The Ultimate Visual Guide to Champagne and Sparkling Wine

The Ultimate Visual Guide to Champagne & Sparkling Wine By winetracker.co TOTAL SPARKLING WINE PRODUCED IN THE WORLD 15 % FROM CHAMPAGNE FRANCE 85 % FROM REST " OF THE WORLD It's not Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region in France. Otherwise it should only be called Sparkling Wine. Most Champagne is a blend of these 3 grape varieties: Other types of Sparkling Wine Pinot Noir Pinot Meunier Chardonnay Crémant d'Alsace Crémant de Bordeaux Crémant de Bourgogne Crémant de Die Crémant du Jura France Crémant de Limoux (non-Champagne) Crémant de Loire Crémant de Savoie Gives it 'body' Gives it 'vibrance' Gives it 'backbone' Anjou mousseux AOC Blanquette de Limoux AOC Blanquette méthode ancestrale AOC Bourgogne mousseux AOC Clairette de Die AOC Saumur mousseux AOC Touraine mousseux AOC Prosecco Franciacorta Italy Asti Spumante Spain Cava Lambrusco Trento DOC When the grapes are squeezed in the wine press the first juice that comes out is the best tasting and highest quality. As the press continues to squeeze, the resulting juice begins to have a more and more astringent quality. Germany Sekt Portugal Espumante The more expensive champagnes are made from this juice. The cheaper champagnes are made from this lower quality juice. Why is Champagne White? Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine Sovetskoye Shampanskoye You might be wondering "if Champagne is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay how come it's not red?" The red color in wine happens when the winemaker lets the grape skins sit in the fermentation tank with the juice. With most champagne they don't let the juice sit with the grape skins, so it's white. Romania Panciu Hungary Pezsgő Cuveé (blended batch) Most Chapagne is a blend of juice from multiple years. This guarantees a consistent quality. England Sparkling Wine United States Sparkling Wine 2011 2012 2013 Sparkling Wine South Africa Sparkling Wine Australia N.V. (non-vintage) Usually when you don't see a date on a wine label it's a bad sign because the winemaker is just mixing surplus wines from multiple different years together. But in the case of Champagne, its a good thing. Winemakers in Champagne systematically blend wines from diffrerent years in order to keep the wine a consistent high quality from year to year. BUT... Oa PERICNON MILEBSIN PERIGNON MILLESN Champagne Dom Térignon Vintage 2004 In years when the grape harvest is particularly spectactular, Champagne producers take some of the best juice to create a single year, non-blended, vintage' relase: (e.g. 2004 Dom Perignon) Champagne Dom Térignon Non vintage 2004 vintage Here are all the vintage years for Dom Perignon Champagne: 69 771 175 778 82 985 788 192 195 98 00 04 103 21 126 729 34 143 147 152 155 159 162 166 1900s 2000s Today 28 149 153 164 170 d73 176 b80 d83 d86 190 d93 d96 d bo2 In all the non-listed years they only produce the multi-year blends. ENZ 6x 3х Champagne in the bottle has 5 to 6 times the pressure as our atmosphere. By comparison the average car tire has only 3 times the pressure of our atmosphere. How to open a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine Get a bottle of Lift the wire cage off Firmly hold the cork and twist the bottle Pour and enjoy! The most skilled people can dislodge the cork with only a whisper. Avoid popping the cork. Unless you just won the Indy 500, you want to keep the champagne in the bottle! Peel the foil off the Hold your thumb on the cork while you untwist the wire cage. Champagne. the bottle. Make sure to hold the cork so it doesn't fly off. top of the bottle. slowly and carefully to ease the cork out of the bottle. Where do the bubbles come from? The Bottle Method (Méthod Traditionnelle) Primary Fermentation Secondary Fermentation YEAST SUGAR Bottles are sealed and let After Secondary The grapes are harvested and The juice is fermented into a base wine. The various base Bottles are filled The necks of the to sit for 1.5 to 3 years for non-vintage