Champagne
When asked to prepare for a fine dining
event, rarely anyone will miss out on including a bottle of
champagne!
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So what is in champagne that makes it an
essential part of fine living?
Maybe Lily Bollinger will be able to tell you in her own
inimitable way – “I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad.
Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I
consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and
drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm
thirsty."
Champagne! Undoubtedly is the world’s most
loved wine!
For the connoisseurs, it is not just another
wine; it is a glass full of passion packed with pleasure and
indulgence!
No wonder, Champagne is the world’s most
popular sparkling wine competing in its finesse with the other
legendary wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire, and Rhone
Valley.
The making of the world’s most adored
wine
The distinct flavor of Champagne is achieved through the
blending of different wines of several years. It is the
traditional knowledge of the Champagne House and the expertise
of the Chef du Caves that create the blend. The Non Vintage
Champagnes are a blend of thirty or forty different wines. A
wine connoisseur would rank a bottle of Champagne on the scale
of driest (brut sauvage) to the sweetest (Doux). Other types
fall in between depending on their degree of dryness or
sweetness.
Champagne Types
Non Vintage
This is a blend of different types of wines and NV champagnes
are not sold until they are 15 months old. Many reputable
Houses however prefer to age the bottles in their cellars for
longer periods.
After you buy a bottle of NV champagne, put
it in a cellar or in the absence of it in cool dark place to
improve the content in taste and body. However, don’t keep the
bottle longer than it was originally cellared by the maker.
Vintage
Vintage Champagne is a blend of wines from a particular year of
harvesting and the legal minimum for qualifying as vintage
champagne is 39 months. However, you can age the champagne
beyond that legal minimum to get an improved taste and texture.
It is up to the individual Houses to decide the vintage
year.
Rosé
The rosy hues of this variety is either the result of
maceration of black grapes during pressing, or addition of a
small proportion of the red wine form the Champagne region
(often Bouzy Rouge). The former method is called de saignée
which is more expensive and complex, but it produces better
Champagne.
Prestige Cuvées
This is the most expensive variety of champagne---three times
more than a Non-Vintage, and around double the price of a
Vintage. Prestige or luxury Cuvées are the signature product of
any House that has been blended in a vintage year. They are
produced with hand picked grapes from top-producing vineyards
and are left to mature for five to seven years. These are made
with the utmost care to produce a premium wine and that
justifies their price.
Lastly, don’t kill the taste of your coveted
drink by over or under chilling it. Don’t keep it in
refrigerator for more than two weeks or the flavor will start
to lose its sharpness. The best way to chill champagne is to
submerge the bottle in a bucket filled with equal amounts of
ice and very cold water.
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