Would you like to discover your favorite champagne?
Champagne is a multi-faceted wine. Depending on the terroir (grands crus, premiers crus) where it is grown, thevarieties that make up the cuvée, its year of production and its sugar dosage, it will give very different styles and tastes.
First of all, avoid the high-consumption champagnes found in supermarkets.
Prefer champagnes from harvesting winegrowers and family houses.
Get a notebook to memorize all your sensations, on the nose, in the mouth...
Follow these 4 steps to discover your span>tastes and preferencesamong different typesofChampagne.
Good tasting,
Cheers :)
STEP 1 - SINGLE VARIETY VS BLEND OF VARIETIES?
Taste these 4 styles of champagne to find out which varietal or blend you prefer:
- A blended Champagne Chardonnay, Pinot noir and/or Pinot Meunier.
- A Champagne Blanc de Blancs made from Chardonnay
- A Champagne Blanc de noirs made only from Pinot Noir
- A Champagne Rosé or a Rosé de Saignée obtained by macerating the black grapes or by blending white wines and a still red wine from the Champagne appellation.
STEP 2 - VINTAGE VS NON-VINTAGE?
The tradition in Champagne is to blend wines from different years. The “non-vintage” blend allows a brand to produce wines with the same taste, which is always identifiable. In Vintage Champagne, the blended grape varieties come from a single year. It's vintage. Winegrowers choose to vintage a wine when the harvest has were exceptional. A Vintage Champagne, unlike a non-vintage, will therefore always be a wine with character marked by its year of production.
STEP 3 - NOT SWEET VS LITTLE SWEET OR SWEET
Taste champagnes from the sweetest to the least sweet to discover the level of sweetness that suits you:
- demi-sec between 32 and 50 grams of sugar per litre
- dry between 17 and 32 grams of sugar per litre
- extra dry between 12 and 17 grams of sugar per litre
- raw less than 12 grams of sugar per litre
- extra rawbetween 0 and 6 grams of sugar per litre
- raw nature or zero dosage less than 3 grams of sugar per litre
STAGE 4 - WITHOUT CLASSIFICATION VS 1ER CRU OR GRAND CRU
Taste the champagnes from the same domain producing cuvées from classified and unclassified terroirs. The "grand cru" and "premier cru" classifications are generally mentioned on the label or back label:
- Unclassified (no mention on the label)
- Grand Cru Champagne
- Champagne Premier Cru