Champagne

Psst...champagne is just a name!

Champagne evokes celebration. The sound of a cork popping will make you smile. The bubbles in a champagne glass are FUN. However, making champagne is a serious and technical business.

Champagne is the word for sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France, via the méthode champenoise. Champagne is most often made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. Pinot Meunier grapes are sometimes used in smaller amounts.

While one cannot make true champagne anywhere but the Champagne region of France, many wonderful sparkling wines are made in other places using the méthode champenoise.

I went to such a place. Gruet Winery in Albuquerque, New Mexico makes sparkling wine via the méthode champenoise. They also make still wine. Head Winemaker Laurent Gruet was kind enough to allow me to ask him a bunch of dumb questions, and to show me around the winery.

The carbonation in champagne was originally an accident, and wine makers looked for ways to remove the bubbles. At first, sparkling wine in France was referred to as le vin du diable (Devil’s wine). The muselet (the wire cage on the top of a champagne bottle) was invented to prevent the corks from popping off unexpectedly.

Laurent Gruet grew up in Champagne, France, in the town of Bethon. Laurent’s father, Gilbert, was the proprietor of Gruet et Fils winery there. Laurent went to wine school in Champagne, and worked for his father, learning the méthode champenoise.

Méthode champenoise is the traditional way Champagne has been made for hundreds of years. In the European Union, the traditional méthode champenoise has been renamed the Champagne method. In the United States, and in many other countries not in the European Union, the méthode champenoise designation is still used. Regardless of the technical designation, the method is the same. Wine is pressed and the juice transferred to a tank or barrel for primary fermentation.

Following the primary fermentation, the wine is transferred to bottles for secondary fermentation. Yeast, nutrients, and sugar are added to the bottles. This mixture is called tirage. The bottles are usually capped with a standard bottle cap.

The wine then ferments in the bottles for quite a while. Generally, the secondary fermentation lasts a year and a half to three years. Some wines are left in secondary fermentation (en tirage) for up to five years.

During this stage, the spent yeast and sediment (lees) fall to the bottom of the bottle. Méthode champenoise uses a process called remuage (riddling in English) to gradually turn the bottles so that the lees ends up at the neck of the bottle, just below the cap. Historically, this was done by hand. Today, the wine is usually placed in a rack system called a Gyropallette, which mechanically riddles the bottles. The bottle finishes this process upside-down.

Once the bottles have finished their journey, winemakers employ the genius step of méthode champenoise. The neck of the bottle is flash-frozen, and the cap removed. The pressure of the carbonation forces the frozen lees out of the bottle. The wine is still carbonated, and the bottle is swiftly corked, resulting in a clear, naturally-sparkling wine.

At this point, for most of the wines, a combination of wine, sugar, and water is added to the bottle. This allows for a little additional carbonation when the remaining yeast eats the sugar. It also allows the winemaker to control the sweetness of the wine. Some wines produced via the méthode champenoise do not receive the dosage, making them extremely dry.

Laurent Gruet came to New Mexico with his father and sister in 1984. The Gruet family had been looking for the perfect place to establish a vineyard in America. They found their ideal location in Albuquerque. The combination of the dry, calm weather, and the lack of disease allows the winemaker to dial in the moisture the grapes need, which results in consistent harvests. The water in New Mexico is also very good for making wine.

Champagne would never have really been possible without the invention, by the English, of coal-fired glass. This glass was much stronger than the previous charcoal-fired glass. The stronger glass allowed bottles to be made which could withstand the high pressure of champagne.

Gruet Winery had its first harvest (which was about 2000 cases) in New Mexico in 1987, and released its first wine in 1989. From that small start, Gruet today bottles hundreds of thousands of cases a year. Gruet wine has gone toe-to-toe with the best Champagnes from France in blind tastings and more than held its own.

Champagne and wines made via méthode champenoise fall somewhere on a recognized sweetness scale. From sweetest, to least-sweet, the scale is: doux; demi-sec; dry; extra-dry; brut; extra-brut; and finally, sauvage (sometimes called brut nature). Sauvage wines have no dosage added, while doux wines have the most.

The brut and drier styles were developed by French wine makers for the English market. Most Champagne was, historically, sweeter than it is today.

In addition to covering the sweetness scale, Gruet, like most other winemakers who use méthode champenoise, makes wine in several traditional styles. Their wines include: blanc de blancs (this means, white from white, and is a wine made from 100% Chardonnay grapes); blanc de noirs (this means white from black, and is a wine made from 75% Pinot grapes, and 25% Chardonnay grapes). Gruet also makes a rosé (a pale, pink wine made from 100% Pinot grapes, and left for 48-72 hours in maceration, which achieves the coloration). Gruet, like most other winemakers using méthode champenoise, will mix in some Pinot meunier grapes with the Pinot noirs. Laurent’s favorite wine to drink is Gruet’s Sparkling Grande Reserve.

Because of the high pressure involved in storing champagnes and sparkling wines in bottles, the shape of the bottles themselves is important. Champagne (and wines made from méthode champenoise) bottles are curved on the bottom to prevent blowouts. This well in the arched bottom of a champagne bottle is called a punt. The neck of a champagne bottle also has a ring of glass around it to allow the muselet to be secured. This ring is called an annulus. Champagne bottles are made in two parts and fused together. This results in a seam in the bottle.

The unique features of a champagne bottle allow it to be opened in a marvelous way. This method is called sabrage. Sabrage is typically accomplished with a sabre (sword) but can be done many other ways. Laurent Gruet told me the trick for the absolute coolest technique: using the base of a champagne flute. I will not provide instructions here because you all will probably injure yourselves trying to look cool. It can be done, but takes a lot of practice.