Prelude to a champagne bubble

The story of champagne:

 

          Champagne as we know it today was first fully recognized as such at the end of the seventeenth century in the Abbey of Hautvillers located in the Marne Valley, on the East side of Paris.

 

          Since the Gallo-Roman times, the French region called « Champagne » was one of the most viticulturally prosperous of France. As a consequence, the wines produced in this region were greatly appreciated by the French kings and dominated even their biggest competitor that came from the Bourgogne region.

         

          However, at that time (fifteenth century), a dramatic drop in the air temperature of Europe occurred, that totally upset the viticulture industry. This period was the start of what would later be called the « Little Ice Age ». Normally, during the summer months, the sugar contained in the grape juice transforms into alcohol due to the yeast present in the mix. This is called the fermentation process. Nonetheless, during the Little Ice Age, the colder temperatures in the Champagne region drastically reduced the chemical formation of alcohol. The fermentation in the barrels was thus delayed until the following Spring. However, the first very short fermentation combined with the second much longer one created an excess of carbon dioxide that remained trapped, creating a slight effervescence...Champagne was born! 

 

          French aristocracy took this new effervescence as the sign of a poor vinification and therefore abandoned the beverage and turned instead to the Bourgogne wines. Two decades later, in 1668, the Catholic Church sent a monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon to the Champagne region in order to give the vineyards a new reputation because the Church had vested interests there. Dom Pérignon used all known means to restore the reputation of Champagne by trying to remove its effervescence but in vain.

          Dom Perignon’s salvation came from the English nobility, who had already been introduced to sparkling wines and greatly appreciated this French novelty. Furthermore, Christopher Merret, a British doctor, greatly helped Dom Pérignon by understanding that what was appreciated was either a very sparkly wine with a heavy dose of alcohol or an unadulterated, traditional wine. He reasoned that champagne’s poor reception was due to the fact that it was neither here nor there. Merret therefore deliberately added sugar to the production process, which led to the immediate and definitive adoption of this new wine by the English.

 

          During the second half of the seventeenth century (under the reign of Louis XIV), the French nobility decided to follow the fashion that was spreading very quickly in England and tried champagne again. Dom Pérignon changed his tactics and worked to have the most possible bubbles in the wine and so the King and its courtiers immediately changed their minds and adopted this novelty! 

 

          Today, Dom Pérignon is best known for his elaboration of new methods for the manufacture of champagne, that are still used to this day, and also for inventing a more effective cork to prevent the CO2 from escaping from the bottle.

 

          However, because the pressure in the bottle is very high due to the presence of the cork, the glass bottles were not strong enough to resist the pressure and would therefore sometimes explode during the second fermentation, when the pressure would raise another notch. This resulted in a further problem and complexity for champagne production in France. Nonetheless, in England, Sir Robert Mansell helped solve this problem by discovering  new combustion material to heat the glass to higher temperatures and thus make it more robust and more resistant to the pressure exerted by carbon dioxide on the walls (this also gives the glass its current dark shade). 

           Finally, Dom Pérignon is also known for his fine art of blending different variants that create «champagne of superior quality, greater than the sum of its parts ».

 

 

 

Creating champagne

 

            Champagne is composed of three types of grapes: pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay. Champagne production can be divided into several stages.

 

            The first step is the harvesting of the grapes. This step is quickly followed by the pressing step, the action of pressing the grapes to extract their juice, known as "wort". The third step is racking where the wort is decanted to remove any sediment (seeds, etc).

 

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            The next step is the first fermentation: the wort is placed in large vats that contain yeast. These two ingredients react chemically with each other ​ and this reaction gives rise to alcohol and CO2. However, the vats are not closed, therefore, the CO2 escapes and the champagne is still (non-sparkling). This step takes about two weeks.

 

            Then comes the blending process. The freshly fermented alcohol is mixed with other still wines until the winemaker obtains the taste he desires.

            Five to six months after the grape harvest, the wine is bottled with an alcohol called "liqueur de tirage" that contains various sugars and yeast strains. Then the bottles are closed with a "bidule", an inner cap made of plastic that allows the second fermentation to take place. During this fermentation, the wine becomes effervescent and therefore becomes champagne. The bottles are left to rest for at least 15 months in humid-free wines cellars, to allow maturation (or aging) of the champagne.

 

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            When the maturation is judged sufficient, the bottles are rotated gently every three days for 4 to 5 weeks; this allows the dead yeast to form sediment on the inner cap of the bottle.

 

            When the rotation step is finished, the neck of the bottles is immersed in a cooling liquid, whose temperature varies between -20 and -25 ° C, and freezes the yeast deposit. When this step is accomplished, the bottles are opened and the pressure ejects the « inner cap », and with it the yeast deposit. A sweet liqueur (alcohol + sugar) is then added to the champagne and the bottles are then resealed, but this time with a cork. Finally, the champagne is ready for sale!