Champagne

Since I am working in St James Power Station (SJPS), I might as well try writing articles on alcoholic drinks. A big thank you to Max for giving me this idea. I am a novice. So...any SJPS friends who chance upon my blog and discover and glaring errors, feel free to inform me.

For a start, I'll write on Champagne.

Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the in bottle secondary fermentation of wine to effect carbonation. It is named after the Champagne region of France. In simpler terms, ONLY champagne make in the region of Champagne can be called a Champagne. As long as they are produced out of this specific region, they are called sparkling wine.

The Champagne winemaking community, under the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne, has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine that comes from the region in order to protect the economic interests of that community. They
include a codification of the most suitable places for grapes to grow; the most suitable types of grapes (most Champagne is produced from one or a blend of up to three varieties of grapes - chardonnay, pinot noir, and meunier - although five other varietals are permitted);
and a lengthy set of requirements that specifies most aspects of viticulture. This includes vine pruning, the yield of the vineyard, the degree of pressing applied to the grapes, and the time that wine must remain on its lees prior to bottling. It can also limit the release of Champagne into the market in order to maintain prices. Only if a wine meets all these requirements may the name Champagne be placed on the bottle. The rules that have been agreed upon by the CIVC are then presented to the INAO for final approval.

Grapes must be the white Chardonnay, or the red Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier. Champagnes made exclusively from Chardonnay are known as blanc de blancs, and those exclusively from the red grapes as blanc de noirs.

Champagne is typically a white wine even if it is produced with red grapes, because the juice is extracted from the grapes using a gentle process that minimizes the amount of time the juice spends in contact with the skins, which is what gives red wine its colour. Rosé wines are also produced, either by permitting the juice to spend more time with the skins to impart a pink color to the wine, or by adding a small amount of red wine during blending. The amount of sugar (dosage) added after the second fermentation and ageing also varies, from brut zéro or brut natural, where none is added, through brut, extra-dry, sec, demi-sec and doux. The most common is brut, although in the early 20th century Champagne was generally much sweeter.

I guess most of you should have known that I did not write those above. Although I know these facts, I am not so good to the extent where I can memorise all these nitty gritty details. Above is a brief and detailed overview of Champagne.

Lets talk about the most important thing. How to open a champagne. For beginners the first thing you can do to impress is to open a Champagne properly. Who cares if you know a lot about champagne when you can't even open the bottle. Contrary to popular belief, you must never open your champagne with a pop. This requires quite a bit of skill. Its easier to explain with pictures. I will update on this section of champagne once I get the pictures.

Tomorrow, I shall write on the first champagne with I popped and that is the Moet and Chandon Champagne. Yes, I popped it...I was still a beginner then...