2,750 vines per hectare (although this has been increased to 3,000 to 4,000 vines per hectare in some plots). These trials, which began in the Aube in 1988, are ongoing. Benefits include less ambient humidity, thus less gray rot, and more acidity, resulting in crisper wines. But this comes at a price, because, despite fewer vines per hectare, the Lyre system is significantly more difficult and 30% more expensive to establish. Full cropping levels take six years rather than the usual three, and production levels of the traditional training systems can’t be matched.
Four systems of vine training are allowed in Champagne: Chablis, Cordon, Guyot, and Vallée de la Marne. Guyot is a head-trained system, and the other three are cordon-trained systems. The Chablis and Cordon training systems are the only methods permitted for grand and premier cru vineyards.
Generally, the Chablis system is for Chardonnay vines planted in the Côte des Blancs, the Cordon system for Pinot Noir vines in the Montagne de Reims, and the Vallée de la Marne method for Meunier vines grown in the Marne Valley. But since all varieties can be found in each district, the method of training, most clearly identified in the winter, is useful for determining where one variety stops and another begins.
The Chablis system was developed in the Chablis district in the 19th century, and at least 90% of all Chardonnay vines in Champagne are trained by this method. A maximum of five buds are allowed for Chardonnay, Meunier, and Petit Meslier, and up to four are allowed for other grapes. For Chardonnay, four shoots require five buds, as the first bud on this vine is always infertile. Either three, four, or five permanent branches may be cultivated, each grown at yearly intervals. Because vines are not allowed to overlap, when a vine reaches the neighboring plant, it will be removed.
Originally known as Cordon de Royat and now called Cordon, the spur-trained, cane-pruned system was developed in the mid-19th century at the Royat agricultural school, in southwestern France. It is considered the best vine training system for Pinot Noir. Only one main branch is permitted, along which shoots above branch level are spaced at a minimum of 15-centimeter (6-inch) intervals. Each shoot may have two buds (three for Chardonnay, the first being infertile), but the end shoot is also allowed to be an extension of the main branch itself and may have four buds (five for Chardonnay).
Guyot is a cane-pruned system, with a main spur (or spurs if double Guyot is used) that is not permanent but renewed annually. In the version known as single (or simple) Guyot, a single, annually renewable branch is allowed, with 10 productive buds, whereas for double Guyot, two annually renewable branches are permitted, with 8 buds each.
The Vallée de la Marne system is restricted to Meunier vines and vineyards that are not classified as either grand or premier cru. There are four variants of this system, all of which have different shoot requirements. In the basic version, there are six buds on the main permanent spur and nine on the secondary. When the main branch reaches the next plant, it is replaced by the secondary branch.
Champagne’s yields are relatively high compared with those of other regions known for high-quality wines, but yields arguably have less of an impact on Champagne than on other wines. Lower yields are often associated with a grape’s potential to show greater structure as well as weight, color, potential alcohol, pigmentation, and phenolic characters. But for 85% of all Champagne production (primarily nonvintage blends), the structure of a Champagne is defined by the second fermentation and sometimes also chaptalization, making the wine richer and fuller. Champagne is a 12.5% ABV wine with the structure of a 9.7% ABV wine.
If large crops are within reasonable limits, they have certain advantages in Champagne. They can delay flowering beyond the worst ravages of frost and extend ripening into September, when cooler nights will preserve acidity. Most of the best Champagne vintages have been September harvests, whereas most of the worst vintages have been October harvests. If the Champenois must harvest in October, it is usually because of delays caused by a less-than-perfect growing season, after which rot infection becomes highly probable.
Yields are determined by kilograms of grapes harvested per hectare and hectoliters of juice pressed per kilogram of grapes. From this it is possible to convert kilograms per hectare into the more familiar hectoliters per hectare. Until 1990, the maximum pressing limit was 26.6 hectoliters per 4,000 kilograms. In 1991, this was reduced to 25.5 hectoliters per 4,000 kilograms (102 liters per 160 kilograms) at the press and 25 hectoliters after fermentation.
The maximum permitted yield was initially set by a 1935 decree-law. The maximum annual yield should never exceed the maximum permitted yield. Since 2007, the maximum permitted yield has been 15,500 kilograms (96.9 hectoliters per hectare). Hidden in the small print of the maximum permitted yield regulations is a clause under the heading “Double-safeguard to prevent excessive yields,” which states that growers must ensure that no block of vines exceeds 18 bunches per square meter, and, whatever the average yield for their entire viticultural holdings might be, no individual parcel of vines may exceed an average yield of 21,700 kilograms per hectare (138 hectoliters per hectare).
