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About Champagne | Lovely Bubbly Vision | Champagne way of life
About Champagne
In the Beginning
Many people, particularly the French credit Dom Perignon with the creation of Champagne. Without doubt several of the techniques he developed are still in use today. However he was more concerned with eliminating bubbles rather than creating them! The first champagne was the product of a happy accident, wines destined for England had either Sugar or molasses added to it, to make it more appealing to the English palate. In transit a second fermentation took place and along with it Bubbles formed!!!!
It was several years before the French discovered that what the English were drinking was not exactly what had been dispatched. The wine was sent to England in casks. When the method of making fizzy wine was tried in France they found that their bottles were too thin, and frequently burst under the pressure. They had another problem the wooden bungs used by the French weren't airtight and the magic bubbles were lost!
Once the French adopted English bottle making methods using " verre anglais" and using cork stoppers both of which were pioneered by the great Dom Perignon. He also introduced the method of blending wines from different vineyards to produce a standard quality. He invented the traditional "Coquard" press, and the technique of collecting grapes in "tries", or passes to get individual grapes at their best.
The Process evolves
Quality was always the problem. It took over two hundred years to fully understand the process, simply adding a similair amount of sugar each time could not guarantee the same quality as before. Eventually Champagne makers learnt that the key to quality lay in three areas:
Liqueur de tirage
Disgorgement
Liqueur d'expedition
Liqueur de tirage
As we know the willy nilly adding of sugar did not produce a standard quality. The problem was that the amount of natural sugar present in the grape itself could not be measured. Neither was the relationship of yeast to sugar in the fermentation process properly understood.
These problems were all resolved in the first half of the 19th century, with a significant contribution from no less a dignitary as Pasteur!
Once it was possible to measure sugar content a solution of Sugar and Yeast could be added to the base wine to begin the all important bubble inducing second fermentation in a repeatable way!
This solution was first known as "Liqueur de titrage", The Liquor that sets the Strength of the wine! Nowadays it is called Liqueur de triage, Liquor for Bottling.
Disgorgement
Disgorgement, or degorgement, is the removal of the sediment that naturally occurs during the secondary fermentation. It is linked to remuage, which is a technique that moves all the sediment into the neck of the bottle. Without these processes, champagne would not be the clear, bright drink it is today. To remove the sediment, without emptying all of the wine from the bottle and losing its sparkle, the waste must first be collected in the neck of the bottle. The sediment contains a mix of waste products, some of which are very sticky, so simply turning the bottle upside-down doesn't work very well, even if you leave it upside-down for some time.
Nicole-Barbe Clicquot Ponsardin was widowed in 1805 at the age of 27, and ended up in charge of a major Champagne house. Veuve (widow) Clicquot cut holes in her kitchen table and stood the bottles vertically upside-down. By regularly taking them out and shaking them, much of the sticky waste was loosened and did collect in the neck.
Some still remained, however. Not satisfied with this, she hired Antoine Muller in 1810 to help her. He hit upon the idea of sloping the bottle at 45 degrees to start with, slowly turning the bottle and increasing the slope until it was perpendicular.
This process takes about eight weeks, turning each bottle daily by hand. Mechanical methods have now replaced this in most vineyards, which has reduced the time needed to just eight days. It's also cut down on the claims for repetitive strain injury that were starting to build up.
Liqueur d'expedition, or dosage
It has always been common practice to add sugar or molasses to wine to sweeten it, particularly when the wine is produced in northern areas such as Champagne where the grapes often produce tart, green wines as they struggle to ripen fully. Given the imprecise methods of adding sugar to start the second fermentation to produce the bubbles, it is no surprise that the early champagnes were all sweet. Champagne used to be served as a dessert wine, and even with the drier styles now produced, the French often continue this custom.
To improve the taste of the fermented wine, at the time of degorgement the liqueur d'expedition is added. These days, this is mostly sugar. The sugar is dissolved in a similar wine to the champagne itself, which helps it to mix in the bottle. For the sweeter wines, brandy or similar strong alcohol is also included to maintain the strength of the final mixture.
Many other substances have also been added to champagne at this stage. A list from the late 19th century includes port, tannin, raspberry brandy, kirsch, tartaric acid and alum.
The liqueur d'expedition is now more commonly known as the dosage.
Looking for a really dry champagne? Try our Georges Vesselle zero Brut, its called zero brut because it has no dosage added at disgorge.