The Truth About Champagne
In France, “Champagne” means a white wine of the delimited Champagne district, containing bubbles produced by a secondary fermentation of the wine within the bottle. This involves a lengthy, arduous, and costly process, because the secondary fermentation not only produces gas, but also deposits a fine, sand like sediment.
To get rid of the sediment, the bottles must be shaken and turned daily for a period of months until the deposit slides into the bottle’s neck. At that point the neck portion is frozen, the cork removed, the sediment disgorged, and the missing wine replaced with more Champagne and a dosage of sweetening.
In the United States, under federal regulations, Champagne must be made by the same time-honored procedure. Tradition and propriety are important for connoisseurs; so much that it is necessary to use even the proper drink glasses, beverage coasters, and bar accessories, depending on what is being served.
Back in 1910 a Frenchman named Eugene Charmat invented a simpler and quicker Champagne process which has come into wide use throughout the world. This is the “closed cuvee” method, in which the secondary fermentation takes place in large glass-lined tanks, from which the wine is bottled under pressure, conveniently leaving the sediment behind.
But the bulk-fermented wine cannot be labeled Champagne as such, just as you cannot substitute cork coasters for stone coasters. The French law calls it only vin mousseux (sparkling wine).
The United States Government’s regulation allows it to be labeled “Sparkling Wine—American (or local place of origin) Champagne—Bulk Process,” and specifies that the extra words be printed on the label in especially prominent letters.
Now, while it is true that the bottle-fermenting producers, selling their product for higher prices, can afford to use more expensive grapes than their bulk-process competitors can, everyone is entitled to know an industry secret.
It is a fact—which all makers of bottle-fermented Champagne will hotly deny—that not even the most experienced taster could possibly detect, by eye, nose, or mouth, any difference between a bottle-fermented wine and the same wine made bubbly by the simpler process.
It is compelling to add—at the risk of incurring the wrath of the users of both the foregoing processes—that the same taster would also fail to tell the difference if the bubbles were pumped into the wine by artificial carbonation, as in soda pop.
The bulk-process vintners constantly clamor to have the California State Fair judge their products together with the bottle-fermented Champagnes. The makers of the latter object, and, as of this writing, have still prevented a joint judging.
Anyhow, you should know that you can buy the bulk-process Champagnes for substantially less money than is charged for the bottle-fermented kind, although some vintners would have us believe that the difference is as glaring as cardboard from cocktail coasters.
But the strangest part of the story comes in connection with the rates United States railroads charge for transporting bubbly wines. “Sparkling Wine—Champagne-Bulk Process” travels at the same rate as “still” (non-sparkling) wines. But Champagne, without the cheapening extra words, pays double rates, and the bottle-fermenting producers have filed no objection.
Thus, a bottle-fermented red or pink sparkling wine, if the label reads “Sparkling Burgundy” or “Sparkling Rose,” pays the low rate; but if the producer chooses to label the very same wines “Red Champagne” or “Pink Champagne,” he pays double.
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