The maximum annual yield is decided each year under the auspices of the Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC). In years of plenty, the maximum annual yield may comprise the maximum usable annual yield and maximum reserve (or blocage, stored without the benefit of AOC), but when combined they must not exceed the maximum permitted yield. In small harvests, the maximum usable annual yield will be augmented by the release of the maximum personal reserve (déblocage).
The maximum usable annual yield is classified Champagne AOC and is the proportion of the crop that is immediately usable in a large harvest.
The maximum personal reserve to be stored is a proportion of a large harvest that is not immediately usable. It is not classified Champagne AOC and must be held en blocage by producers as réserve personnelle (or réserve qualitative individuelle). These reserves are not reserve wines kept for blending nonvintage cuvées, which are classified Champagne AOC. The maximum reserve for any vintage will be stored in the form of unclassified vins clairs (clear wines), with reserves of previous harvests. This is Champagne’s strategic emergency stock and, as of 2017, was the equivalent of 270 million bottles. As reserves from better, more recent years become available, it is permissible to replace aging or lesser-quality reserves with excess production, should there be any.
The maximum personal reserve to be released is a proportion of stored reserves that have finally been classified Champagne AOC and authorized for use to combat a shortfall of a small harvest. This is known as déblocage.
The official average yield is the average of all the declared yields made at the pressing centers. It is the average of what can be legally harvested, not the average of what was grown in the vineyards. The latter number, the total volume grown, is known as the actual yield. These numbers can be strikingly different. For example, in 2004 the official average yield was 13,990 kilograms (89 hectoliters per hectare), whereas the actual yield according to the CIVC’s database was 23,000 kilograms (143.8 hectoliters per hectare). The actual yield used to be published by the CIVC but has become increasingly scarce over the past decade or so.
Although it may seem surprising, a high actual yield—even as high as that of 2004—is not intrinsically harmful to the quality of Champagne. It is the interaction of yield with factors such as timing, temperature, and precipitation that can impact quality.
Harvest
Champagne grapes cannot be picked until the annual ouverture de la vendange is published. This dictates when the harvest is allowed to begin on a village-by-village, variety-by-variety basis. The dates are determined by a committee but are essentially based on a system of fieldwork that was introduced in 1956, whereby samples are taken twice a week, starting at veraison, from 450 control plots spread throughout Champagne. The selected clusters are checked for rate of change in weight, sugar, and total acidity, and for any incidence of botrytis. These findings indicate the degree of grape ripeness by village and variety, and eventually lead to the CIVC establishing when the harvest should begin. The findings also determine the quantity of grapes per hectare that will be approved for AOC production and the minimum potential alcohol level.
Hand-harvesting is required by law in Champagne. Bunches are deposited into small crates that, when stacked, prevent the grapes from being crushed. The crates are delivered to the press house quickly to avoid oxidation.
Most producers still believe that, despite the technological advances of the latest machine harvesters, the harvest in Champagne will always be by hand, but not everyone is convinced. A small but growing number of more technically minded producers have gradually conceded that mechanical harvesters will be permitted in Champagne in the future. The obstacle is that such harvesters will have to pick whole clusters, which they have not yet achieved on a commercial scale.
It is a myth that grapes in Champagne are harvested early or underripe. On average, the harvest in Champagne starts two weeks after the harvest in Bordeaux. Because of the long, drawn-out veraison and final ripening period, the grapes attain acid ripeness when their average potential alcohol is just 9.5% ABV, sometimes even less.
In Champagne, acid ripeness begins at 50-50 tartaric-malic. After this point, the degree of ripeness at which grapes are picked is determined by the style of wine required. The data for the past 30 years demonstrates that Champagne grapes have averaged 9.7% ABV with 53.2% tartaric acid. For vintage, prestige, and other special cuvées, the vins clairs chosen undergo an increasingly stricter selection; consequently, the final cuvées tend to average 10.5% to 11% ABV, with most components not requiring chaptalization. Such Champagnes are generally richer, with a fuller structure, qualities that can interfere with maintaining a classic lean structure. This is the primary reason why the construction of the supposedly best-quality, most expensive Champagnes is not as simple as selecting the best-quality components, as these may end up bigger, not better.
