4 Things You Must Know About Champagne

Four facts about champagne and questions

Champagne! No other wine has the reputation champagne does.

Our long-running Champagne class is aptly named (in our opinion): Why Is Champagne The Greatest Wine in the World? Because it is, quite literally, the greatest wine in the world.

Champagne gets everywhere: it has an association with decadence and aristocracy, yet it also has pop cultural status. It’s dominated by brand names but it is considered something special, beyond an everyday way. Pretty much everyone has a quote about it—Napoleon drank it in victory and defeat; Chanel whether she was in love or out of love; while Casanova called it the “essential equipment for seduction”.

In fact, champagne has become such a global icon that the word ‘champagne’ has become an eponym for any and every bubbly.

Which brings me to our first, and the most important, thing you must know about Champagne:

1) What’s the difference between Champagne and ‘sparkling wine’?

Champagne is from the region of Champagne.

Ok, yes, champagne is a type of sparkling wine. But it is a very specific sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. ⬇️

*Cremants, pet nats, Proseccos, Cavas…are NOT champagnes*

Champagne can only be called champagne if it is from the Champagne region. Any and every other sparkling wine from anywhere else cannot technically be called champagne*.

2) What grapes are in champagne?

It’s not only a geographic boundary that defines champagne. Champagne makers must follow a whole host of rules about how they grow grapes, make the wine, etc. One of those rules is grape variety.

Champagnes are (for the most part) made from one, two, or a blend of all three of the following grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier (say: moon-yay).

For you nerds out there, there are other grapes allowed in Champagne, though they are rare. These are: Pinot Blanc, Arbane, Pinot Gris, and Petit Meslier.

Day-to-day, you don’t really need to worry about these. However, if you do happen upon a champagne made with one of these varieties, get it, because you’ve just stumbled upon a gem! (And let us know as Martin and I will happily join you in the drinking. We’ll bring the snacks.)

3) What does champagne taste like?

There is a valid reason for the French being so keen on distinguishing their famous sparkling wine from the rest of the world’s bubbly plonk (jk, jk—there are lots of great non-Champagne bubblies…for another day). Champagne tastes completely unlike every other bubbly and (in my, non-biased 😉 opinion) superior to every other sparkling wine.

Ok, some people love the clean, floral, fruity notes of Prosecco, and I support that completely! But champagne does taste different.

Here are the flavors and tastes that define champagne:

*The flavor profile that make champagne unique from other bubblies*

Champagne is ‘brioche-y’ or ‘yeasty’

You might have heard these tasting notes thrown around. Someone might also say ‘toasty’. They are referring to the wine like a baked good—brioche, toast or just plain yeast.

Champagne has small bubbles

You know when you drink a cheap Cava you were reserving for mimosas and the bubbles are so aggressively La Croix like, it feels like they are attacking your mouth? (A huge reason many people don’t like sparkling wine.) Champagne is not like this.

Because of the production method and the long aging requirements, the bubbles in champagne are small and soft, almost velvety. They are like tiny, baby Pop Rocks compared to aggressive burlap-bubbles of many run-of-the-mill sparkling wines.

FUN FACT: The older the champagne is, the smaller and less prominent the bubbles will be. Oftentimes, very old champagne (15+ years) will have very few, if any, bubbles left. Flat champagne is still delicious, by the way. That’s the magic of it. 🧙‍♂️

Champagne is very ‘minerally’

This just means that instead of fruit or other intense flavors being prominent, the wine has subdued mineral flavors. Imagine licking a river rock. Or in this case (because Champagne, the region, lies on a giant chalk bed), imagine licking chalk.

*The Champagne region (left) lies on the same chalk bed that makes up the White Cliffs of Dover in southern England (right) 🤯*

Because the flavor of minerals is subtle, the wines seem drier (there’s less fruitiness, which can come across as sweet), while some higher-end champagnes might take some paying attention to in order to pick up on the detailed nuances of flavor. (Call champagnes mindfulness wines, if you’d like. Consider them your meditation wines.)

Champagne has lots o’ richness and depth of flavor

The flavors are complex—again, hello, meditation wine. Because the region of Champagne is super cold, the grapes have to hang on those vines for a long time before they are ripe enough to pick. This long growing season gives the grapes plenty of time to develop lots of flavor and complexity.

4) How long can you age champagne?

A long and sometimes very long time (ie, from 3 to 50+ years). This is one important thing that sets champagne apart from most other sparkling wines and validates its stately reputation.

The cool climate (and long growing season), the chalky soil, and the arduous and meticulous production methods distinct to Champagne produce wines that have the potential to age for an extremely long time.

Most entry-level champagnes will easily last in your cellar for 3-5 years. However, once you start moving up in the champagne world, it’s not unusual to find a champagne that could age for 10, 20, 30 even 50 years. I know! Crazy. 🤯

There you have it. There is nothing like champagne! *Stepping down from my soapbox

Have you had proper champagne? Is it your cup of tea or are you still more of a give-me-that-fruity-Prosecco folk?

*There is a whole French Champagne bureau dedicated to eradicating misnomers. The French take this very seriously. There are, by the way, a few exceptions—champagne bandits who benefitted from a loophole. A couple of Californian sparkling wine budget brands (Cook’s, Andre, not to mention beer brand Miller High Life) were using the term ‘champagne’ before the US and European Union struck a deal in 2006 on the use of generic names (‘Port’, ‘Chianti’ and ‘Chablis’ were some of the others regulated). Cook’s and the others were grandfathered in and now legally get to continue calling their wine ‘California Champagne’ (or the ‘Champagne of beers’). However, woe betide anyone who tries to use the name ‘Champagne’ now for anything: the Champagne bureau even went after Apple when the tech giant wanted to describe an iPhone as ‘champagne colored’.