KNOW YOUR CHAMPAGNE

Crus and grape varieties

‘Cru’ refers to a certain winegrowing location with a particular growing environment, especially soil and climate, which favors a specific grape variety. Champagne is represented by 320 crus and 275,000 individual vineyard parcels, each with its own individual profile.

Brut, non-vintage or vintage

Non-vintage Champagne is traditionally blended from grapes grown in different years, but they may also combine wines from a whole range of crus and varietals. Non-vintage blends are the means to achieving a consistent house style, regardless of vintage variability.

Vintage

Vintage Champagne is blended from the wines of a single ‘millésime’, an outstanding year that the individual producer chooses to declare as a vintage.

White or rosé

Champagne has different colors, from pale gold to grey-gold or even straw-yellow. The color depends on the blend and the style of wine in question. The more powerful the wine, the deeper the color. Rosé Champagne is made via maceration of whole, uncrushed black grapes.

Young and mature wine

Champagne must spend at least 15 months aging in the producer’s cellars. This increases to three years for Vintage Champagne and considerably longer for the Special Cuvees.

Brut, Doux, Demi-sec

The word ‘Brut’ indicates that the Champagne contains very little dosage: It has been bottled almost in its natural (brut) state, requiring only the smallest addition of sweetness to bring out its aromatic expression. Over 90 percent of Champagne wines are categorized as ‘Brut’. It is this added touch of sweetness (dosage) that provides the basis for the Champagne sweetness scale. At one end of the scale is ‘Extra Brut’ (no dosage) and at the other end is ‘Doux’. The categories between these extremes are Brut, Sec and Demi-sec.