Champagne

The name ‘Champagne’ is not just a generic term for sparkling wine. Instead, it refers to a sparkling wine made with a specific method, exclusively in the Champagne region of France under strict rules and regulations. The name “Champagne” is protected by the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) designation, which means that products are made according to traditional methods and within a specific geographical region. Sparkling wine made outside this region cannot legally be labelled champagne. This unique distinction is rooted in history, quality, and a fierce commitment to preserving a legacy.

Located about 90 miles east of Paris, the Champagne wine region is renowned for its chalky soils and cool climate.

With cold winters, occasional spring frost and mild summers, the climate is perfect for the grapes that create Champagne’s signature blend. But that doesn't mean it's all the same... The layers of chalk and limestone, marl, clay, sand, silt, and flint in the soil give the different vineyards of Champagne unique personalities.

Three principal grapes go into making Champagne:

• Chardonnay: The only white grape among the trio, Chardonnay lends Champagne its finesse, elegance, and bright acidity.
• Pinot Noir: This red grape offers body, structure, and depth, offering red fruit aromas.
• Pinot Meunier: Often the unsung hero, this grape provides freshness, vibrancy, and floral notes. These grapes, either individually or when blended, influence the Champagne’s taste, texture, and aroma.

Champagne isn’t just about location; it’s about method. Champagne is made using a unique process involving a secondary fermentation in the bottle.

To label their wine Champagne, winemakers must use the ‘traditional method’, or ‘méthode champenoise’.

It begins by harvesting the grapes, with most varieties using a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The harvesting typically happens slightly earlier in the season than for other types of wine, when the grapes have more acidity and less sugar.

As with other wines, Champagne begins with a primary fermentation process, producing a still wine. Winemakers then mix the different varieties to create their signature Champagne blend.

To create those iconic bubbles, sugar and yeast are added to the blend before it is bottled. This begins the secondary fermentation process, producing carbon dioxide. The bottles are then aged on their lees (a fancy word for the dead yeast cells), which adds to the sparkling wine’s flavour and complexity.

After the ageing process is completed, the dead yeast cells are removed through an impressive process known as riddling.

Finally, a mixture of wine and sugar is added to the Champagne to adjust the level of sweetness. This will create either a brut (dry), demi-sec (semi-sweet) or doux (sweetest) wine. This mixture differs per Champagne house and is a closely guarded secret. Once this is done, the bottle is then re-corked, sealed, and wrapped in its wire caging.

As with other wine varieties, there are different styles of Champagne. The most common are:

•  Non-Vintage (NV): A blend of wines from multiple years, ensuring a consistent house style.
• Blanc de Blancs: meaning ’white from whites’, is produced using only Chardonnay grapes. Known for its delicate and elegant profile, with citrus and white blossom flavours.
• Blanc de Noirs: meaning ’white from blacks’, is produced using only the red grapes Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. With a fuller body and more complex structure than Blanc de Blancs, this style of Champagne overflows with rich flavours of strawberry and raspberry.
• Rosé Champagne: crafted using either the saignée method (or ‘bleeding method’) or by adding a small amount of Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier to the blend. This sparkling wine has a crisp acidity and is bursting with red berry flavours.

Champagne also comes in various sweetness levels: Brut Nature (naturally extremely dry), Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Sec, Sec, Demi-Sec, and Doux (the sweetest).

Each style of Champagne offers a unique flavour experience, with winemakers also putting their spin on this iconic sparkling wine.

The taste of Champagne is heavily influenced by Chardonnay, most commonly the primary grape used in the Champagne blend alongside Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. This means plenty of refreshing citrus and lightly spiced flavours.

Since Blanc de Blancs is made exclusively using Chardonnay grapes rather than a blend, this Champagne style is full of characteristic zingy citrus and green fruit flavours like apple and pear. Additional notes include sweet toast, vanilla, and almond.

Blanc de Noirs Champagne is characterised by richer, more complex flavours of sweet red fruits like strawberry and raspberry, apple, fig, sweet spices and brioche.

Rosé Champagne sits somewhere between Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs in flavour but is much sweeter, with plenty of rich red fruit flavours like strawberry, cherry and raspberry, but also a refreshing lift of citrus and hints of honey and melon.

Champagne isn’t just an aperitif or celebratory drink. In fact we know restaurant sommeliers who suggest, “if in doubt pair it with champagne!”. Classic food pairings include:

• Oysters: simply iconic – , the salinity of oysters and the crisp acidity of Champagne. Divine.
• Caviar: another classic pairing, the umami of caviar beautifully complements the bubbles in the wine.
• Soft cheeses: Brie and Camembert, with their creamy textures, are elevated by the acidity of Champagne.
• Poultry and seafood: dishes such as prawn cocktails or duck salads find their match in the wine’s complexity.
• Fried food: Champagne’s signature bubbles and high acidity make it an excellent friend to dishes with salty, fatty flavours – think fish and chips, mac ‘n’ cheese, and even buttery popcorn.

Discover more food and wine pairing tips. 

Fine Champagne deserves the perfect pour. Always serve it chilled, ideally between 8°C to 10°C – a few hours in the fridge or an hour on ice should do the trick.

Despite the fashion for coupe glasses, we think the best glasses to serve Champagne and sparkling wines in are flutes – tall and slender, with narrow rims and long stems. The long stem helps keep the sparkling wine cool and away from your warm hands, and the narrow rim traps the bubbles and maximises that delightfully fizzy texture. It also helps push those deliciously delicate and light aromas and flavours upwards.