Champagne
When asked to prepare for a fine dining event, rarely anyone will miss out on including a bottle of champagne!
So what is in champagne that makes it an essential part of fine living?
Maybe Lily Bollinger will be able to tell you in her own inimitable way – “I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty."
Champagne! Undoubtedly is the world’s most loved wine!
For the connoisseurs, it is not just another wine; it is a glass full of passion packed with pleasure and indulgence!
No wonder, Champagne is the world’s most popular sparkling wine competing in its finesse with the other legendary wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire, and Rhone Valley.
The making of the world’s most adored wine
The distinct flavor of Champagne is achieved through the blending of different wines of several years. It is the traditional knowledge of the Champagne House and the expertise of the Chef du Caves that create the blend. The Non Vintage Champagnes are a blend of thirty or forty different wines. A wine connoisseur would rank a bottle of Champagne on the scale of driest (brut sauvage) to the sweetest (Doux). Other types fall in between depending on their degree of dryness or sweetness.
Champagne Types
Non Vintage
This is a blend of different types of wines and NV champagnes are not sold until they are 15 months old. Many reputable Houses however prefer to age the bottles in their cellars for longer periods.
After you buy a bottle of NV champagne, put it in a cellar or in the absence of it in cool dark place to improve the content in taste and body. However, don’t keep the bottle longer than it was originally cellared by the maker.
Vintage
Vintage Champagne is a blend of wines from a particular year of harvesting and the legal minimum for qualifying as vintage champagne is 39 months. However, you can age the champagne beyond that legal minimum to get an improved taste and texture. It is up to the individual Houses to decide the vintage year.
Rosé
The rosy hues of this variety is either the result of maceration of black grapes during pressing, or addition of a small proportion of the red wine form the Champagne region (often Bouzy Rouge). The former method is called de saignée which is more expensive and complex, but it produces better Champagne.
Prestige Cuvées
This is the most expensive variety of champagne---three times more than a Non-Vintage, and around double the price of a Vintage. Prestige or luxury Cuvées are the signature product of any House that has been blended in a vintage year. They are produced with hand picked grapes from top-producing vineyards and are left to mature for five to seven years. These are made with the utmost care to produce a premium wine and that justifies their price.
Lastly, don’t kill the taste of your coveted drink by over or under chilling it. Don’t keep it in refrigerator for more than two weeks or the flavor will start to lose its sharpness. The best way to chill champagne is to submerge the bottle in a bucket filled with equal amounts of ice and very cold water.
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