by Paul Winalski » Wed May 22, 2024 1:27 pm
Champagne is an example of making lemons out of lemonade, or as we computer engineers say, calling a bug a feature. The cold climate in Champagne meant that the grapes were on the tart side even when physiologically ripe. Also, the winter cold often caused stuck fermentation. When the wine was shipped to the warmer climate of, say, Paris, the yeasts would wake up again and on arrival the wine would be fizzy and tart. That's if the barrels didn't explode in transit. The Champagne winemakers did a marketing campaign that presented the bubbles as a refreshing feature and suggested bubbly wine for special and festive occasions. The campaign worked. Later, when Pasteur sorted out the winemaking issues, they intentionally added the fizz in a controlled fashion via a second fermentation. The last piece of the puzzle was getting rid of the yeast sediment from the second fermentation.
The sunny climate of California usually causes acidity levels to fall too quickly to make methode champenoise wine with proper acidity. Back in the 1980s Chateau St. Jean tried their hand at making sparkling wine. But to keep the proper acidity they were forced to harvest the grapes when they were not physiologically mature. The result was an abject lesson in what happens when you vinify underripe pinot noir and chardonnay. The wine smelled and tasted of overcooked asparagus and Brussels sprouts. It was ghastly--one of the few wines I'd rate as a triple Joe Besser on the Three Stooges Scale. Chateau St. Jean never attempted sparkling wine again.
Schramsberg does a decent job at sparklers, but Champagne has the added advantage of being on that chalk-and-limestone soil band in Europe that produces great wines wherever it crops up in the subsoil (examples being Champagne, the Cote d'Or in Burgundy, Grande and Petite Champagne in Cognac, and Jerez de la Frontera in Spain). Gruet did a good job when all of their fruit came from grapes grown in limestone soil on hills surrounding Truth or Consequences New Mexico. They they sold out to a conglomerate. The grapes now come from Oregon and the old Gruet magic is gone.
-Paul W.
