Pleasure without Champagne is purely artificial – Oscar Wilde
All champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is champagne. Champagne can only be called Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region in Northern France.
So, here a typical Australian Sparkling wine is a blend of three grapes – chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. A “blanc de blanc” is made exclusively from Chardonnay. A “blanc de noir” is made exclusively from pinot noir.
Most Aussie sparkling wines are made using the traditional sparkling method or “methode champanoise”. This method involves creating the bubbles in the bottle as it undergoes a secondary fermentation. It is a complex process but it provides the best results in balance and complexity. Prosecco and some other sparkling wines get their bubbles by having the secondary fermentation occur in a giant tank of wine (called the Charmat method), then the sparkling wine gets put into a bottle. The cheapest sparkling wines have carbon dioxide pumped into the giant tank (like a soft drink), then get transferred into a bottle.
Most sparkling wine (including Champagne) is non-vintage. In other words, the makers take base wine from several different years and blend it together to make bubbly. This allows the producer to keep a consistent flavour profile from year to year. If you see a vintage sparkling wine, it means the makers thought that year was a spectacular year and will represent their winery’s highest quality. This comes with a change in price though.
To achieve higher levels of quality using the traditional method, once the secondary fermentation is complete the wine is left on the lees from the fermentation for long periods of time. The length of time varies from several months up to 10 years or more. The lees are the yeast deposit and are used to develop bready or doughy “yeast autolysis” characters. Usually longer periods are necessary for the best results. Achieving complexity, balance and length together is the trifecta.
Drinking sparkling wine is one of life’s simple pleasures. Enjoy them as young or old wines. Expect interesting characteristics in both and appreciate the detail. Most importantly, just enjoy it.
In these times especially, popping Champagne is a good campaign!
