Champagne
by Seema Tikare
Pop open that bottle of Champagne, especially now that spring has arrived. ‘Tis the season for a landscape bursting with color and fragrant flowers – Lilacs! Hyacinths! – but also with its temperamental, blustery, rainy fury, it is hard to know what to break out on any given day. A nice warming red to curl up by the fire or a long, chilled white to enjoy watching a lingering sunset on a clear, deliciously warm day.
I know it is cliché, but in the (in)famous words of Lily Bollinger of the venerable House of Bollinger:
“I drink Champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it―unless I’m thirsty.”
Not to compare us to such an august personage, but she does have a point. Champagne makes everything better.
First a bit of disambiguation. What is Champagne and how is it different from the other sparkling wines like Prosecco, Cava and Crémant? Champagne is a wine made in the Champagne region with 3 varieties of grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The technique is very specific. The grapes are vinified into a low alcohol “base wine” which is then put into the final bottle in which it will be sold. This base wine then gets a little boost of sugar and yeast and is capped for minimum of 12 months and often much longer, so that the yeast can work its magic in a sealed environment by adding the bubbles or the “mousse”, increasing the alcohol and perhaps most importantly, adding the yeasty, pastry flavors characteristic of quality Champagne. The dead yeast or “lees” are then disgorged, a bit of additional reserve wine is added to top up the bottle and sometimes a tiny bit of sugar is added to balance flavors. Brut, for example, probably the most common level of sweetness, has 6 to 12 grams of sugar per liter. Finally, the bottle is corked, “caged,” labelled and shipped off.
It is a complicated process, but one that is followed by many other winemakers. It is called “Methode Traditionelle” or “Methode Classique” and is used in Burgundy, Alsace, Loire, etc to make “Crémant.” The only differences between Champagne and Crémant are their region of origin and sometimes, the grapes used. California sparklers for example use both the methode traditionelle and the same blend of grapes, but are not allowed to use the trademark word “champagne.” Cava also uses methode traditionelle, but they use a blend of grapes that is often uniquely Spanish. I love the names of grapes so I will include them: Xarello, Macabeo and Parellada. The grapes can add a bit of minerality and citrus flavors that are distinct to Cava. These days, in order to appeal to the international market, Cava makers are including more Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in their blends to blur these distinctions. But in almost all cases, Cava is much less expensive than Champagne, as is Crémant, despite the complex processes followed.
Prosecco is a whole different story. It was originally the name of the grape and the wine. However, as it skyrocketed in popularity, other regions of the world began imitating it and calling their wine Prosecco also. What is a poor vigneron to do? The ingenious vintners in Italy realized that they too had a product which needed protection similar to Champagne. So, they cleverly renamed the grape “Glera,” and designated the area of its production in Italy’s Veneto region, “Prosecco.” Voilà! They had a unique product with global popularity and brand recognition in one fell swoop. Prosecco does not, despite its popularity, use the traditional method. Instead, the base wine is put into a pressurized wine tank along with sugar and yeast (tirage) to produce the second fermentation. Then, again under pressure, it is bottled, ready to be sold. Prosecco does not age on yeast, so it lacks that brioche richness of traditional method wines. And it does not have any minimum aging requirements, so it is fast and relatively easy to produce. Not only does this help keep costs down, it also helps to satisfy the enormous market for this very cheerful, celebratory product. Italy also has some very highly sought-after traditional method wines, called Franciacorta and Trento DOC. Few sellers regularly carry them, but they are worth a little splurge.
So, returning to our original discussion, what to drink in the changeable weather of May in New England? Anything sparkling! Most people reserve sparkling wine for special occasions – for good reason – the pop of the cork, the fizz of the bubbles when it is poured out, the flutes used for toasting – are all designed for a cheer. But if you pour some traditional method wine into a white wine glass and just savor the mousse and the flavors, it can both warm you on a cool day or cool you down on a warm day. Furthermore, it is a chameleon that can be paired with just about any type of food, from salad to steak to dessert. So long as you are thirsty, it is always perfect.
Saluté!
On Saturday, May 14th, sign up for “Beyond the Bubbles” and learn more about Champagne at Commonwealth Wine School.
