Champagne for all

Among others, two famous French monks and cellar masters of the abbeys of Hautvillers' and Saint Pierre aux Monts in the late 17th century, made Champagne what it is today. Dom Pérignon from Hautvillers and Dom Oudart from Saint Pierre aux Monts contributed the concept of "cuvée": the blending of an assortment of red and white grapes from various areas of the Champagne region. Because of particular ties with this region (I studied in Reims in the 80's) and following my visit to the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionnel des Vins de Champagne) in 2006 located in Chouilly, near Epernay, I was particularly motivated to compile this little write-up from various sources on Champagne. Much of the content in this article was translated from French and extracted from a great book from Michel Dovaz (Les Grands Vins de France).

Champagne: soils and grapes

The Champagne region is located 150 kms east from Paris. In geological terms, the Champagne region lay over a thick layer of chalky soil (approximately 200m deep) covered with a thin layer of earth and sand. The chalky soil conveys two main advantages to Champagne growth:

• Efficient and natural drainage of the vine roots
• Easy digging of underground galleries

The perfect drainage of the vine roots helps in accumulating heat in summer and slows down the dissipation of this accumulated energy during harsh winters. Huge underground galleries were built for the storage of Champagne bottles. These underground galleries also maintain the ideal balance of temperature (11 degrees C) and humidity (80%) that facilitates the Champagne making process. Champagne is made of three types of grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. It is therefore a blend of red and white grapes, except for "Blanc de Blancs" (litterally "white from whites") that is only made from Chardonnay.

Champagne regions

Geographically, the Champagne region spans an area of 20,000 ha delimited by the city of Reims to the north, Chalons en Champagne to the south east, the village of Vertus to the south and the city of Chateau-Thierry to the west, with Epernay located at the centre. The four main Champagne regions are:

• La Montagne de Reims (also known as Montagne Noire)
• La vallée de la Marne (the Marne river valley)
• La Côte des Blancs
• La Côte de sézanne

There is also a fifth small region known as the Aube, famous for its rosé des Riceys (pronounced as "ree- say") further to the south near the city of Bar sur Seine. The area expands between the Seine and the Aube rivers, towards Bar sur Aube.

La Montagne de Reims is located right to the south of the city of Reims, also known as "La Montagne Noire" (the black hills) , because most, if not all the vineyards in this area grow the dominant pinot noir grape. The best pinot noir growth in that area can be found in:

• Ambonnay
• Beaumont sur vesles
• Bouzy
• Louvois
• Mailly-Champagne and Sillery
• Verzenay and Verzy

The Marne river valley, left and right banks, are located between Epernay and Reims, in an area dominated by the pinot meunier grape. The famous growth areas are located in Ay, Mareuil-sur-Ay and Cumières.

The Côte des Blancs (also known as Côte d'Avize), spreads from the South of Epernay down to the village of Vertus. This is the area of the chardonnay grape, where the most famous Blanc de Blancs can be found in Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. A Blanc de Blancs is a white wine made exclusively of white grapes such as chardonnay, while a Blanc de Noirs, is a white wine made exclusively of black grapes such as pinot noir.

Located to the south west of Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne is a lesser known area recently included in the terroir of Champagne. The vines in this area are young, as they were planted only in the 1960s, and produce almost exclusively chardonnay grapes.

From grapes to must

During the harvest, great care is needed not only to collect the grapes that are intact and perfectly healthy but also to carry the grapes from the field to the wine press. Grapes are carried in small baskets (mannequins) or plastic crates containing up to 100kgs each. The juice resulting from grapes that have been accidentally crushed at that stage, must not accumulate, but instead flow away from the baskets or the crates. For that reason, the transportation from the vineyard to the wine press must be as smooth as possible, and "vendangeoirs" can be found relatively a short distance away from vineyard clusters primarily to address this problem.

