What is Champagne?

Series Summary

Sparkling wine has been enjoyed for thousands of years; created first by the English, and perfected by the French in the 18th century. Though Pierre Perignon, or Dom Perignon, the French monk did not invent Champagne, he did however, significantly refine the Champagne making process. Since then people all over the world have tasted this amazing sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. But is Champagne the only sparkling wine worthy of purchase? No, but do you know why? If you would like to learn more about Champagne and sparkling wine, including how to buy, chill, and serve Champagne and sparkling wine, you can learn for free from our expert wine consultant.

In this free video series, watch as wine expert Chuck Byers teaches about the difference between champagne and sparkling wine. Learn a brief history of champagne, what types of grapes are used in champagne and sparkling wine, learn how champagne is made, learn about the different types of champagne and sparkling wines, and how to serve champagne with food.

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Chuck Byers for Expert Village. And this is a bottle of champagne. Champagne is a sparkling wine, and it's also an area in the northeastern part of France. No matter how good or how similar other sparkling wines are, they cannot be called champagne. Now there are alternative methods to making champagne style wine or champagne style sparkling wine. One is called the French sharmott method, which is basically pressurized wine. The other is called the transfer method, where the secondary fermentation does occur in the bottle, but it is then taken out of the bottle, filtered, and put back in the same bottle. Erwin Smith from Ocala Winery in Ontario, Canada makes a very special sparkling wine. And he is here to discuss his methods of making the wine with us. Now tell us, you don't make traditional-method champagne here, or sparkling wine. Not typically, we are a small winery. In the course of a year, we might produce thirty five to forty thousand bottles of wine. If we have a need for a very special sparkling wine then we will do a traditional method where it takes the second fermentation in the bottle, such as this Lloyd George 2000 that you're holding. On other occasions if we just need a sparkler to have on the shelf for those festive occasions that people want some wedding wines or some New Year's Eve type things, then we'll make a line of sparkling wine where it's not fermented in the bottle, but instead the carbon dioxide is added to it to give it the bubbles and the pressure and the pop when you take the cork off it. And that way it becomes economically effective as far as customers are concerned, in small batches. What's the major difference you see as far as quality is concerned? Well the biggest difference is when a wine is fermented, the secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle. The pressure is such that the bubbles are almost grown in the wine, and they are much smaller. When you open that bottle wine up, you see these ribbons of bubbles that will taper to the top. As opposed to a wine where the pressurization has been added through carbon dioxide. Through an inline charger or that type of method. The bubbles tend to be larger. In comparison, the flavor tends to be very much the same. Where quality starts to play out is that because the bubbles are so much smaller in the fermented bottle version, it takes much longer for that wine to lose its fizz. It will sit there and bubble for hours, where a wine that has been carbonated the bubbles are bigger and it tends to lose its charge over the course of a couple hours or so. So this gives it a little more finesse. But if you start with a good fruit that has good taste, it plays out in the end and you still have a nice flavor to it as well."