The wines of Champagne are defined not just by the region’s history, geography, and laws but also by its unique viticultural and winemaking practices. This guide follows Champagne production from the vineyard to the glass, diving into the specific farming practices, decisions made in the cellar, and biological processes that together result in one of the world’s great sparkling wines.
Achieving a vineyard that is balanced year after year to produce sparkling rather than still wine requires adhering to certain criteria. It is not practical to be dogmatic about how each grape variety should be grown in every location within such a large and varied region as Champagne.
But it is true that a variety destined for Champagne production, when compared with the same variety grown in the same place for a still wine, generally requires the following in a classic vineyard:
In Champagne, the space between vines within the same row can range between 0.9 meters and 1.5 meters (roughly 3 feet and 4.9 feet), while the distance between rows must not exceed 1.5 meters. The relatively wide-spaced minimum of 0.9 meters is determined by the space necessary to accommodate all obligatory methods of training and the number of fruiting buds required. There is also a maximum sum of spread—the summation of the distance between each vine and each row—of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). This is equivalent to, for example, 1 meter (3.3 feet) between vines and 1.5 meters between rows.
The average density in Champagne is 8,000
I'm confused on the labeling used in the (fabulous) graphics. A cordon is permanent wood more than a year old. A cane is one-year-old wood. A shoot is new growth which emerge from the bud in the new vintage. Accordingly, shoots mature into canes after the first vintage, canes mature into cordons.
For the figure on Chablis. Wouldn't what is labelled as "Cordon" be the trunk? What is labeled "Cane" is in fact a cordon (its multi-year wood as described in the paragraph below and other authoritative sources). What is labeled Shoot, is the Cane which possesses the buds (correctly identified) for the year's growth.
For the figure on Cordon de Royat, would the horizontal arm not be a cordon (hence the name of the system)? What is labelled cordon seems to be spurs. The identification of "shoot" seems to suggest two different things here. The left arrow seems to be pointing at a spur (or bud more specifically). The right arrow seems to be pointing to the cane, which is an extension growth similar to the Chablis system.
The Guyot image also seems odd. Guyot is a replacement cane system. Accordingly, the horizontal wood is a one-year cane (correctly identified), which would possess a number of buds which would give rise to the new growth (shoots), in the subsequent vintage. Accordingly, the label of "shoot" here seems unnecessary.
Vallee' de la Marne also seems misidentified. My understanding is the wood on the right should be composed of two parts - the cordon (labelled here as the cane), and a bent cane extension which provides the fruitful buds for the next vintage (labeled here as a shoot), similar to the Chablis method. Should the wood labeled as "shoots", not be labeled "canes"? Alternatively, if this is simply a double-guyot system trained in parallel, then both arms should be canes and the "shoot" label is unnecessary.
According to the Wine Scholar Guild’s Champagne Study Manual, the maximum is 27 g/l. This is from the WSG textbook: “Every 4 g/l sugar added to the vin clair will create 1 atm of pressure and increase the final alcohol content by .22%. By law, the maximum amount of sugar that can be added is 27 g/l. This limits the amount of additional alcohol produced to 1.5% and creates the requisite 4.9-6 atms. Some highly effective yeasts have even produced 7 atms!” (Although as discussed in this guide above, the most common practice is 24 g/l with some producers using less and seeking reduced pressure levels.)
What is the legal maximum of sugar per liter allowed in the Tirage?
Thank you, Michael! This has been fixed.
Thanks Michael! This will be updated shortly!
I think there is a small typo in the Champagne Yield Conversion chart, and 10.0 hl/ha should be 100.0.
marvellous
Great read
Excellent information and write-up
Wow