Another challenge in producing a white wine from black grapes is to prevent the juice from being stained by the pigments of the grape's skin. For that reason, special wine presses with broad surface and small height are used. In Champagne, a wine press can load up to 4 tonnes of grapes. Pressing those 4 tonnes of grapes will first fill up 10 vats of 205 litres capacity. Those will make up the "cuvée" and be kept aside for the best Champagne.
Then, we press again, twice: another 3 vats of 205 litres each are filled-up and kept aside for the regular Champagne. In French this process is called "première et deuxième taille". All such operations cannot be interrupted in order to avoid juice coloring and staining. Next, during an operation known as "rebêche", the marcs are pressed again to produce a low quality juice that cannot be called Champagne. It is only then that the resulting grape must is conveyed to the cellars and where the wine making process actually starts. Fermentations are conducted in a traditional way to produce a white still wine.

The making of Champagne

Considering the huge need in working capital and financing required, a few leading Champagne houses purchase the grapes from a common pool of all regional producers and integrate the entire spectrum of activities from making to branding. While the producers concentrate on the growth and the harvest, the Champagne houses concentrate on making, storing and marketing their label. In order to facilitate the rapid acquisition of the grapes, the price for the grapes produced in each village (or commune) is fixed as a percentage of a standard scale, supposed to reflect an agreed quality ranking of the grape harvested in each commune. The ranking was established in 1911. This indeed does not prevent each vineyard to produce its own champagne, under its own label, but the greater part of their production is usually brought to the common pool, under the supervision of the CIVC (Comité Inter-professionnel des Vins de Champagne).

The Champagne making process involves different stages:

• The blending (la cuvée)
• From still wine to bubbles (La Champagnisation)
• Bottle rotation (Le remuage)
• Getting rid of solid particles (Le dégorgement)

Cuvée is the blending of multiple wines coming from various locations or "communes" in Champagne. It is a careful blending of 5, 10 or 20 different wines, from pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay grapes in huge vats. If we blend only wines from the year, the Champagne could become a vintage Champagne (Millésimé), provided the quality of the production warrants it. Else, if we include reserve wines from previous years, specially kept for the purpose of blending, we end up with a very enjoyable non-vintage Champagne. To make a Champagne rosé, the white wine will be blended with a specific quantity of red wine from Champagne in order to give the Champagne its rosé colour. Sometimes this can be done naturally at the wine pressing stage.

Champagnisation or "prise de mousse" is an operation that consists in turning a still wine into something that is no longer still but sparkling. To achieve this effect, we are going to add sugar (well known Chaptal reaction in chemistry). The sugar is in fact a liqueur (liqueur de tirage), added to the wine at a rate of 25g of sugar per litre of wine, as well as some selected yeasts. The wine will then be immediately bottled and stopped with a temporary cork for a first fermentation. After at least one year ( 3 years for vintage Champagne), a new operation will follow the initial one.

Champagne bottles are stored on shelves, pointing down. While a first fermentation takes place within the bottle, the pressure is such that it may cause some bottles to explode. In any case a precipitate of solid particles tend to accumulate towards the bottom, therefore near the temporary cork. In order to regroup the precipitate and ultimately get rid of it, the bottle need to be rotated regularly around its vertical axis. This bottle rotation is called "remuage" from the French word "remuer" (to shake very lightly). While "remuage" used to be a manual operation not so long ago, bottle rotation is now an automated process almost in every Champagne house, and was introduced not only in consideration of productivity issues, but also due to the lack of trained professional willing to do this very tedeous job. In the past, a specialist used to rotate 30,000 bottles a day!

As the bottle rotation takes place slowly and regularly over a period of time, one day the full rotation is complete and it becomes time to get rid of the solid particles accumulated near the temporary cork. This process is called "dégorgement". The neck of the bottle is plunged in a freezing mix at -20 degrees causing the precipitate to be caught in an ice cube, which is then ejected. The content of the bottle will be topped up with a Champagne of the same cuvée, to which is added a kind of stabilizing liqueur ("liqueur d'expédition"), made of old Champagne in which sugar cane has been dissolved. At this really moment a Champagne remains "Brut" or becomes "Demi-sec" or "Doux". If only Champagne is added to the bottle, it will become a Brut zéro (brut nature or brut 100%). If we add 1.5% liqueur, the Champagne is simply called "Brut". If we add 5% liqueur, the Champagne is called demi-sec. With 10% added liqueur it is called Champagne "Doux" (sweet). The bottle gets it final cork (with the iron "muselet"), its neck and body labels. The Champagne is now ready.

