Graduation special: A toast to champagne
Champagne is the world's most revered drink. Its highly valued status is something the French treasure. Their government imposes the strictest controls on its production. Not just any grape can jump into a bottle of champers.
Growers have to be licensed, they can only use certain types of grapes, press a certain amount of grape juice, and only sell the wine at a certain age.
All bottles must be labelled with a code that indicates whether the grapes were grown exclusively or bought by the producer who bottled it - this could be the vineyard or a merchant - and who, if different, the champagne was produced for. Bottled champagne can be relabelled as a buyer's own brand, for example Tesco.
More importantly, no vineyard outside of the Champagne region of France can produce the goods. This quality assurance goes a long way to securing the reign of champagne in times of celebration.
Champagne varieties
The primary types of champagne include blanc de blancs, blanc de noirs and rosé.Blanc de blancs
By law, these can only be made from a single grape variety, chardonnay. Blanc de blancs have become the most popular aperitif due to their light, dry taste. They are also ideal for light first courses including seafood and soups.Blanc de noirs
These are white champagnes made only from the black grape varieties of pinot noir and pinot meunier. Typically, these sparking wines are full-bodied and deeper yellow-gold in colour. They are ideal for full-flavoured foods, including meats and cheeses.Pink or rosé
These champagnes are produced by one of two methods. The traditional method involves adding a small amount of pinot noir still wine to the base wine, or cuvee, prior to the second fermentation. The second is the maceration method, which involves the pressing pinot noir grape skins and allowing them to soak with the juice of the grapes prior to fermentation. The popularity of rosé champagnes comes and goes.Vintage versus non-vintage
Non-vintage, or sans année, was the only type of champagne sold for the first 150 years of champagne production, it is typically referred to as classic champagne. Non-vintage accounts for 85-90% of all champagne and is less expensive.It is called non-vintage because it is composed of several different seasonal harvests, rather than from a single harvest. Each year, all champagne producers must set aside at least 20% of their wine for use in future non-vintage champagne.
Vintage champagne must be harvested from grapes grown in a single season. In a good year, no more than 10-15% of the total champagne made is vintage. But not every year will be a vintage year for vhampagne houses, which explains their rarity and high cost. Krug's famous Clos du Mesnil vintage champagne costs about £360. Older vintage brands can be much more expensive.
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