The techniques of sparkling winemaking did not originate with the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon, nor was the first purposely sparkling wine produced in the region of Champagne. Regardless, through centuries of refinement Champagne has become the world’s leading sparkling wine and the vinous embodiment of luxury and celebration.
Time to update the Methode Ancestral section to something more robust - Pét Nat is rapidly increasing in accessibility, affordability, and availability as a sparkling wine category in major cities. We have to start paying attention to it.
Hi Keith, this is a good question. In practice, people often refer to training methods and pruning methods interchangeably since pruning ultimately determines the training style. While it can be helpful when learning about pruning/training to try to break these concepts apart to make the ideas more digestible, outside of the academic setting, you'll most commonly hear these referred to as pruning methods/styles. I'm going to leave the language as is to reflect that, and to match the English translation on the website for the Comité Champagne.
Not to delve too deeply into hot-button current events, but modern usage would suggest that ‘the Ukraine’ should just read ‘Ukraine’.
The section on other traditional method sparkling wines includes Crémant de Savoie among the crémants, but then lists Vin de Savoie among the other non-crémant appellations, which I found confusing, as Crémant de Savoie is the designation for traditional method sparkling wines from the Vin de Savoie AOP (if I understand things correctly). That section also includes the following text: ‘Blanquette de Limoux AOP wines from the Languedoc region are also produced by the traditional method, from a minimum 90% Mauzac, Chardonnay, and Chenin Blanc.’ I’d suggest rephasing to: ‘Blanquette de Limoux wines from the Limoux AOP in the Languedoc region are also produced by the traditional method, from a minimum 90% Mauzac that may be blended with Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc.’
The section on the méthode champenoise above includes the following text: ‘The modern method of dégorgement à la glace involves dipping the neck of bottle in a freezing brine solution.’ Minor typo: ‘the neck of bottle’ should read ‘the neck of the bottle’.