Types and Styles of Champagne Flashcards
1
Q
NV
A
- Never-ending story through multiple vintages
- Vintage/ Current product/ reserve wines= the blend
- Typically they have a higher proportion of P/ Meunier as the grape matures faster
- Usually higher in Dosage than vintage wines
- Most producers biggest production
2
Q
Vintage
A
- Story of one growing season, only crafted in good vintages
- Low production
- Used to be the top wine of a house, until Tete De Cuvees
3
Q
Tete de Cuvee
A
- Uses only top quality fruit, usually vintage holdings
- Old vines, special parcels or Grand Cru sites, lower yields, oak regiment, prolonged lees contact, and/ or extensive cellar aging
- Can be put in special packaging and special bottles
4
Q
Blanc de Blancs
A
- White sparkling from white grapes
- Can be light and lacey to more mouth filling and fuller bodied
- Up until 1980 you could have Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meslier, Arbanne- no longer permitted
5
Q
Blanc de Noirs
A
- Made exclusively from black grapes
- Usually carries a bit more tannin and a more overt expressive aroma
- Powerful and fruity on the palate
- Lower in acid than B de B
- Common misanomer that not as long lived as 100% Chardonnay champagnes
6
Q
Late- Disgorged
A
- Champagne that has spent years (or decades) sur pointe
- Mature without oxidation and are quite youthful and fresh when sent to market (despite age)
- Depending on time spent on lees they have a short or long life span
7
Q
Rose
A
- Delicate tannic grip
- Most are made by adding 8- 20% top quality red wine (Pinot Noir) to the base wine before prise de mousse
- Some houses make a rose de saignee
- Hardest part about crafting rose is balancing flavour and texture
- Tannin is bitter and astringent, this can add to a wine, but also distract
8
Q
Special Club
A
- Formed In 1971 as “Club De Viticultures Champenois’- to set exacting standards of quality within the membership and delivers wines of character and distinction
- 1999 changed its name to “Club Tresors De Champagne” and bottle their peer reviewed, prestige Cuvees as ‘special club’
9
Q
What are the rules of Special Club?
A
- Each member must make his or her champagne on their own premises, use their own grapes, only in outstanding years
- Subject to 2 blind tastings conducted by a panel of oenologists and wine professionals; the first at the still wine stage (Cuvee); the second, sometime after a minimum of 3 years in bottle
- Only after all this may the champagne be labelled as “Special Club”
10
Q
What design is the Special Club bottle based on?
A
An 18th Century design
11
Q
How is a vintage rated on in Special Club?
A
- It’s rated via group consensus, not by individual opinion
- The group gather and consider if the vintage is special enough
- It’s so Each member makes a Cuvee for consideration
- The review panel consists of enologists and a member of a winemaker panel serves as a judge
12
Q
How long are Special Club cuvees usually aged for?
A
- 3 years (at a minimum)
- Because Of the age, a number Of vintages can represent ‘Current Release’ among Club Tresors
- In the past all members used the same label (with different producer names)
- Now they can use any individual label, but must use the signature bottle
13
Q
The disadvantage of Special Club Champagne?
A
- Orignally for Different Terroir
- But they have effectively created a brand (the antithesis Of their original idea)
- Some think that the Special Club have lost their way
- Seems to be a common problem, rarely do they show the ‘crus’, the parcels of the blend; but express a vision worth a colourful proprietary name that, although unique camouflages their uniqueness
- By building a brand the terroirists are replicating the work of the Negociants, thus losing their message and their competitive advantage
14
Q
How many members of Club Tresor are there?
A
28
15
Q
“Solera” Champagnes?
A
- Some producers keep a single stainless steel tank or oak fudre of ‘perpetual reserve’
- Not technically a ‘solera’ doesn’t undergo controlled oxidation, nor biologically aged like in Jerez
- Added to based on each producers specific harvest parameters (ie best vintages, high acid vintages, etc)
- Only a portion of this still wine Cuvee is put in bottle to undergo Prise De Mousse at any given time
- The rest is maintained to assimilate and educate the new wine (when added) in order to keep a ‘perpetual reserve’
- So Solera is actually overwhelmingly Reserve wine
16
Q
NM (Negociant- Manipulant)
A
- Producers who uses grapes purchased from others in the vinification process
- They can also use their own fruit
- All big champagne houses are NMs
17
Q
RM (Recoltant- Manipulant)
A
- Only Produces wine using estate grown grapes
- Was originally not allowed to purchase any grapes, but current law allows 5% of their volume to others
- Was alllowed to allow Chardonnay producers to purchase P/ Noir for Rose
18
Q
RC (Recoltant- Cooperateur)
A
- A grape grower with a Winemaking co-operative cellar
- A RC brings his or her grapes to co-op which vinifies them
- The RC then retrieves the final wine and sells it under his or her private label
19
Q
SR (Societe De Recoltants)
A
- Group Of growers who jointly Vinify and sell one communial or several communial brands
20
Q
CM (Cooperative De Manipulation)
A
- A co- operative cellar which vinifies the grapes of its member growers