Ripeness levels have increased significantly since 1970, but total acidity and pH remain optimal. Although the increase in ripeness is primarily the result of warmer growing seasons, particularly since 2003, other factors are involved, such as the cultivation of earlier-ripening clones.
Champagne grapes are never destemmed, because the fibrous material of the stems and stalks creates a network of canals through which the juice rapidly drains. This is particularly advantageous for black grape varieties, as it helps avoid coloration. Champagne’s traditional Coquard press is essentially 17th-century technology (which itself was merely a flattened adaptation of the basket press of the Middle Ages) powered by electricity, yet it is still one of the very best presses for sparkling wine in the world. Modern pneumatic presses are also excellent, particularly those that press in a sealed, inert-gas environment, as they reduce oxidation, a process that is unavoidable as soon as a grape is crushed. All pneumatic presses have a large central or lateral rubber balloon that inflates, gently yet rapidly crushing the grapes against the inner surface of the press, and the juice swiftly drains away along channels and through ducts. When Coquard brought out its radically new model, the PAI (an acronym for pressoir automatique à plateau incliné), it stood the original 17th-century design not on its head but on its side. The reason for this, and the clever part of the press’s design, is the inclusion of an inclined plate, which allows the pomace to fall by gravity. The improved press is less likely to bruise skins, doesn’t crush seeds, saves time, and reduces oxidation.
Most presses are programmed with a CIVC chip to replicate the Coquard’s complex series of pressing and breaking-up operations, the ultimate objective of which is to separate the cuvée (used in this sense to mean the first pressing, rather than in the sense of a blend) from the taille (the second and any subsequent pressings). The best producers seek the cleanest and richest juice—containing the most sugar, acids, minerals, and vitamins, but the least tannin—which is found only in the first pressing. The longer the grapes are pressed, the more colored the juice becomes (even from white grapes), the higher its pH (thus the lower its acidity), and the more tannin it will contain (from the skins as well as the stalks and the rachis, or skeletal remains of the cluster).
Traditionally, the comparative volumes of cuvée and taille were based on the capacity of a classic Coquard press, which could hold 4,000 kilograms of grapes. Each fill of the press historically yielded 2,666 liters of juice. This capacity was used to define a unit of volume called a marc, which measures the weight of the grapes (not juice). This was the basis on which the AOC for Champagne was initially established, with the first 2,050 liters extracted classified as the cuvée, the next 500 liters called the taille, and the last 116 liters the rebêche.
Most producers make their wines exclusively from the cuvée—or at least they say they do, although even some top-quality producers claim that a little taille from Chardonnay can be interesting and useful in a blend. If the grapes are wet with rain or contain rot, or if no rain has fallen since they were last sprayed, quality-conscious producers will run off the first 50 to 65 liters of every marc into the taille and run on the cuvée for an additional equivalent amount, effectively upgrading the first 50 to 65 liters of taille. In these cases, the taille will consist of the first 50 to 65 liters and the final 435 to 450 liters. Some producers have created special cuvées from the coeur de cuvée (heart of the cuvée), while, at the other extreme, the producers of own-label products and premier prix Champagnes will use high percentages (sometimes 100%) of the taille.
Following pressing, the juice is piped to cleansing vats for débourbage, or settling. It typically remains in the vats for 12 to 24 hours while any solids (particles of skin, stalk, pips, and more) settle on the bottom as bourbes. The settled juice is then piped to the fermenting vessel. Some producers like to perform a double débourbage (devised by James Coffinet when he was cellar master at Billecart-Salmon in the 1970s), which can reduce the amount of sulfur required.
Champagne goes through two separate fermentations, neither of which should yield a complete or balanced wine. Indeed, the objective of both fermentations is the opposite: to produce a wine that is intentionally incomplete and precisely unbalanced. The winemaker must keep in mind how the balance will be affected by additional alcohol from a second fermentation, the altered chemical composition that results, the tactile effect of the mousse on the balance of the final wine, the “fattening” effect of several years of lees contact, the oxidative punch of disgorgement, and the dosage (if there is to be one). The wine cannot be either complete or balanced before manipulation by all these additional factors.
