What Is & Is Not Champagne?

Video Transcript

"So now let's get to France. Now, Champagne was basically a happy accident. It was Dom Pérignon who understood that if (during fermentation) a bottle was kept sealed what would happen was the carbon dioxide that is a natural occurrence from fermentation would remain in the bottle. And, I believe the phrase was something to the effect of "he was tasting little stars in the glass." And it's that effervescence that tends to separate true champagne in its true characteristic from sparkling wine from around the world. There's another phrase; "the smaller the bubble, the better the bubbly." And this is where, in France, you begin to separate things. Now, just to confuse matters more: there are a number of different types of champagne that are made. Champagne is classically made from three different grapes; chardonnay, which we all know quite well; pinot noir; and pinot Meunier. Meunier is used a little bit less. So classically, it's mostly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. If it's all chardonnay, it's called a "blanc de blanc," a "white of white." If it's all Pinot Noir, it can still be a brut, but it will never be called a blanc de blanc. And Pinot Noir tends to add a little greater depth. Now the one thing about Pinot Noir is that it is a red grape. However, like all grapes, the pulp of the grape is really basically white. So what we find is that even though we have these numbers of different layers of quality, where we have the standard brut and non-vintage, then you may have a brut vintage, you may have a blanc de blanc, you also have roses. And this is where the versatility really comes. When you have Pinot Noir in a wine, it tends to add greater depth. And even though champagne is thought of as something that you begin the meal with or perhaps more like a white wine, because it is made with a red grape, it tends to have enough depth to match even up with steak and richer foods. And that's the thing that I think is fascinating about champagne and the thing that I don't think people really understand quite as much is that it is so versatile with food."