Club — Champagne Review

What do we know about the Cooperative? To some people, they believe it is where grapes are gathered en mass and champagne comes out at the other end. This is a great misconception as the Cooperatives are essentially a home for hundreds if not thousands of growers that do not have access to wine-making facilities and their plots are too small to warrant this. The result? It becomes a library of plots across all areas of champagne. Some refer to it as a patchwork or ‘quilt’ of plots woven together by the wine-making teams. They hand select the best quality...

In this Edition we delve into the influence of the wine vessel, notably concrete eggs and terracotta amphora. Concrete vats have been used by large commercial vineyards producing still wines since the 1960's but this appealing egg shape is quite new, particularly in the Champagne region. It is said that Michel Chapoutier in collaboration with French Producer Noblet, have been making concrete vats since the 1920s, birthed this new vessel and its gaining popularity amongst champenois. But why? Find out in this Episode.

There are a number of tools the winemaker has at their disposal to create a unique character in their wines and resultant champagnes. This month we focus on the idea of ultra cool fermentation. Most primary ferments which take the grape must and turn it into a still white wine reach between 20 to 28 degrees and take a matter of days. Our feature houses this month purposely cool down the fermentation to approximately 12 to 14 degrees, which slows down the fermentation time but also allows the house to capture the delicate nature of the fruit and retain maximum...