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This New Year's Eve don't just stunt with a bottle of expensive Champagne, stunt with knowledge. If it weren't for the brands mentioned by rappers like Diddy and Jay, none of us would know anything. We'd be buying sparkling wine from Alsace thinking we were presidential. But, we've been told, taste and wealth are signified by Champagne from Champagne. (Not to mention the whole proper noun thing.)
What makes one sparkling beverage from a specific area of northern France better than the rest? Complex spoke with Seth Box, a wine and Champagne specialist for Moët, to learn more about the long history of the most distinguished drink for 10 things every guy should know about Champagne.
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What's Champagne, Really?
"Champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France, a very specifically delineated area of about 34,000 hectares. There's a set of rules and regulations that are fairly unique to that particular region, including what grapes you can grow-only Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. There are a few others that have been grandfathered in, but that's the majority of what's planted and produced. The rules also tell you how you must harvest-they have to be harvested by hand-they tell you how you must press the grapes, how much you can press out of the grapes, how to ferment, and how long to age."
Why All the Rules?
"In France, there's an organization called the INAO (Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité) that looks after all of the viticultural departments in France. Then there's the CIVC (Le Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne), which is specific to the Champagne region. This is the body that's worked out the rules and regulations, and it's done so to ensure that the Champagne name stays at the top of the pecking order, internationally. These rules and regulations maintain the drink's reputation and quality."
What's Special About Champagne, the Region?
"Champagne is as far north as you can get in France and still produce wine, and that's because of the climate. The climate dictates the quality of the growing season. You want even growing seasons to produce nice, even ripening. You don't want extremes of weather, you don't want frost, you don't want hail, you don't want huge swings in temperature. You hope and pray that it doesn't rain at the wrong time. You're also praying for the right amount of sunshine up until harvest. It's these challenges that make for such an impressive product."
How Do You Read a Champagne Label?
"The first thing that you want to look at is the producer, and that'll be well laid-out on the front. You want to make sure that it's been made in Champagne, in France. Some bottles will be tricky, especially the French-made sparkling wine from other regions. Then, and this is one of the most important pieces, you want to look at where it says 'Brut' on the label. This can be very misleading for a lot of people; it's the part of the label where you're being told how much sugar is in the bottle. Brut, which is one of the most popular styles of Champagne in the world, is very dry. If you like something with a little more richness, a tiny bit more sugar, more generosity if you will, look for 'Demi-Sec.'"
How Is Vintage Champagne Different?
"Ninety percent of what's produced is actually non-vintage. Imperial is Moët & Chandon's flagship Champagne. It's a blend of more than one harvest. So, if you have, for example, a 2012, that bottle will include grapes harvested and fermented in 2012, as well as grapes from other years. This allows for consistency. If you enjoy Moët Imperial, you like that style, and you want it to taste that way next year, regardless of whether we had a good vintage or a bad vintage. So, non-vintage is a genius way of offering consistent quality by blending two, or three, or four or five years together in one bottle.
"The other 10 percent produced is vintage Champagne. You'll see that clearly on the label. Connoisseurs will look for particular vintages. The flavors will change as the bottle ages. Anything that's got a bread, a biscuit, a brioche note to it, that's very indicative of vintage Champagne; those notes are less pronounced in non-vintage Champagne. The level of carbonation will also decline."
How Should Champagne Taste?
"You're looking for a bright fruitiness, a seductive palate, and an elegant level of maturity. You want pop, a beautiful effervescence. Most people aren't looking for hugely evolved, older Champagne, for the most part. Which is why non-vintage is as successful as it is."
How Do You Store Champagne?
"A refrigerator is fine, but it's not great for long-term storage. I wouldn't keep it in there for more than a few months. Your fridge is colder than most wine storage facilities; 50 degrees is the sweet spot for Champagne. If you want to bring a bottle to someone's house and drink it that night, fill a bucket a third of the way with ice then top it with water. Put the bottle in there, and in about 20 minutes, it should be good to go.
"Light will also damage Champagne. The refrigerator light won't do a whole lot of damage, but sunlight will. If you want to keep a bottle for, say, a year but you don't have a wine fridge, find the coolest spot in your apartment and keep it there. Be sure that the temperature is consistent, though. One of the biggest enemies is a huge swing in temperature. You don't want it to get very hot and very cold, and then very hot and very cold. Whoever designed the rack for wine storage that went over the oven, they weren't helping."
How Do You Serve Champagne?
"Glassware is important, but it shouldn't ruin your evening. Put it in what you have. That said, Champagne flutes are great at showcasing the bubbles; they're sexy; they're great for toasting. But a white wine glass will do. You want a stemmed glass so that you don't warm the Champagne with your hand."
How Does Champagne Compare to Other Sparkling Wines?
"The worst bottle of Champagne that you can get-and there are certainly some that are better than others-but the worst bottle of Champagne you can get is going to be a lot better than the worst bottle of sparkling wine that you can get. When you get to other countries, the rules cease to apply like they do in Champagne. Say you wanted to make wine in Argentina, for example; you could do whatever you wanted. You could use whatever grape; you could grow it wherever; you could make it as sweet as you wanted and not put it on the label; you could age it for however long you wanted, and do it in a tank and not in a bottle; you could inject it with CO₂ like it were Coca-Cola. As long as there was a market for it, and you paid you taxes, you'd be in business."
What Foods Pair Well With Champagne?
"Champagne is too often neglected at the dinner table.You can have it with everything from oysters and sushi, both classic, to popcorn and fried chicken. It's really versatile. The alcohol will never overwhelm, because it's always a little bit lower; the acidity is always crisp and fresh, so that'll help cut through any fat. And then you have the added texture of the bubbles."
