Champagne is the great drink of celebration, and plenty is about to be drunk over the festive season. Less expectedly, it's also surprisingly versatile for food matching. Try it with your fish and chips — really — you'll be surprised. (Unless you already know). Here's a handy thumbnail guide to what you need to know when you're picking a Champagne off the shelf.
House: the name on your Champagne bottle. There are some 300 houses of significant size, and a plethora of smaller growers, co-ops and individuals releasing Champagnes under their own label. The term Grand Marque refers to the biggest Champagne houses, such as Bollinger, Pol Roger, Louis Roederer, Gosset or Billecart-Salmon. At the best of these, quality has never been higher. Most houses buy some (or even all) of their grapes from growers. Champagne is also a region of small growers — there are some 19,000 registered vine owners, some with only tiny parcels. A grower house makes Champagne only from grapes grown on its own vines. With more control over the vineyard, quality can also be very high. For grower houses on our shelves, look to Gallimard, Dethune, or Paul Bara — and we can point you at others.
Dosage: most Champagnes get a final top-up of sugar before bottling, called dosage. Champagne has high natural acidity, and without the proverbial spoonful of sugar, it can sometimes be a little hard to take. A Champagne labelled Brut officially has under 12 grams per litre of sugar (in practice, usually about 6-8 g/l), and most Champagnes fit in here. Once upon a time, most Champagnes were made in a sweeter style. Demi-Sec is now a less common category, but we have a great example on our shelves in the Billecart-Salmon Demi-Sec. With a dosage of 40g/l, it's not that it tastes very sweet, but the extra dosage makes it flatteringly easy to enjoy on its own. These days, fashion has swung towards drier styles, with more extra brut (0-6 g/l) and zero dosage bottlings. The best work very well as food-friendly Champagnes. With a dosage of only 0.75 g/l, Jacquesson 745 is very gastronomic.
Vintage or non-vintage? Most major houses release both vintage and non-vintage bottlings. Non-vintage bottlings blend fruit from several vintages, with the aim of achieving a consistent house style. Vintage bottlings use fruit from a single year, and will emphasize a distinctive vintage character. They will usually only be made in stronger vintages. Vintage bottlings cost more than non-vintage.
Grapes: Though there was a bigger diversity of grapes yesteryear, these days Champagne is largely planted to three grape varieties, one white (Chardonnay) and two black: Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (the latter often just called Meunier). Most Champagnes blend all three. Blanc des Blancs Champagne is made from only white grapes. Especially with age, Blanc de Blancs can show a rich, toasty, brioche-led character; the Billecart-Salmon Blanc des Blancs GC is a great example. Blanc des Noirs is made only from black grapes. It tends to led by subtle red fruit notes, and often shows well young. The NV Gallimard Cuvee de Reserve has all the generosity of fruit and flower notes a good Blanc de Noirs can display. /NT
