10 Tips to Celebrate #ChampagneDay
The Champagne Comité is celebrating the 13th annual Champagne Day, on October 28. We felt it was a good time to bring you 10 brilliant tips to celebrate.
• Open a bottle and share your favorite things about Champagne on social media with the hashtag #ChampagneDay.
• Play the official Champagne Day Spotify playlist to get in the spirit with some of our favorite Champagne-themed tunes.
• Remember, Champagne legally refers to a wine that is only grown from grapes in the Champagne region of France, but you can find outstanding Sparkling Wines made all over the world using the same production method as in Champagne. Just look for Champenoise Method, Traditional Method or Método Tradicional on the label.
• The Traditional Method will give you those extraordinary complex flavors from the second fermentation in the bottle that you will not get from a tank method sparkling wine.
• Most Champagne has no vintage, they are usually a blend of sometimes more than 50 different vintages.
• Vintage Champagne is only about 3% of production. They all have exceptional qualities.
• Time brings out the richness and flavor. All Champagne wines are aged for at least 15 months. This increases to three years for Vintage Champagne and considerably longer for the Special Cuvée.
• If you want to “stay in France” out of Champagne you have Cremant. Cava (from Spain) and Franciacorta (from Italy) are always outstanding sparkling wines also made with traditional method.
• Are you into Organic? Out of the 34,000 hectares of vines in Champagne, only around 8% are certified organic. That doesn’t mean their practices aren’t organic, not at all. The process to become certified is lengthy and costly. It can take almost 6 years. Because of that, many vintners are opting not to undertake the certification, but are instead simply following organic farming practices and producing fabulous sparkling wine, which is organic in every aspect but name.
• Pairing rules are not needed to enjoy either a youthful, moderate or complex Champagne because they are high in acid. They will be absolutely fantastic with any dish and even with a romantic fall view of the city of oaks or the NC mountains.
Happy #ChampagneDay
Cheers,
Doreen Colondres