and 3 to 6 years for vintage champagne. The yeast goes to town eating the sugar and produces carbon dioxide. (When you open a bottle of champagne the carbon releases as bubbles!) Fermentation the wines are blended together (eg, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, with the blended bottles are frozen made into juice. wine and a small bottles are tilted to capture the dead yeast in a frozen chunk. The bottles are opened, downard in racks for dose of sugar and yeast is added to each bottle. several weeks to force Chardonnay). all the dead yeast to and the frozen chunk is quickly removed. More wine is added to settle into the neck. The bottles get turned daily to help the dead yeast ("The Lees") settle. replace the frozen chunk and depending on style some additional sugar ("dosage") is also added. Then the champagne is corked and labeled. Voila! The Tank Method ("Charmat" Method) Injection Method Secondary Fermentation No yeast, only CO2 and sugar co2 The blended base wines This sparkling wine is immediately bottled and labeled. It is quick to produce and most always used for the cheapest sparkling wines. The various base The blended base After a 1 to 5 years The various base are put into a tank along with the chosen sugar amount and CO² is injected into the wine (the same way Coca Cola is carbonated). Bubbles from this type of carbonation are large compared to the tiny bubbles produced by the yeast induced fermentation. wines are blended wines are blended wines are put into another fermentation tank for 1 to 5 years where yeast and sugar are added. The yeast goes to town eating the sugar and produces carbon dioxide. (depending on quality and producer) the tank is cooled so the dead yeast can be filtered out of the wine. Depending on style additional sugar is added ("dosage"). It is then bottled, corked and labeled. together. together. Dry Sweet BONE DRY DRY A LITTLE SWEET MODERATELY SWEET VERY SWEET Very little if any sugar is added before bottling. A little sugar added. Some sugar added. A fair amount of sugar added. A lot of sugar added. AlaDN FONDAE EN T772 EXTRA BRUT BRUT SEC DEMI-SEC VIN DOUX PRANCE PARKLING W SWEET AREIM. Non Dosé L:1: spumante Meíoão CI “Non Dosage" BRUT N AT U RE EXTRA DRY Popular Champagnes & Sparkling Wines to Look for by Price Category Under $10 $10 to $25 $25 to $60 $60 to $150 $150 and Over CHAMPAGNE O BERTRAND SENECOUR:TO LOUIS ROEDERER MPAGNE 17TH CENTURY SPANISH CASTLE Ceen CRISTAL CHAMPAGNE IAMARCA CRISTALINO MISON FON EN 1827 CHMUMM SPECIAL CUvte JAUME SERRA BRUT PROSECCO D. O. C. A REIMS -RANGE CORDON CWINE SPARKLING WINE TRADITIONAL METHOD CAV BRUT Brut ORISTAL A REIMS Nde LE Bondo per BRUT hobadS PRODUCT OF ITALY PRODUCT OF FRANCE Vn Gekri Epula RSI 0SCAT PRODUCT OF FRANCE A EPERNAY 750ml / ALC.12% BY VOL Dom TRADITI Ntum Villare GNISATNNONOTA METHODI Product of Italy MUMM NAPA BRUT 2006 Champagne 'uptake Dom Térignon M N L'ERMITAGE CONCORDIA RITAB IND Vintage 2004 VINEYARDS by ROEDERER ESTATE ° ESTATE BOTTLED SPARKLING WINE ANDERSON VALLEY BRUT PRESTIGE PROSECCO NAPA VALLEY BAC2 BVOL Brut SPARKLING WINE CHAMPAGNE BARONS DE ROTHSCHILD PRODUCE O RANCE wwwwwwww BAREFOT BUBBLY HAM P A G NE BRUT WHITE SPARKLING WINE MÉTHODE 2010 Palmes d'Or TRADITONELE SAINT-HILAIRE Veuve Cliequot CHAMPAGNE! BRUT 750 12%ok BLANQUETTE DE LIMOUX LIMOUX APPELLATION LIMOUX OONTROLEE CMASDn FONDE EN 1773 AS A rINCE BRUT CUVÉ E Sparkling CHAMPAGNE California ESTATE BOTTLED NATURALLY FERMENTED IN THIS BOTTLE PRODUCED AND BOTTLED BY V.S.A. LIMOUX FRANCE BRUT BRUT Cue Champegre AEVAND DE BRIGNAS À REIM S FRANCE ET VETHOD SPARKLING WINE SECONDARY FERMENTATION PRIOR TO BO 125 PRODUCT OF TRANCE Summary winetracker.co Get out there and try several different types of sparkling wine. You'll soon find out what you do and don't like. Easily keep track of the wine you drink. Track a Wine The best way to keep track of what you're drinking is www.winetracker.co, the visual way to track your wine. Other People's Wines My Wines My Account About Us winetracker.co 31or nvag