It's New Years Eve! I love New Year's Eve. I could go on about it being the end of the old year and the beginning of something new. I could talk about the new year with all the promise it brings (maybe include some metaphors). I could discuss my resolutions for the year. Drink more wine, talk more about working out, tell everyone about the diet I am going to start (or pretend to start), you know, the usual. If I am being honest, the real reason I love New Years Eve is Champagne. It is the one day of the year that Champagne is guaranteed! That glorious golden bubbly wine is such a huge part of New Year's Eve festivities, and I love it!
Picking a sparkling wine is not always easy. Champagne is not cheap. Even cheap champagne is not cheap. To complicate matters, the terminology changes depending on the country or region. That is what we are going to be talking about today in preparation for New Year's Eve. How to pick a bottle of good Champagne. Or at least, how to understand what kind of Champagne you have already picked.
Let's start by narrowing things down. When I say champagne, I am specifically talking about the Champagne region in France. There are tons of sparkling wines produced outside of Champagne that are excellent and certainly worth your time. For simplicity sake, I am going to be talking specifically about the sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France (Champagne Champagne). Now that we are done with semantics, let's get to it. How in the world do you pick a bottle of Champagne? Thankfully, the label on a bottle carries a lot of information. It will tell you who made it (the producer), where it is from, how old it is, the style (grape or grapes), and the level of sweetness in the wine. I love it when things are spelled out for me! Lets start with the latter, the sweetness of the wine. If the label carries the word Doux or Demi Sec, the wine is going to be sweeter. Strangely enough, dry and extra dry champagnes fall in the middle of the sweetness scale. On the dryer (less sweet) side of things, you have the bruts. Brut, Extra Brut, and Brut Nature are the driest of the dry with Brut Nature being as dry as it gets. If you like dry, look for Brut. If you like sweet, look for Demi Sec or Doux. In addition to sweetness level, you need to consider the style or grapes being used. There are three grapes used in Champagne. Using a blend or single varietal determines the style of the wine. The rockstar grapes of champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. In terms of style you have the standard style which is a blend of the three grapes, blanc de blanc ("white of whites") made with 100% Chardonnay, Blanc de Noir ("white of black") made with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, and Rosé. Rosé is made in Champagne by blending blanc Champagne with a very small amount (often 10% or less) of red wine (made from Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier).
Okay, you picked the sweetness level and the style, so what else is there? There is the producer, region, and the regional classification.
This is getting complicated! Let's start with producer. Many of you will have heard of the big Champagne houses (Maisons) like Moët & Chandon, Bollinger, Louis Roederer, and Veuve Cliquot. The big houses will source grapes from different vineyards all over Champagne. In contrast, Cooperatives are made up of multiple growers producing grapes for a single brand. Wine from a cooperative does not imply anything about the quality of the Champagne. For instance there are cooperatives that only use grapes from the best vineyards (designated Grand Cru) in their village. You can spot champagne from a cooperative by looking for the letters CM on the label. This stands for Coopérative Manipulant. An example you may have heard of is Nicolas Feuillate. The last kind of producer I want to mention is the grower-producer or vignerons. Grower-producers can be thought of as the little guys. They make champagne by owning, tending, and harvesting their own vineyards. On the label, you can often (though not always) spot a grower-producer by looking for the letters RM which stands for Récoltant Manipulant. Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly also suggests looking for a hyphenated name on the label (for example Gosset-Brabant). Now that you know all about producers, what about regions and regional classification? You may remember the regional classification from some of my discussions of Burgundy. Simply put, some vineyards are labeled as Premier Cru (1er Cru) or Grand Cru because the grapes have demonstrated their ability to produce high quality, life changing, bank breaking, exceptional wine. These champagnes will be excellent! And expensive. But also excellent! Lastly, in terms of the region, generally speaking, there are 5 main growing regions within Champagne. Each are known for different reasons. For instance, Champagne produced near Reims may taste very different from Champagne produced near Épernay. The focus in Reims is more Pinot Noir, while Épernay loves its Pinot Meunier. I will spare you from having to deal with one of my poorly drawn maps!
Now you know everything you need to know about Champagne and are a complete expert! Except for perhaps the most important part. Yes, there is more! I haven't talked about vintage vs non-vintage! Aging! I say that this is the most important part because aged, vintage champagne is amazing (also expensive). You get more of the yeasty, bready taste. Maybe yeasty doesn't sound that delicious but it really is. Old vintage champagne is like drinking toasted pound cake. Mmmmm pound cake. Non-vintage (NV) champagne is a blend of different years to ensure a consistent taste year after year, even when the harvest was not good. Non-vintage champagne is aged for at least 15 months. On the other hand, vintage champagne is only produced on special years when the harvest was good and is aged for a minimum of 36 months and often much longer. All of the information above about style, producer, region etc. is important, but don't forget the age! Just like with non-sparkling wines, the age factor with champagne is something to keep in mind. I was reminded of this recently when I had the chance to try Charles Heidsieck Millésimé 1990 Vintage Brut Champagne. My Father was kind enough to bring this over for Christmas. It was amazing, and a testament to the power of vintage champagne! This Champagne has some age on it and you can taste it. Charles Heidsieck is a champagne house in the Montagne de Reims region. The color was a beautiful gold-yellow. It smelled like lemon peel and bread and tasted like toasted almond lemon pound cake. Definitely my favorite wine of the year!
When all is said and done, Champagne is a fabulous way to bring in the New Year. Whether you drink vintage or non-vintage, giant house or small grower-produced, you are sure to enjoy a great champagne. How can you go wrong with bubbles?!
I look forward to trying more wines with you all in 2018.
Happy New Year!
