One thing I learned in Champagne today

I went for a quick trip to Champagne today. Funtastic weather, temperatures at about 25 degrees Celsius. During the smooth car trip the sun was playing hide and seek with some clouds and shadows were chasing on the highway. Ideal conditions to mentally prepare for these delicious bubbles.

First stop: Vincent Renoir, a small producer in Verzy. This village is located in the Montagne de Reims region. This means that the great red grape pinot noir is omnipresent. Their champagnes are indeed well loaded with this grape. Take their basic brut tradition (tirage 2003) and you will find half of it filled with pinot noir grapes. The other half is occupied by that other great Champagne grape: chardonnay.

And what did I learn?

Okay, just a word, namely “Vin de Noël” or translated “Christmas wine”.

What is the anecdote beefing up this word? Just before Christmas the order books of Champagne producers are well filled. Hey, don’t you like to pop that bottle of Champagne during these weeks of festivities? I do, I do…

However, one problem during this period is the cold. It could happen that upon transport to the eager clients, the bottles remained some time in the cold. This cold had the effect that certain elements in the wine crystallize. They actually form some kind of “snow flakes”. Hence the reference to those typical snow flakes we all have in mind when dreaming about a white Christmas.

Nowadays this “problem” with Champagne only appears in isolated cases. Most producers apply some kind of cold filtering. Because of the cold crystallization takes place and is filtered out. So later on no crystallization and, thus no snow flakes will appear in the bottle.

And now it is time to pop some Champagne…just imagine some ice-cold snowflakes whirling softly on your face.

Santé!

Have a nice glass of Champagne today!
Bart


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June 4, 2007 | Filed Under France, Sparkling wines 

Comments

2 Responses to “One thing I learned in Champagne today”

  1. Frederic on June 11th, 2007 10:39 am

    Nice story about Champagne. I drink a lot of it but this one I have never heard.

  2. bart on June 14th, 2007 10:11 pm

    Vincent Renoir is an independent bottler. He sells some grapes to Roederer and the remaining he bottles under his own name. As you could imagine this is not one of the major champagnes, such as Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot and many others. Nevertheless Vincent Renoir is often mentioned in the Guide Hachette, one of the major buying guides for French wine.

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