A Bottle of Pop!
From a 16th century French monastery to the hottest nightclubs in L.A. – Champagne has come a long way.
With the New Year celebrations just around the corner, one of the more important arrangements for the island’s hotels and resorts is stocking up on Champagne. These days, it’s only on special occasions, like New Year, weddings or landmark birthdays, that people are drinking the bubbly stuff. Apart from, oddly enough, American rap music stars. These guys will not be seen in public drinking anything else but Champagne; usually bountiful supplies of Cristal and Dom Pérignon (selling for well over $250 a bottle). In fact, ‘Cris’ and ‘Dom’ are so ingrained in Hip Hop culture that high profile rappers frequently make references to them in their music.
The founding fathers of Champagne might not approve of this close affiliation it now enjoys with rap stars. According to legend and popular belief, the 16th century French monk Dom Pérignon invented Champagne (although some people think that it was created quite by accident). There is a great story about Dom Pérignon’s superiors at the Abbey of Hautvillers telling him to get rid of the bubbles, since the pressure in the bottles caused many of them to explode in the cellar and was thought to be the work of the devil!
Champagne’s fizz (carbonation) is produced by inducing in-bottle secondary fermentation of the wine. It’s named after the Champagne region of France. And while the term ‘Champagne’ is often used to describe sparkling wine in other parts of the world, strictly speaking, it should only be used to refer to wines made in the Champagne region. (This is the only difference between the two.) Does this mean Champagne is better than sparkling wine? This is actually a complicated question, to which the answer is unsatisfactorily ambiguous. Yes, Champagne is usually better than sparkling wine, but not always. Some sparkling wines, particularly from Australia are often superior. But the reason Champagnes are usually better than most sparkling wines is because of the incredibly strict rules and regulations imposed to maintain their quality. Champagne is a single Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. Meaning grapes must be the white Chardonnay, or the red Pinot Noir. If made exclusively from Chardonnay, they are known as blanc de blancs, and those exclusively from the red grapes as blanc de noirs. Champagne is typically a white wine even if it is produced with red grapes, because the juice is extracted from the grapes using a gentle process that minimizes the amount of time the juice spends in contact with the skins, which is what gives red wine its colour. The amount of sugar added (after the second fermentation and ageing) also varies, from brut zéro or brut natural, where none is added, through to brut, sec, demi-sec and doux. The most common today is brut, very different to the early 20th century, when Champagne was generally much sweeter.
Champagne is unusual in that it comes in many different sized bottles, ranging from quarter (18.75 cl.) to double magnum (3 litres). It has been said that the larger sized bottles produce better quality wine, but whatever the size, they are made from impressively thick, chunky glass, and much care and attention goes into their design and labelling. The Dom Pérignon bottle is an icon of the wine world – it’s one of those classic designs that have withstood the test of time. (Of course, being the wine of choice for James Bond has also done wonders for its image.)
The thick glass is not just for show, it’s necessary for strength – the pressure inside the bottle is about ninety pounds per-square-inch. That’s about three times the pressure in your car tires! (And explains why there is a metal cage securing the cork.) All that bubble force is worth remembering when opening a bottle – many a serious injury has been caused by high velocity corks flying into the face. Which is why you should firmly hold the cork with a cloth and then twist the bottle, making as little of a ‘pop’ as possible.
Today, Champagne glassware is usually a flute, which has a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl and opening. The wider, flat, coupe style of glass is no longer preferred by connoisseurs, because it does not preserve the bubbles and aroma of the wine as well.
It’s quite important to only pour small amounts at a time, partly because of the bubbles, but also to preserve the (essential) low temperate. Bottles should be put on ice, for at least one hour before serving and chilling the glasses helps stop fizzing. If the wine does come bursting out of the bottle in a cascade of bubbles – this is a sign that it’s too warm. However, in the case of Formula One drivers, it’s slightly different – vigorously shaking the bottle will also tend to have that affect. It’s surprising a bottle has never exploded, causing one of those freak accidents, where someone regularly dices with death in one specific activity, only to be killed in a totally unrelated one. You never know, one day it might happen to a Gangsta Rapper, with the resulting newspaper headline: “Papa Daddy Sniff Dog killed by Dom Pérignon in a Los Angeles nightclub!”
Dimitri Waring