What is Champagne?

Basically Champagne is a place and a type of sparkling wine. That is the simplest definition. It is also a method of making sparkling wine that is distinct. You will see it referred to as méthode champenoise or méthode traditionnelle (aka traditional method). There are other terms but we don't need to get bogged down in that. Champagne producers can get snippy if non-Champagne producers call it méthode champenoise. If it isn't FROM Champagne? It isn't Champagne.

Yet sometimes you will see bottles that say "California Champagne." Why? Because when all this was agreed to there was a grandfather clause. Most producers stopped using the term even when they were allowed. Others (I'm looking at you Korbel and Andre!) continue to use "Champagne" on their label.

Chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier are the three main grapes used in Champagne. People are, occasionally, surprised by this, especially those who decided all chardonnay is bad (as an aside...chardonnay produces some of the greatest white wine in the world). The other grapes allowed are arbane, petit meslier, pinot blanc and pinot gris.  Occasionally there are producers who use the last four but they make up a tiny portion of plantings in the region.

There is, among some folks, a notion that the rules and place where Champagne can be made are some ancient tradition. They are in fact not 100 years old. Also, the boundaries of Champagne have been changed with in the last 15 years. This realignment is changing what was originally codified on June 29, 1936. Hardly an ancient tradition.

NOW, this is a quite basic sketch of what Champagne is. I wanted to make it even more succinct but didn't! You can read more at www.champagne.fr/en/homepage.

 Why makes a wine dry?

The simplest answer to this question is--an absence of sugar.  Dry is the opposite of sweet. A wine cannot be dry and sweet at the same time. If you ask for something that is "not too dry" you are asking for a wine that is a little sweet. If you ask for a wine that isn't dry and isn't sweet you are  being a tad confusing.

You will also hear the term "off dry" which means the wine is a little bit but not super sweet. Other terms you may see are "medium sweet" or "sweet." When you get to this point the grams per liter is a better way to sort out what is bone dry and what is super duper sweet. Wine Folly has a neat breakdown of how much sugar (in grams per liter) to give you an idea how much sugar is in a bone dry versus a super sweet wine. You can check it out HERE.

People can (understandably) get confused when tasting a fruit forward wine. Sometimes such wine will give the impression of sweetness without much sugar being present. Likewise a dry wine doesn't always mean there is NO residual sugar. Grapes, indeed, have some sugars in them that are not fermentable and these remain in a wine.

Here is a little, oft unspoken, wine secret; wine is created when yeast eats the sugar in grapes and poops (for lack of a better term) alcohol. In dry wines the yeast eats most of the fermentable sugars (fructose and glucose). In sweeter wines less pooping means more sugar in the wine. NOW...there are also fortified wines which is another matter. Discussion of Port, Madeira and Sherry can take place another time! Likewise for sparkling wines.

We will get into each of these later!