Champagne: Quick Sips

Whenever you see “Quick Sips” in the title that means that the post is a quick read with those few crucial points you need to know to hold your own at a dinner, or cocktail, party. So let’s do a quick sip of champagne.

Champagne is both a region and a wine name. Sparkling wine made outside of the Champagne region cannot use the word champagne on their label. So if you see a label that says “champagne” that is from, let’s say Brooklyn, NY you should know that it is not champagne rather it is sparkling wine. To recap, champagne is sparkling wine but not all sparkling wine is champagne.

Next up there are three primary grapes used in the creation of champagne. The white grape is Chardonnay, and the two black grapes are Pinot Noir and what is now called Meunier (used to be Pinot Meunier). Blancs de blancs is a white wine made exclusively from white grapes and blancs de noirs is a white wine made exclusively from black grapes.

And one final point in today’s quick sips – Dom Perignon DID NOT invent champagne! He may have had a hand in perfecting some of the processes used in champagne making but he didn’t invent it. It originated due to stuck fermentation during cold winters where the yeast became dormant and then revived in the spring when temperatures warmed up and the yeast began to ferment a second time giving off carbon dioxide resulting in bubbles in the wine.

Whew, lots of information for quick sips so why don’t you grab a bottle of champagne and read through this again so you can shine at your next party!

Seeing that I could only find two pictures of bottles of champagne that we’ve had and realizing that is 2 bottles in a couple of years, I see now I have to make some changes in my life and introduce much more champagne into my regular drinking line up!