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Nestled in the captivating northeastern corner of France, the Champagne wine region emerges as a crown jewel within the historic Grand Est (Great East) region. It pulsates with an aura of significance, capturing the very essence of the French wine industry. A staggering 70% of Champagne production gracefully departs the homeland, traversing borders to captivate palates across the globe. From sparkling soirées in Paris to cosmopolitan celebrations worldwide, Champagne reigns supreme as the epitome of effervescent indulgence.
In Champagne, quality stands as an unwavering pillar of tradition and artistry. A testament to this commitment lies in the astounding 155 million kilos of grapes meticulously earmarked for the Champagne reserve. These grapes, meticulously cultivated and harvested, form the foundation of liquid excellence, ensuring that every sip brims with the very essence of the region's heritage.
The allure of Champagne lies not only in its bubbling splendor but also in its enigmatic terroir. A tapestry of mesmeric landscapes, the region's gently undulating slopes embrace vineyards that bask in the benevolent sun, ripening grapes with poetic grace. The chalky soils, kissed by centuries of history, infuse the wines with a distinctive mineral character and an unmistakable expression of the land.
Champagne embodies a captivating narrative of audacity and elegance, intertwining tradition with innovation. The prestigious Champagne houses perpetuate a legacy of craftsmanship, pouring their expertise into every bottle. From the crisp Blanc de Blancs to the seductive Rosé, each drop unfurls a symphony of flavors, painting the palate with delight.
As France's celebrated ambassador of celebration, Champagne dazzles with its effervescence, craftsmanship, and unwavering commitment to quality. It symbolizes the joie de vivre of a nation, an elixir that transcends borders, infusing life's moments with magic. In each golden cascade of bubbles, the wine industry of France stands tall, an unrivaled titan of vinous pleasure.
Vineyard Hectares
WINERIES
The Champagne wine region is located in northeastern France, primarily within the administrative region of Grand Est. It is situated approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Paris and covers 5 districts: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne. The most relevant areas for the production of Champagne wine are the city of Reims and the town of Epernay.
The Champagne region experiences a cool continental climate influenced by its northern location. The climate has two main characteristics that make it unique: on the one hand, it tends to have a cold climate, more accentuated during the winter, while on the other hand it receives oceanic influences that usually bring constant rainfall, but also continental influences that give the grapes the amount of sunlight they need for optimal ripening. This cooler climate contributes to the high acidity and finesse found in Champagne wines, ensuring the preservation of freshness and delicate aromas.
Champagne is blessed with diverse and distinct soil types, which play a crucial role in shaping the wine's character. The region's soils predominantly consist of a unique combination of chalk, clay and a good amount of sedimentary rock, primarily limestone. Chalk, in particular, is renowned for its ability to retain and reflect heat, promoting grape ripening and enhancing the wine's structure and mineral qualities. Limestone is a sedimentary rock made almost entirely of fossils. This type of soil provides a very particular mineral flavor, especially noticeable in certain Champagne wines. Chalk and clay soils retain a good amount of water allowing the vines to have the water they need in times of drought.
Champagne is a wine region that not only focuses on protecting its product and its quality. Also, since 2014, producers have been making joint efforts to make Champagne production much more sustainable. The combination of these efforts resulted in the Sustainable Viticulture in Champagne (VDC) initiative.
This initiative focuses on 5 pillars:
Some of the most important activities to achieve progress in these fields were:
To reduce the carbon footprint, producers committed to reduce the amount of mineral fertilizers used, design more environmentally friendly packaging by using materials that release less CO2 into the environment, and improve energy recovery from wine waste, among other things.
In the case of biodiversity preservation, the producers committed, among other things, to reforest the hillsides with beneficial plants and flowers to slow soil erosion, implement the use of cover crops between plots to reduce soil erosion, and reintroduce around 60,000 trees into the region to provide a better quality of life for the vineyard's fauna.
To create a circular economy, the region began to implement various strategies, such as the joint purchase of green energy for the vineyards and wineries, the recycling of used corks that would otherwise be part of the wine waste, the repair and reuse of broken pallets and the recycling of parts of the vine that are not commonly used in the production of Champagne.
Regarding the increase of certified producers, Champagne's organic certifications focus on 6 aspects:
Finally, to reduce the water footprint, one of the main actions taken by the region was to invest in a treatment system for effluents from the wine industry. Other strategies have also been implemented, such as:
The Champagne region predominantly focuses on three main grape varieties, each contributing its unique characteristics to the renowned sparkling wines produced in the area. Here are the most planted grape varieties in Champagne, categorized by color:
These three grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier, form the foundation of the Champagne blends, with various combinations used to achieve the desired flavor profiles and characteristics. The skillful blending of these grapes is a hallmark of Champagne's winemaking tradition and contributes to the region's unique and celebrated sparkling wines.
In Champagne, the wines produced primarily fall into the category of sparkling wines. The region is renowned worldwide for its exquisite Champagne, which is made using the traditional method of secondary fermentation in the bottle. However, there are also a few other types of wines produced in Champagne. Here are the main wine types in Champagne:
1. Champagne: It is the emblematic sparkling wine of the region. Champagne is made from a blend of 3 grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. This is the main difference with Cava, a spanish wine made with a blend of the Macabeo, Parellada and Xarello grapes. Also, unlike Prosecco, a similar wine from the Veneto region, it undergoes a labour-intensive process of secondary fermentation in the bottle, resulting in fine bubbles and complex flavors. Champagne can be classified into various styles, including Non-Vintage (NV), Vintage, Rosé, Blanc de Blancs (made exclusively from Chardonnay), and Blanc de Noirs (made exclusively from red grapes).