Champagne ranking

Sometimes, one may come across a Champagne label such as "grand cru 100%" or Bouzy "100%". This relates to the qualitative ranking of the vineyard. This ranking is very precise. When the vineyards of a commune grow red, white or even both red and white grapes, each receive a quality ranking measured as a percentage. This qualitative ranking facilitates purchasing as the price of 100% ranked grapes is determined every year. Because Champagne is a blend of grapes, the ranking cannot be reflected on the label, unless the grapes that enter its composition come exclusively from the same vineyard. Champagne de cru are such Champagnes, which means their grapes come from the same vineyard and are made from vats located at that same vineyard. Champagne qualifies for a "Grand Cru" label when all the grapes that enter its composition come from one of the 17 villages that are listed as the top 100% qualitative ranking. Champagne qualifies for a "Premier Cru" label when all the grapes that enter its composition come from villages that achieved between 90% and 99% of the qualitative ranking.

Other important notices must appear on a champagne label and are listed hereinbelow. Check a Champagne bottle and look at the fine print usually located at the top right corner of the label. You will find a 2 letter code. This code provides an indication on the trading status of the bottle's original supplier:

• NM: Négociant Manipulant - Grapes were puchased, blended and Champagne was made and sold by the company whose name appears on the label. Champagne house brands are associated with this code.
• ND: Négociant Distributeur - merchant firm or house.
• RM: Récoltant Manipulant - The vineyard itself controlled the making of this Champagne. "Champagnes de Cru" are often identified with this code.
• RC: Récoltant Coopérateur manipulant - Champagne grown and made by a member of a coopérative.
• M.C or C.M: Coopérative de Manipulation - The vineyard owner brings the grapes to the cooperative, which then makes, bottles and labels the Champagne.
• M.A: Marque Auxiliaire - Appears on Champagne labels without a specific brand. It is not necessarily bad and may lead to the discovery of distinctive although non branded Champagne, that discerning connoisseurs could spot at a great price.

Is there such a thing as the best Champagne?

The answer to such a question is very subjective. After compiling this article (can also be found on the main site at http://cafe-calva.com/ ), I tend to believe that in order to get the best Champagne you must somehow first get hold of those Champagne of "cuvée" as explained above. Practically, the leading Champagne houses get a lock on this supply and stick their label on it. Beyond that, I guess that marketing and branding makes the difference in perception but not necessarily in taste. For those of us who do not need to be told what is great or bad, personal taste is the ultimate yardstick. Champagne Mandois in Pierry, a "Premier Cru" village of Côte des Blancs, is an example of a great Champagne de Cru that really deserves to be discovered (http://www.champagne-mandois.fr/ ). Bottom line is, you do not need to be LVMH to produce the best Champagne, although it definitely helps in marketing and visibility.

A short story about Calvados

In 1588, the Armada of King Philippe II of Spain, on its way to invade England, wrecked one of its war ships a few miles away from the coast of Normandy. The ship, by the name of "El Salvador", was said to have a very valuable war chest and influent dignitaries on board. The story goes that the inhabitants gave the shipwreck location the name "calvados", vaguely sounding like the original name of the vessel. Later in 1790, the land area ashore, became the administrative zone or "Département" known today as Calvados.

The origins of Calvados

The first appearance of cider "eau de vie", at that time, not yet known as Calvados, can be traced way back in the past, since the first written evidence of its existence in the 16th century. Sire de Gouberville, gentleman of the Cotentin, describes in his journal dated 1553, the distillation of apple cider into an eau de vie. It is during that same period, around 1600, that was created the guilde of the cider eau de vie distillers.

