Christmas… In my books this means bubbles, parties and general merriment. With regard to bubbles, I have many favourite champagnes but I wanted to highlight a few:
My go-to favourite is Laurent-Perrier Rosé (LPR) Brut, NV – the NV standing for non-vintage. This means that the champagne has been blended from multiple harvests and vineyards.
LPR however is predominantly made from one vintage but there’s always some wine used from other vintages so it can’t technically be called a vintage champagne.
A vintage champagne is made from the grapes from just one year’s harvest and it should have been marked as an excellent year due to exemplary grape growing conditions.
LPR is made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes that are from Grand Cru villages (essentially the best status a village from champagne can have and should mean that the terroir – soil, climate, etc. - is the best for growing grapes) It is made from hand sorted Pinot Noir grapes using the saignée method (also known as maceration/ skin contact) However the majority of rosé champagne is made using the blending method – literally by mixing white and red wine together.
The saignée method is where the juice is kept in contact with the skins (usually for about three days for LPR) until the right colour is sought. This method is more labour intensive as maceration time is critical and needs to be monitored by hand (and will depend on fruit ripeness) but I think it produces a softer wine, which is one of the things I love about LPR. It's also left on the lees for four years which makes it a creamy champagne and it also has a long finish.
I also love these two champagnes (below) that are slightly kinder on your wallet and in my opinion slip down all too easily:
The first of which I stumbled across during a blind champagne tasting which included some very well known brands. It came second (after Dom Perignon, which is in a league of its own, and is our Guest Blogger’s favourite champagne and he’s written a blog about his love of DP – he does rather fancy himself as James Bond but that’s another story…)
Louvel champagne which contains a staggering 72% Pinot Noir and for the price I think it’s brilliant. It was developed by a Master of Wine...By comparison the very prestigious Bollinger Special Cuvée is (60% Pinot Noir, 15% Pinot Meunier and 25% Chardonnay). It's also won a number of awards.
In champagne the Pinot Noir generally adds body, complexity of flavours and structure – robustness; the Chardonnay (of which the Louvel champagne has 20%) adds freshness and the Pinot Meunier (10%) adds roundness and fruitiness. Moet and Chandon (for reference) is made from 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier and 20% Chardonnay (approx) – it’s round and soft with some robustness.
Where you can buy Louvel champagne
https://groceries.asda.com/product/champagne/louvel-fontaine-champagne-brut/910000853401
Another Champagne I think is great is the Masse Brut Champagne, which is the Second house of Lanson (so not their premier champagne). This champagne has lots of body, is rounded, fruity and has a lovely richness which I think makes it stand out. It has 55% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier.
Where you can buy Masse Brut Champagne
Ocado (it is often half price): https://www.ocado.com/webshop/getSearchProducts.do?clearTabs=yes&isFreshSearch=true&chosenSuggestionPosition=&entry=Champagne+Masse
Random champagne information and facts:
- There are champagnes that are 100% Chardonnay (or other permitted white grape varieties but Chardonnay is the norm) which are called Blancs de Blancs and those which are 100% black grapes (Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier) called Blancs de Noir.
- Champagne by law has to be aged a minimum of 15 months…
Storing and serving champagne:
Champagne should be stored on its side (so not to let the cork dry out and air to enter the bottle) and served at 6-10 degrees. The cork should be eased out gently so to saver the taste - twisting the bottle (NEVER the cork).
Sugar content in champagne:
Brut (less than 12 grams)
Extra Dry (between 12 and 17 grams)
Sec (between 17 and 32 grams)
Demi-sec (between 32 and 50 grams)
Doux (50 grams
Reducing your hangovers…
You may wonder why you sometimes get a hangover and other times you don’t - even when you’ve drunk more perhaps. It is essentially to do with quality. If quality grapes, production processes and growing conditions are used then less chemicals are needed to make them taste better and produce them quicker, etc. Grapes that are picked by hand, grown without pesticides and produced over a long period of time without the need for as many chemicals may often be more expensive because they are more labour intensive.
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