Champagne v sparkling wine
Not all bubbles are created equal. When you ask for a glass of house champagne at the local pub, hand over a crisp tenner and receive some loose change with your flute of fizz, chances are it’s not the real deal.
Champagne is sparkling wine, however not all sparkling wine has the privilege of calling itself Champagne.
How do I know if I’m drinking Champagne?
If your bottle of bubbles reads Champagne on the label, that’s your guarantee it’s from the Champagne region of northeastern France, just outside of Paris.
This is courtesy of the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC), a labelling system governed by the French regulatory body that certifies both authenticity and quality of a product from a specific area.
Established in 1936 for Champagne, this protects the region, its producers, and consumers against cheap imitations, preventing imposters from calling their fizz “champagne” if not from its namesake. (Sound familiar? There’s ongoing debate among EU and Australian winemakers now around the rights to “prosecco”).
We often speak of terroir, an expression of a region’s unique and specific climate, soils and terrain, an intrinsic sense of place that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
Champagne boasts truly exceptional terroir. Those blessed with holdings have invested interest in maintaining this reputation of their name on the bottle.
In the interest of maintaining the standards of these coveted vineyards and its most prized product, the farming, viticulture and winemaking process in the region are all highly regulated. Everything from permitted grape varieties (predominantly chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier) to the harvesting of grapes by hand is enforced by law.
And if your bottle of sparkling wine isn’t from this region – it isn’t Champagne.