Named areas of Normandy

In 1942, Calvados brandy became exclusively tied to its various growth areas in Normandy by an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée. Today, there are three controlled appellations:

• Calvados


• Calvados Pays d’Auge


• Calvados Domfrontais

Calvados production zones have been strictly delimited by the French National Institute of genuine appellations (Appellations d'Origine). Each one of those appellations has its own caracteristics not only derived from the area where cider apples are harvested, but also from the distillation method. In the Calvados "appellation d’origine contrôlée", apples from the Calvados region are used in the production of the calvados eau de vie and processed in one single distillation. The « Calvados Pays d’Auge » origine contrôlée, gets its apples from the Auge county (near the city of Caen) which are subsequently processed in a double distillation. The « Calvados Domfrontais » appellation is produced based on a mix of apples and pears (at least 30% pears) from the Domfrontais county, located at the South West of the city of Caen. The Domfrontais is processed the same way as the first Calvados appellation, in one single distillation.

The making of Calvados

Cider apples are collected by hand, and smashed before being pressed. The juice extracted from pressing the apples, is subsequently subject to fermentation under the action of yeast and becomes cider. To become Calvados, the cider will undergo single or double distillation and will be kept ageing in wooden barrels. It is within and under the skin of the apple, not in the pulp, that aromas can be revealed. The various steps taking place in the tranformation of the apple are therefore meant to extract as much aroma as possible from the skin. Once grated, the apples will soak a few hours softening the skin and allowing the extraction of tannins to transform the aroma of the juice.

A special cider press must be adapted to apple pressing. Low pressure extraction takes place during a brewing cycle of approximately two hours, during which grated apples are frequently stirred. Pulp and skin are slowly and thoroughly pressed during a churning process long enough to collect most of the aromas as a result. At the end of the cider pressing process, the produce has already acquired the amber and golden colours of cider. Two months after complete fermentation, the cider is withdrawn and left ageing for approximately one year prior to being distilled.

Distillation

Depending on the production area and the appellation, the cider will be further processed either in a single distillation in an alambic with columns, or in a double distillation (like a Cognac) in an alambic Charentais, composed of a « swan neck » and a cooling tank. The secret of a professional distillation lies with the height and the diameter of the cooling tank and the "swan neck" of the alambic. Keeping the fire is also essential.
The cider is distilled a first time to collect the "brouillis". This primary eau de vie is light and contains between 28 and 30% alcohol. It also contains all ingredients that are essential to the quality of the Calvados. When a second distillation takes place, the brouillis turns into Calvados. To qualify for the Calvados appellation, alcohol content must not exceed 72% in volume. In a process similar to cognac distillation, first and last produce of the second distillation are discarded.

When an alambic with columns is used, a single continuous distillation is effected. The first column collects the cider in its upper part. The cider then flows down from upper stage to lower stage. Due to the heat, lighter elements are vaporised. Steam droplets produced by reduced cider are moving upward in the same column while getting strengthened by the flow of cider and lighter elements such as: alcohol, esters and aromas. Finally, concentration takes place in the smaller column and delivers pure Calvados eau de vie at 72% alcohol content.

Ageing

The choice of barrels is key to appropriate ageing of Calvados and to its aromatic richness. The nature of the oak wood used to make the barrels is important, especially the soil in which the tree used to grow. The continuous exchange taking place between the eau de vie, the wood and the air circulation in the cellar strengthens and influences the Calvados. A sandy soil will convey a vanilla like aroma to the sap of the oak tree, while much less of such aroma would be imparted to the same trees taking root in a rocky soil.
Ageing in young barrels is conveniently long (around three months) to give the Calvados the vanilla like taste of the wood, and short enough not to overwhelm the original apple aroma and balance overall fragrance and taste of the eau de vie. After that, the Calvados continues the ageing process in older barrels to consolidate its qualities and get ready for consumption.

Slowly, the Calvados develops a more complex fresh and flowery bouquet. As it is getting older, the Calvados takes an increasingly amber colour, while the transformation of sugars, essential oils and other components makes it more rounded and intense.

Young Calvados are nice as aperitifs, with certain meals, and always welcome after a meal. Older Calvados are usually so potent in their taste that they are often appreciated either on their own, or with a nice selection of coffee accompanied by chocolate or a cigar.