The wine has gained such a cult status thanks to the incredible and elegant bubbles that form when the champagne is poured into a glass and its fantastic flavor profile. Not only are these wines very refreshing, due to the high acidity, but they also have notes reminiscent of citrus, apple or even pear. The more complex wines can have notes reminiscent of toast or even almonds. The combination of these factors (the elegant bubbles, the refreshing sensation they produce when drinking a glass of Champagne and the flavor profile) make the moment of uncorking this type of sparkling wine to be linked to happiness or moments of celebration.
2. Coteaux Champenois: Coteaux Champenois is a still wine produced in the Champagne region. It can be made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, or Chardonnay grapes. Unlike Champagne, Coteaux Champenois does not undergo secondary fermentation and does not have the characteristic effervescence. These wines are less well-known compared to Champagne but offer a different expression of the region's terroir.
3. Rosé des Riceys: Rosé des Riceys is a unique and rare rosé wine produced exclusively in the village of Les Riceys in the southern part of Champagne. It is made from Pinot Noir grapes using the traditional maceration method. Rosé des Riceys offers a distinct expression of Champagne's terroir with its delicate pink color, vibrant acidity, and red fruit flavors.
While Champagne remains the undisputed star of the region, these additional wine types contribute to the diversity and versatility of the wines produced in Champagne. Each type offers a unique expression of the region's terroir and winemaking traditions, allowing wine enthusiasts to explore different styles within the Champagne region.
Champagne's winemaking tradition dates back to the time of the Gauls, more specifically to the Remi tribe, located in what we know today as Champagne. This people loved wine, and used to buy large quantities from the Romans. After the invasion of the territory by the Romans, they prohibited the planting of vines among the Gauls, but this prohibition was lifted at the end of the 3rd century BC.
Finally, in the 1st century AD, the first vineyards began to appear and multiplied at a superlative speed, mainly because of their location close to the main trade routes but also due to the northern location of the region planted with vines.
Because outside of Champagne the climate was too cold to grow vines, this region became the main supplier to the countries of northern Europe, until the Hundred Years' War, which had a negative impact on the region's viticulture. However, from the 15th century onwards, viticulture continued to grow in the region.
Some monks helped a lot in the development of Champagne. Among them was a key person for Champagne as we know it today: the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon. He was a pioneer in the careful blending of different wines, thanks to which much more balanced and higher quality wines began to be obtained.
By the second half of the 17th century, Champagne created a pressing technique that was crucial for the production of this sparkling wine. Thanks to this much gentler technique, the juice of the grapes began to separate into fractions, which made it possible to obtain white wines from black grapes.
Between 1670 and 1720, producers in the region deliberately decided to vinify the grapes in such a way as to make sparkling wines. This was very different from previous years, as the production of bubbles depended much more on external conditions.
The 18th century saw the birth of the first Champagne houses, specialized in the production of this wine. Among the most important, we can mention Ruinart, Chanoine, Fourneaux, Moët and Vander-Veken.
At the end of the 18th century, solutions began to be found to control effervescence in the Champagne production process. The lack of control over effervescence was precisely what was causing the wines to lose a lot of gas, or even causing the bottles to explode. One of the solutions found was to add sugar to the wines to compensate for the losses, what is known today as dosage.
At the end of the 19th century, another key invention for the production of champagne appeared: the "pupitres". These allowed the sediment in the bottles to be carried to the neck first, to facilitate its elimination through the neck.
A few years later, the metal plate found on the cork of champagne bottles, known as the capsule, and the wire cage that holds it in place, began to be implemented.
During 1884, Armand Walfard, who owned a champagne house, created the cold disgorging method, which consists of immersing the bottle in a cooling solution at -27°C, thus forming a frozen sediment plug in the neck of the bottle. This further facilitates its extraction, since when the bottle is opened, the internal pressure expels the stopper with a minimum loss of wine and pressure.
Although at the end of the 19th century Champagne had more than 60,000 hectares of vineyards, in 1863 phylloxera caused devastating damage to the region's viticulture. Soon, the winegrowers of the region realized that the only way to mitigate the damage was to unite to find a solution to the problem.
During 1898, the winegrowers of the region joined with the major Champagne houses to create the Champagne Winegrowers' Association, which was dedicated to replanting Champagne vines on American rootstock resistant to phylloxera. Thus, it was possible to overcome the disease without losing the qualities that made Champagne wines unique.
At the end of the 19th century, Champagne producers began to define rules to prevent any wine from using the Champagne appellation. By 1887 a ruling was obtained for the term to be used only for wines made within the region, and in 1905 the French Ministry of Agriculture delimited the official wine-growing area of Champagne.
By 1935, the Châlons commission was created, which was in charge of defining the production standards for Champagne wines, and by 1936 the Champagne appellation of origin was introduced. In 1941, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne was created, which succeeded the Commission de Châlons. It had more powers to protect Champagne wines.
In the early 1980s, Champagne producers began to take a much more environmentally friendly approach to production. This not only made it possible to protect the vines, but also to take better care of the soil and increase the value of Champagne wine, among other positive aspects.
By 2003, Champagne became the first wine region to evaluate its carbon footprint. This enabled the creation of an action plan that continues to be implemented and evaluated to this day. This plan made it possible to reduce the carbon footprint of winegrowing in Champagne by 15%.
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