Most wines are fermented separately by village and grape variety, and, whether vin de cuvée or vin de taille, the degree of separation depends on the ratio of vats (and their respective sizes) to the total volume of production. Some producers vinify their wines by lieux-dits or lots within each village.
Although fermentation temperatures in Champagne are generally lower now than they were prior to the 1960s, when temperature control was introduced, the ability to control the temperature rather than the temperature itself is most important. The first fermentation should be relatively fast and furious, as its job is to produce a comparatively basic wine. The second fermentation should be significantly longer and cooler, because it unlocks more biochemical reactions that result in a finished product of greater complexity.
Chaptalization is necessary for most Champagne to achieve the classic, recognized structure of the category. As the average potential ABV from grapes grown in Champagne is 9.7% and the maximum amount of liqueur de tirage would contribute an additional 1.5%, the total average ABV for Champagne is no more than 11.2% without chaptalization. With chaptalization, an average of between 0.8% and 1.3% is added, with a finished strength of 12% to 12.5% ABV (this covers almost all Champagne sold).
The initial fermentation usually takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Some producers vinify their Champagnes in new or used oak, using large foudres, small casks (known locally as pièces and 205 liters in capacity), or 228-liter Burgundian barriques. Concrete tanks lined with either glass tiles or epoxy resin are still used, even though they date from the 1940s and 1950s. These often remain in place because they cannot be removed without demolishing the cellars. Egg-shaped concrete vessels are occasionally used, as are similarly shaped vessels constructed from oak.
Historically, every Champagne was fermented in old oak—not just pièces but also much larger vessels, such as foudres, muids, and demi-muids—because it was the only suitable material available. When producers began replacing oak with large concrete tanks lined with glass or epoxy, in the mid-1940s, and started introducing stainless steel beginning in 1959, the most noticeable effect was one of mouthfeel: the loss of a midpalate ampleness and a textural creaminess on the finish, which had been created by micro-oxygenation. By the 1960s, some chefs de caves were becoming concerned about how the change in fermentation vessels had affected the style of Champagne.
The work of the French researcher and enologist Émile Peynaud, who had made malolactic fermentation a practical and repeatable option on a commercial scale in the late 1950s, filtered through to chefs de caves in Champagne when he was consulting for Mercier in the 1950s. This was at the same time that the Champenois adopted temperature-control technology (using it for new stainless steel vats and old concrete ones, too). The CIVC soon developed a bespoke malolactic fermentation cocktail that delivered exceptionally low volumes of diacetyl, which has a distinctly buttery aroma not considered appropriate for the classic style of Champagne. Malolactic fermentation became, for the first time, not just a style choice but a controllable style choice. This enabled Champagne’s chefs de caves to mitigate the loss of the textural effect from micro-oxygenation in oak vessels on a variable, year-by-year basis as they were decommissioned.
Exceptionally restrained malolactic fermentation contributes to textural creaminess. This is almost always carried out using neutral, low-diacetyl, low-VA strains of Oenococcus oeni. The higher the inoculation rate, the shorter the duration of malolactic fermentation, and the less diacetyl produced. Less diacetyl is also produced the longer a base wine is left on its lees prior to the second fermentation, because the yeast and bacteria break down diacetyl. For partial malolactic fermentation, the process must be stopped either through chilling or by adding SO2.
By the 1980s, almost all Champagnes were being produced with full malolactic fermentation. But, by the 1990s, partial malolactic fermentation had become fashionable, and, by the 2000s, the ability to use at least some nonmalolactic fermentation wines at assemblage was considered a necessary tool under Champagne’s changing climatic conditions. With the advent of warmer seasons and riper grapes, exacerbated by the move to earlier-ripening clones, an industry-wide move away from malolactic fermentation ensued.
While tartrate stability is purely an aesthetic consideration for still wines, it is essential for fully sparkling wines. This is because the crystals serve as nucleation points for CO2, which causes gushing on opening (as opposed to random gushing, which occurs only when a bottle has imperfections on its inner surface). Champagne must therefore be tartrate stable at the time of bottling.
Rarely admitted, let alone discussed, in Champagne is the use of carbon to remove unwanted color from base wines, particularly from blanc de noirs or when blending with any of the taille of Pinot varieties. Many producers never use carbon, especially if they are making a premium blanc de noirs, when the skill is to produce naturally as pale a cuvée as possible. But there are many active carbon products that can legally be used to remove color from tinted juice and wine.