Wine making in Champagne, is an incredibly intricate and protected process. With the title of Methode Champenoise being exclusive to the region. What many may not realise though, is making Champagne starts out the same as still wine making. Like all wine making, Champagne, starts out with harvesting when the grapes have reached their optimal ripeness and balance between sugar and acidity levels. In Champagne, all producers must harvest their grapes by hand, and will use small buckets so the grapes aren't crushed before being pressed. The harvested bunches will then go through a rigorous sorting process, to make sure that only the best berries are sent for production. All the grapes are picked by hand, no machine. So by hand you can make selection, you take only the good parts, a machine will take everything, a machine will take bird nest rotten grapes, snakes, snails, everything. By handpicking, you can take the good ones. Once the grapes have been sorted, they will be ready for pressing. Grapes will be placed as whole bunches into a press, which in Champagne is traditionally a Coquard, or basket press, though many producers now use a pneumatic press Pressing is important, Its a part of the Champagne method That's why we don't like others things made Method Champenoise, we prefer method tradicional, the way we extract grapes is important. We don't crush, We press. We want to make white wine, out of black grapes. By pressing you have automatic press, in a way its vertical, like any press you can do it mechanically, pneumatically, hydraulically, so, now most of the press, automatic, so you control your pressure, so that the manual one, the traditional one, you know when you squeeze fruit, there is a moment nothing is flowing, so you have to shake the fruit, press another times, Of the traditional one, you level the press, you have people with forks turning the grapes, pressing all the time An automatic one its like if you make concrete, it turn it press. Which one is the best? Its like driving a car. You have automatic gear box, manual gear box. When its on motorway, automatic or manual, the drive. On snow- different. On snow, if you are a good driver, and a manual gear box, you can be very efficient. But you are a bad driver on a manual gear box on snow, you can go out of the track. This pressing process is strictly protected, under Champagnes appellation laws. With producers only allowed to extract 2550 litres of juice, from every 4000 kilograms of grapes. The extracted juice is divided into to vin de cuvee, which is the first 2050 litres pressed, and the vin de taille. Which is the remaining 500 litres, The vin de cuvee is the premium juice, and is reserved for a Champagne houses best wines. The juice will then be transferred into stainless steel vats, or in some cases, small oak barrels, This unfermented grape juice known as must, will settle with any sediment resting at the bottom. Once settled, the sediment is removed during what is known as Debourbage Whilst stored, the wine will then undergo alcoholic fermentation, this occurs either naturally or through the addition of selected yeasts to the vat, Alcoholic fermentation is the process of yeast, consuming the grapes natural sugars, which creates the natural by-products of ethanol or alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. Some producers may then allow malolactic fermentation to occur, during which microorganisms, naturally found in grape juice transform tarte malic acid, found in green apples, into soft, lactic acid, which is found in milk. This process softens the wine, and helps to give a round and creamy texture. Many producers in Champagne prefer to prevent the malolactic fermentation from occurring, as a stylistic decision, to maintain fresh and crisp acidity in their wines. This can be controlled by adding sulphur dioxide or keeping wine at a low temperature, where this fermentation cannot take place. Champagne is a wine that is made from the Champagne region, Champagne its a region , like Burgundy, like Kent, its like Dorset, and Champagne wine, can only be made with grapes coming from that region, And its a small proportion of global sparkling wine today. Champagne is a sparkling wine, its a wine in the case of the champagne method, fermented twice. The first fermentation is like any kind of wine in the world, lets say any kind of white wine, its undergone in barrels or in tank, and it sort of basically grape juice becomes wine. Under the influence of the addition of some yeasts. Juice basically, grape juice becomes wine. Still wine, that's it! After alcoholic fermentation, the chef de cave or master blender of a champagne house, will undergo the critical blending process called assemblage, Wines of different varieties, villages and vineyards will all be blended together, to create the desired wine with non-vintage wines also having a variety of different vintages. So Olivier, what do you do with all this wine after a year? In January, of next year, we will taste every single vat individually, for choosing if we keep this wine for one more year of storage, or we use it for the blend of the next bottling period. So everyday we taste the vat, we keep notes and we start making or blending the recipe or the cuvee, we have a different type of way of doing , this wine we only go on non-vintage wine. so, maybe will use a part of this vat, no wine or full of the vat. it depends on the effect of this wine in the future blend, so maybe, in spring, we put this wine in the big blend of goods, classic or we can keep one more year in storage. Once blending is complete, the still wine will be bottled and a mixture of sugar and yeast called the liqueur de tirage Will be added to each bottle to induce a secondary alcoholic fermentation in the bottle Bottles are then sealed with a crown cap, similar to that found on beer bottles and are normally stored in a cellar or the traditional chalk tunnels of champagne. The added yeast in the wine consumes the sugar, creating alcohol and carbon dioxide in the wine. As the wine is sealed, the carbon dioxide is unable to escape and dissolves into the wine. Causing it to become fizzy. Once all of the sugar is consumed, the dead yeast will settle in the wine as what is known as the Lees. Over time, these lees will impart bready and toasty characteristics to the champagne, in a process called autolysis, most fine champagnes will spend at least two years on their Lees, with some vintage champagnes spending up to five or six years Diego, here on the left and on the right we have wines which are ageing so these bottles are undergoing the second fermentation. and they are basically as you can see they are stagged on pieces of wood which we call lat. That enables the bottle to be stable, and not be shaken around, So these wines are ageing, and they will be in our cellars for another 3 or 4 or 5 years. so all of them are in second stage of fermentation? exactly. Which we call ageing, Second fermentation might be just finished, so the carbonic gases inside, but the ageing and the maturing and the division of the lees the yeast in smaller pieces, in order to generate a finer champagne and smaller bubbles. After at least 15 months, Champagne will be slowly rotated upside down during the riddling process, so that all of the dead yeast cells accumulate in the neck of the bottle, I don't wanna get too technical but basically obviously, for example when you talk about remuage, the riddling of the bottle that used to be done exclusively by hands, so basically turning the bottles from the horizontal to a vertical position to evacuate the yeasts, and now, essentially, is done by machines. so basically you put the bottles in a pallet, metal pallet, and the metal pallet is put on a metal fork and the fork turns, like one quarter or one eighth everyday and then again, for about 10 to 12 days, and then eventually, the fork puts the pallet in a horizontal position. The bottle necks will be frozen, and the bottle cap will be removed, The pressure from the carbon dioxide will eject the remaining yeast cells, this is called disgorgement and it was also traditionally done by hand, but it is usually done now by a machine. Finally, sugar may be added to the Champagne, known as the dosage, balancing the wines acidity. The cork is then added to the bottle, and the Champagne will be left to settle for a few months before being ready for sale. This process has been tweaked and perfected over hundreds of years, however the essence of the method Champenoise, still the same So, how has the process changed over the years? I would say fundamentally the recipe or what makes champagne become champagne, has not changed, once again, its a wine fermented twice. And the second time is done in a bottle.
