On grand occasions, there is always a familiar line: "Open the champagne and celebrate." ”
Not only that, champagne often appears with famous cars, watches, and mansions.
So what kind of wine is it growing? Why does it seem to be quite valuable and promising?
Is it the kind of bottle that looks golden and green, has a tin foil wrapping at the mouth, and the bottle is thick, which is champagne? not necessarily.
Another friend said that I spent more than 100 yuan to buy a very good bottle of "champagne", how do you see? All I can say is that this bottle of "sparkling wine" blinded you.
Let's first figure out the definitions of sparkling wine and champagne.
Sparkling wine can be fully understood as sparkling water with an alcohol content.
Champagne is a sparkling wine that can only be produced in the Champagne region and will be marked with the logo "champagne" (meaning Champagne in French).
Champagne appellations have a policy of protection of origin, not this appellation can not be called champagne, can only be called sparkling wine.
Just like not all milk is Terunsu, not all liquor is Maotai.
In 2015, UNESCO inscribed it on a new round of the World Heritage List, which was inscribed in 1999.
Image source: Wine World
In the 5th century or earlier, the ancient Romans had already grown grapes in the Champagne region.
Champagne people are very envious of the reputation of Burgundy and want to make a wine of equal fame.
But the Champagne region is located in the north, which creates some obstacles to winemaking: the grapes are more difficult to ripen, and although the fruit is pleasant, the sugar is low. So someone tried to invent champagne.
The Champagne region is located in the east of Paris and covers more than 30,000 hectares.
It is divided into four main areas: the Reims, the Marne Valley, the White Hills and the Balchus.
There are three main grape varieties: Pinot Noir (mainly from The Reims And Balcho), Chardonnay (from the White Hills) and Binomonière (from the Marne Valley).
Champagne regions also have their own unique brewing method, called the "Champagne method", also known as the "secondary in-bottle fermentation method".
After the grapes are fermented into a stationary wine, they are then blended according to different wine varieties, small appellations or vintages.
After blending, the wine is bottled and a "re-fermentation broth" is added – liquor, sugar, yeast, yeast nutrients and clarifiers.
The CO2 released during the secondary fermentation process will remain in the bottle, which forms champagne, so it is also called the "champagne method".
In addition, non-vintage champagnes are required to be aged for more than 15 months before they can be marketed, while vintage champagnes are older and need to be aged for more than 3 years.
Image source: Jiu Yisou
Although sparkling wines and champagnes are similar in appearance, only a few sparkling wines use the "champagne method" because of the complexity of the brewing process, the long duration and the high cost.
Therefore, many sparkling wines mostly use a simpler brewing method. Sparkling wines will be marked with the logo "Crémant", which means sparkling wine in French.
In addition, sparkling wines can be produced all over France, such as: Bordeaux, Loire, Alsace, Jura, Burgundy, etc., there is no restriction on the variety of grapes, any grape variety can be made into sparkling wine.
Compared to champagne, sparkling wines only need to be aged for 12 months before they can be sold.
That's why champagne and sparkling wine, although similar in appearance, are not in the same class at all.
So when someone tells you that they bought a bottle of champagne for more than 100 years, it's basically only sparkling wine.
Because even in France, a bottle of champagne costs about 20 euros (about 160 yuan).
So when you want to judge whether it's champagne or not, don't judge it just by the appearance.
Moët Hennessy Champagne
Remember the "champagne" logo, and only a wine with this logo can be called champagne.