Champagne: Are you more Pinot or Chardonnay?

ThoseFocus on Champagne grape varieties –Champagne: Are you more Pinot or Chardonnay?

If most of the effervescents are assemblies, the Champagne houses are rather paid to Pinot Noir or Chardonnay.

Posted today at 2:21 p.m.

On March 3 in Paris, during an evening of all superlatives – eleven starred chefs, 100 international guests – organized in the Privatized Mineralogy gallery of the Jardin des Plantes, the Grande Dame 2018 was unveiled to the public. With this subtitle: “The art of Pinot Noir”. And this mantra pronounced in 1825 by Madame Clicquot: “Our black grapes give the finest white wines.” Small update for neophytes, or those who have never had the idea of ​​looking inside a grape grain: yes, yes, the juice of a red grape is white, it is its skin that colors wine.

Let’s go back to Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardinnicknamed “The Great Lady of Champagne” for its many innovations (stirring table, vintage champagne, rosé assembly champagne). If the widow has bet everything on the red grape variety in its assemblies, it is first for historical reasons, explains Caves chief Didier Mariotti: “Madame Clicquot had a lot of vineyards on the Reims mountain (Editor’s note: in Bouzy and Verzy): a terroir known for the quality of its black pinots. And it was more difficult at the time of horseshoe to go and get far away. ”

Today, the situation has changed and the brand has 45% vines in Chardonnay, 30% in Pinot Noir and 25% in Pinot Meunier, says Julie Perry, director of vineyards. “But, thanks to grape purchases, Pinot Noir always dominates in assembly.” In the yellow map, the undisputed symbol of the brand which has its pantone squarely, there are 45% at least (Meunier and Chardonnay complement the assembly). And in the Great Lady, it rises to 90% and 10% of Chardonnay. Just not enough to make it a “white of black”, a white champagne consisting exclusively of Pinot.

For probably similar reasons, the “aromatic signature” of the Ruinart or Taittinger houses is Chardonnay, cultivated on the aptly named Côte des Blancs. The brand also produces several whites of white.

But in fact, what does it change? “You have to understand that if most champagnes are assemblies, it is because each grape variety brings something,” explains Didier Mariotti. And one plus one, it often makes much more than two here. ” He and his team enjoy between 800 and 900 clear wines each year before deciding the proportions of each in the yellow card, in future reserve wines (added like “spices” to the cuvées) or possibly in a vintage (he takes out one every 3-4 years approximately).

Champagne shares its vineyard between three grape varieties, thus distributed (2022, Statista.com): Pinot Noir 38%, Chardonnay 31%, Pinot Meunier 31%. Four other grape varieties – the Arbane, the Petit Meslier, the Pinot Blanc and the Pinot Gris – are admitted by the PDO, but remain confidential. Some winegrowers also test resistants like Voltis. Focus on the specificities of the three main.

Chardonnay

“The Chardonnay brings freshness and acidity. Very straight, it is detected in attack, its very mineral and citrus notes. The Chardonnay, it wakes up the palace, ”explains Didier Mariotti. The white grape is known for its elegance and finesse, its floral nose and its perfect agreement, when it is the majority, with sea dishes. His dress is very pale, sometimes even tinged with green reflections. Like Pinot Noir, it supports aging very well. At the vineyard, it is the earliest.

The Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is the main grape of champagne. Pressed in white – therefore without maceration of skins – it shows a dress more lively than that of Chardonnay. “The Pinot Noir brings structure et textureindicates Didier Mariotti. It is the vertebral column that will allow the wine to stand up, and then build itself horizontally. We spot it in the transition between attack and mid -mouth, to the finish. ” As in the peaceful wines of Pinot Noir, it is the red fruits and the violet that dominate in the nose. When it dominates, it also agrees with a poultry or an old Gruyère.

The Pinot Meunier

“The Pinot Meunier brings delicacy and crunchy, and very quickly roundness And texture, lists Didier Mariotti. It is as if we picked the ripe fruit on the tree but it was still fresh and acidic. The miller has this fleshy and juicy side of the fruit. But it is a walk horse, while the Pinot Noir is a stallion. ” If we find little this grape variety in the assemblies of guard, like the great lady, it is because he ages “a little faster than the others, which makes the projection in the very long term difficult.” Supreme injustice, Pinot Meunier can only claim the first vintage, unlike Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which are great vintages. “It’s crazy! ignites Didier Mariotti. It is however the identity grape of champagne. ” Until 1948, the miller occupied 60% of the Champagne vineyard.

A big big lady

La Grande Lady cuvée pays tribute to Ponsardin-Clicquot barbe-nicole since 1972 (vintage 1962) and is at its 25^e edition, only leaving cellar in the big years. It is only since 2008 that the assembly includes as much Pinot Noir (90%), a bias of the cellar chief: by looking for the balance between different black pinots, harvested in the south and north of the Reims mountain, this makes it possible to create the oenological signature of this luxury wine (190 francs the bottle).

An eleven dishes meal, to Eleven star chefsamong which the Grison Dario Cadonau, the exceptional triple starry Enrico Crippa and the very television Jean Imbert, made it possible to what extent the exceptional champagnes are wines of meals more than aperitif or dessert (there were not on the menu, by the way). We tasted the great lady with raw and cooked fish, crab, caviar, scallops, beef tartare, truffle, black garlic, but also roasted focaccia, spring onion, and even a potato soup olive oil: everything went to this elegant, delicate and structured cuvée.

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