Champagne

Champagne

Introduction • Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of wine to effect carbonation. • Champagne enjoys a reputation as one of the most well-known sparkling wines, usually consumed only on special occasions.

I- Few pieces of information • 1- History • 2- The mark guaranteeing the quality of Champagne • 3- Economic

1- History • The first vineyards were planted by the Romans • The method of making sparkling wine was invented in the 17th century. • But it’s only in the 18th century that Champagne became known worldwide.

2- The mark guaranteeing the quality of Champagne • A mark guarantees the quality of Champagne since 1927. • The champagne is the most northerly of the major wine growing regions in France (east of Paris) where the grapes grow in a limited area of 3000 ha.  

Figure Région Champagne

We can wonder why Champagne comes only from vineyards of one region. The reason is that this area has particular

3- Economic • The Champagne is a famous wine appreciated all over the world. • In 2004, more than 300 millions of bottles were sold in the world. The first consummators of this wine are the British followed by the Americans.

II- The Champagne making process Yeast

Harvesting

Pressing 4 hours

1st fermentation

Blending 5 months

1 month

Bottling Yeast

2nd fermentation 1,5 month

Riddlin g

Disgorging

Ageing 15 months

Dosage

1 month Sugar and wine

Harvestin g •The harvesting season starts between middle of September and beginning of October because the right balance between the sugar content and the acidity is reached at this time. •The harvesting is done by hand, the use of machines is forbidden to prevent the

Figure Harvesting

2Pressuring Each specific grape  pressured independently  extraction of juice (rape) Appellation Champagne  grapes must be unbroken and entire

Limited productivity : 102 l of rape for 160 kg of pressured grapes

Specific criteria of the champagne production wine press : •The loading must be easy, fast and with a short fall of the grapes •The area of pressuring must be large •The juice must be extracted at 90° from the pressure axe to grant rape auto filtration

3- First fermentation • Before fermentation control of the acidity of the grapes juice  insure a good ageing process

Fermentation in stainless steel cylinders or barrels

• Add of yeast to the grapes juice  fermentation • The yeast feeds on the sugar in the grape juice and releases alcohol (as ethanol), heat and carbon dioxide

4- Blending

• From each of the fermented batches of wine a small sample is taken and tasted by the wine makers.  • The selected samples are then taken and combined to give a final master blend, which is called the Very difficult process  wine makers cuvée must predict the final flavour Remaining blocks of wine not used in blending  auctioned off to other vineyards.

5- Bottling • This stage takes place in spring. Before to bottle, yeast and sugar are added to the final blend to induce the second fermentation.

• Then the wine is bottled and closed with a non definitive capsule.

6- Second fermentation the yeast increases level of alcohol add CO2  bubbles

This second fermentation is called the malolactic fermentation: (COOH)² - CH2 - CHOH --------> CO2 + CH3 - CHOH – COOH This process takes about four to six weeks.

7- Ageing • The yeast must now remain in the bottle for at least a year to allow the champagne to age, even though the fermentation process is complete. • The alcohol content of the wine is limited because at a certain concentration the yeast becomes "drunk" and can no longer ferment. • This stage lasts at least 15 months.

8Riddling Aged wine  task of removing the yeast from the bottle

Bottles placed at 45° on automatic or manual turning rack Bottles periodically rotated Yeast fall down the cap of the bottle

Manual process : about one month

9- Disgorging After riddling the yeast is ready to be removed Manual process (old but still used) :

2 bubble in the neck of the bottle  claw to remove the metallic capsule e yeast was also expulsed with the gas.

Automatic process : Tops of the bottles frozen  disgorging machine removes the cap yeast ice plug

10- Dosage • Generally a combination of sugar and wine will be added to balance the high acidity of the dry wine. • The amount of sugar added determines the designation on the label: non-dosée, brut, extra sec, sec, demi-sec or doux, in ascending order of sweetness.

11- Corking, wiring and selling • Corking similar to brewery corking

• Wiring and selling  specific for each producer

Thank you for attention