Champagne

 

Champagne; the quintessential celebration beverage

This traditionally dry white wine, packed with naturally occurring bubbles, has been signalling the start of parties, well-wishing for voyages yet to be undertaken and congratulations for successful starts and finishes.

Our collection of Champagne has been carefully selected by our wine experts to include the best authentic French brands, as well as other local and international sparkling wines.

 

What are the 3 types of Champagne?

Champagne is available in three main types: non-vintage, vintage, and rosé. Non-vintage Champagne is a blend of wines from different years, ensuring consistency in taste.

Vintage Champagne is made from grapes harvested in a single exceptional year.

Rosé Champagne is created by either blending red and white wines or allowing the grape skins to remain in contact with the juice for a short period, resulting in a pink hue.

 

Which Champagne is the best?

The best Champagne is subjective and depends on personal preference. However, reputable Champagne brands from the Champagne region in France are highly regarded for their quality.

 

Where can I buy Champagne online?

You can buy Champagne online at The Wine Collective. We offer a carefully selected collection of Champagne, including the best authentic French brands and sparkling wine producers from around the world.

Whether you're looking for an expensive prestige cuvée for a special occasion or a more affordable bottle for a party, we have a wide range of stunning examples available for online ordering.

 

What is champagne?

Traditional Champagne is a fizzing white wine made in the French winemaking region of Champagne. All other bubbly wine varieties made outside of this region cannot be called ‘champagne’ due to very strict laws governing its creation.

Whether it’s a sweet or dry variety varies between makers and recipes, with a traditional brut considered a dry Champagne. 

 

What is the history of Champagne?

The history of Champagne is a surprising one. It is believed to have come from a pale and rosy still white wine thousands of years old and made from Pinot Noir grapes which grew within the region, having been first brought to France by the Romans.

Still, wine was always what winemakers were attempting to produce and bubbles were considered to be flaws and faults resulting from poor or interrupted winemaking processes. 

Winemakers tragically destroyed their bubbly wine for hundreds of years; it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that wine drinkers had the opportunity to sample the so-called ‘failed’ wine and decide for themselves whether it was flawed or enhanced.

 

Is Champagne sparkling?

Yes. The bubbles in Champagne are developed over a two-stage fermentation process.

The Champagne region in France was a cooler climate region, capable of very cool weather during fermentation.  White wine yeast strains did not traditionally thrive in cooler weather and so would lie dormant in the cask before total fermentation was achieved.

Winemakers were unaware of this and their wine would be bottled from the cask with the dormant yeast still inside. As the weather warmed up, the yeast would reawaken and finish their fermentation process. 

As yeast converts sugar into alcohol, it also creates carbon dioxide. Within the cask, this isn’t a problem as the gas has an opportunity to release and disperse, leaving a still wine ready to be bottled.

In the case of Champagne, that gas is trapped within the wine bottle after the second fermentation process and produces the signature pop and fizz. Before the mystery of Champagne was uncovered, however, winemakers would look on in horror as whole vintages would explode, the bottles buckling under the pressure of the trapped gas within. 

Some of the bottles survived the process, however, and by the late eighteenth century, fizzing wine was a hit with the English aristocracy. Despite this, famous winemakers like the Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon, were still trying to rid their wine of unwanted bubbles because while bubbling white wine was a hit in some international markets, how to control it and develop a consistent taste profile not befouled by sediment build-up resulting from the second fermentation process was a very tricky business. 

It wasn’t until the middle of the nineteenth century that the precise recipe for creating consistent Champagne was discovered and a process known as riddling was created that ensured every bottle still popped with fresh, invigorating and exciting bubbles as well as a consistent and gorgeous taste.

International markets for Champagne began to dry up after the United States Prohibition Act and two world wars. Both wars decimated the winemaking regions of France, Champagne especially, and the call for fizzing white wine continued to decline.

From the 1950s onwards, sales and popularity for the French delicacy, as well as other sparkling wine varieties from around the world, picked up again and it has since been synonymous with moments of celebration, and with the idea of elite and luxurious indulgence.

 

How many glasses of champagne in a bottle?

You will get six large glasses of Champagne from a standard bottle of 750ml, or you could stretch that bottle to eight more modestly poured toasting flutes. A magnum of Champagne will therefore stretch to 12 large glasses or 16 modest flutes.

 

Does champagne go off?

Champagne, like any opened wine, can sour but often when people ask if it ‘can go off’ they are usually referring to the bubbles within escaping and the wine going flat. Once a bottle has been opened, the gas responsible for delivering its signature bubbles will begin escaping.

You can slow this process down by first chilling your Champagne and then keeping it chilled in a wine bucket filled with ice. The cooler the temperature of the Champagne, the slower the release of the gasses. 

If you want to return a bottle to the fridge to be finished later then a good bottle will usually retain its bubbles for a few days if it’s sealed properly and left lying in the fridge with as little agitation as possible.

Every time the bottle is moved will cause the bubbles within to burst so never store undrunk Champagne on the fridge door where it’s likely to move and wobble a lot.

The ‘teaspoon trick’ has varying success and relies mostly on anecdotal evidence. The idea behind it was to create a seal of cooler air at the top of the bottle which would act to force pressure down and keep the bubbles from dispersing.

Given that the bubbles are more likely to remain when the bottle is laid flat and not moved very often, it’s probably best to recork your unfinished bottle with a stopper and leave the teaspoons in the drawer.