All about the sale of sparkling wines
There are more than 1200 producers and several thousand cuvées from brut champagne to rosé champagne through vintage champagne. How to choose champagne from this abundance of references, how to identify the champagne that will best suit your tastes and how to decipher the information found on the label? Follow the guide and learn about the secrets of the most famous wine.
Vintage Champagne, Brut, Blanc de Blancs ...
Champagne is a wine-growing region apart, with rules, grape varieties, specificities and wine-making methods apart. From these peculiarities the winegrowers and the great houses have drawn a strength and a difference. Find out why a non-dosed Blanc de Blancs is so different from a raw Blanc de Noirs ? What are the aromatic signatures of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier ? Is a vintage champagne always better than a non-vintage champagne ?
Know how to read the label
The label of a bottle of champagne contains an astonishing amount of information. We can thus discover who is behind the production of this bottle (a cooperative, a harvester-handler, a merchant…), or what is the dosage present in the bottle (brut, extra-brut, plain…). You can also learn whether they are grapes classified as grand cru or premier cru. Finally, we learn about the blend of the cuvée and the grape varieties present.
Wine merchant, Internet, supermarket ...
From the neighborhood wine merchant, to websites specializing in the sale of champagne and wine, to supermarkets, champagne is present almost everywhere. But we do not find the same cuvées, the same references in these points of sale. When the winegrowers market their cuvées mainly to wine merchants, we will find the most famous houses in supermarkets, while the more specialized brands (Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, etc.) will mainly be found in wine merchants like Nicolas and on the Internet. Finally, brands of amateurs, connoisseurs, cutting-edge references (Philipponnat, Delamotte, Salon, etc.) will be found especially on the Internet.
The dosage of champagne
The dosage of champagne is an absolutely essential step in the development of this wine. Discover the subtleties of this particularity of the Champagne method.
Champagne Vintage or without year?
Champagne is the only appellation that can combine several years of harvest to develop its cuvées. Should we prefer champagnes without years or vintage champagnes?
Choosing the right champagne
Wine guide, specialist journals, blogs… there is no shortage of resources to choose the right champagne, and not to risk disappointment. Who can you trust?
Where to buy champagne
Some prefer to go to a supermarket for the price, others to their wine merchant for advice and proximity, still others on the Internet for the choice and the service. Find out where to buy champagne without any nasty surprises.
All champagne bottles
Some say the bottle doesn't matter, but it's not entirely true. Part of the evolution of champagne will depend on the size and shape of the container. Discover all the sizes of champagne bottles.
Know the grape varieties of champagne
There are 7 authorized grape varieties in Champagne. Three largely dominate, pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay, discover their specificities.
Know how to read a label
The label of a bottle of champagne contains a great deal of information on its origin, its production, and its specificities. Learn how to decipher the label.