champagne

Nothing spells celebration quite like a glass of the good stuff. Image: Pixabay

When everything else loses its sparkle, there’s always Champagne

The palatial headquarters of Champagne houses in Reims and Epernay tell you this is home to the most luxurious and celebrated of drinks.

champagne

Nothing spells celebration quite like a glass of the good stuff. Image: Pixabay

Drive through Champagne and you’ll see nothing terribly dramatic by way of scenery. Although the heart of the region is known as La Montagne de Reims, it’s hilly rather than mountainous, with the pretty, gently rolling slopes making way for the plains that were the tragic site of some of the most bitter battles of World War 1.

The giveaway, of course, are the lavish headquarters of the champagne houses in Reims and Epernay, heartland of the tipple, in France’s Champagne-Ardenne region. 

Champagne a celebration of terroir

One of the things which make Champagne so special is the famous French concept of terroir. The region – about 145km northeast of Paris – is very far north for grape growing, but has a climate in which the classic sparkling wine grapes of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier achieve their first expression.

The cool conditions intensify their flavour while preserving their acidity and freshness. Cold, damp, dark cellars, some many hundreds of years old, maintain those qualities.

champagne sparkling wine
It is illegal to label a product Champagne in the EU and many countries (SA included) unless it came from the Champagne region of France. Image: Pexels/Pixabay

Above all, there’s the distinctive chalky soil of the area, conserving moisture for the vines and giving its individual, elegant mineral character to the grapes. 

Like wine growers in many other areas of France, the Champenois, as the growers and producers are called, have been making wine for generations.

So intimately do they know every inch of their vineyards that they can make an entirely different Champagne from grapes picked within a few yards of each other.

Regions of Champagne 

Everything in Champagne is expensive: the labour, because the grapes are harvested by hand; the land, with some of the most expensive vineyards in the world; and the grapes, which cost as much as table grapes.

The huge cost of keeping older stocks of wine, expensive advertising and, not least, the opulent headquarters of the Champagne houses, make it easy to see why the price of Champagne is as high as it is. 

What is fascinating, however, is that behind all the glamour there is a vast agricultural enterprise relying on thousands of small growers, many of whom have just a hectare or two of land. These small growers produce a variety of grapes needed by the big Champagne producers to create complex wines.

The smallholdings are found all over the region – from just above Reims to the north, right down to the Aube to the southeast of Troyes in the south. 

Grapes that make Champagne great

Some areas are famous for particular grapes. The Côte des Blancs, for example, is renowned for its Chardonnay, while some of the best Pinot Noir comes from the Montagne de Reims. 

The 17 most highly rated villages are officially classified as Grand Cru and only produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, not the lesser rated (though hugely important), Pinot Meunier.

There are also 43 villages classified as Premier Cru, which accounts for just under a quarter of all Champagne production. Some villages have vineyards that qualify as both Grand and Premier Cru for different grape varieties. 

Brilliant bubblies aplenty

There is also a significant amount of Champagne that does not have a famous name attached to it. A great deal of it is produced by co-operatives or associations of growers, as well as individual winemakers who grow their own grapes.

There are also thousands of brilliant bubblies being made under their own label by wine merchants, supermarkets and restaurants. 

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