Falstaff Magazin International 01/2021

wine / CHAMPAGNE

wine / CHAMPAGNE Champagne is a universal language. Across continents and cultures, it spells luxury and indulgence, celebration and success. The decades of marketing that are behind Champagne – and the fierce protection of the name – make it the ultimate lesson in branding. Yet the most beautiful thing is that underneath all the glamour, there is a real wine, as connected to the land, as expressive of its history, place and culture as every other fine wine. If you actually pause to smell and taste these fine bubbles, if you move on from using them as mere lubrication to your small talk, you will discover incredibly complex wines from a region that is as multi-layered as its wines. The expression of Champagne has never been so manifold or fascinating as it is now. THE REGION So what is Champagne? It is a sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of northern France, around the towns of Reims and Epernay, to the northeast of Paris. It is an unprepossessing landscape at first, often monotone and certainly without dramatic features, but its northerly clime, its soft hills and above all, its soils, have over centuries helped to shape the art of blending and bottle fermenting that resulted in a style of wine that is amongst the most iconic in the world. The appellation of Champagne, its outlines defined in 1927, lies just below the fiftieth degree of latitude with more southerly outposts in the Sézannais and the Côte des Bar reaching south to 48°N. This means that for most of living memory, Champagne was a marginal region, struggling to ripen grapes in every vintage. It was at the northern limit of viticulture but still is at the meeting point of two weather systems: that of the Atlantic, changeable and bringing regular rainfall, and the continental system, radiating winter cold and Many Champagne cellars, called crayères, are dug directly into the soft chalk rock, providing ideal conditions for the long, slow ageing. SOME WINES GROWN ON THE PUREST CHALK OF THE CÔTE DES BLANCS HAVE AN INCREDIBLY SALTY AFTERTASTE. summer heat. This always ensured fresh acidity in the grapes and light-bodied wines which benefitted from being blended and which gained body and texture through a second fermentation. Hand-harvesting grapes is one of the central tenets of Champagne. WHAT LIES BENEATH Seventy million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, what is Champagne today was submerged under water. As the water gradually receded, the fossilised remains of countless little sea creatures and algae created very special layers of calcium carbonate. Depending on where you are in Champagne, these chalky subsoils are metres deep, some have very little topsoil, others are covered in layers of marl and clay. Further south, in the Côte des Bar, another formation takes over: Kimmeridgian limestone from the Jurassic period, the same as in Chablis, Burgundy. It is the specific root environment afforded by chalk, a water-retentive, soft stone, that gives so much character to Champagne. Some wines grown on the purest chalk of the Côte des Blancs have an incredibly salty aftertaste. This is one of Champagne’s hallmarks and an absolute factor of what makes it unique. Incidentally, the soft chalk also allowed humans to carve deep caves into the rock. These naturally cool, damp cellars, called crayères, provide the ideal environment that enables the long, slow ageing of Champagne. < Photos: Shutterstock, Getty Images/Stefano Mazzola/Awakening, Tavares Barbosa Osmani/Comité Champagne 28 falstaff winter 2021

A tray of Champagne, served in proper Champagne glasses, on a balcony overlooking the soft hills of the region. winter 2021 falstaff 29