Cracking The Code For Your Valentine's Day Champagne

By Madeleine Ahlquist
Worcester Magazine

My standard poodle's favorite toy is a stuffed replica of a Champagne bottle labeled "Dog Perignon," which she carries around the house during special occasions, such as the end of a nap. She has discovered what many of us also know: When you are celebrating, go for the bubbly!

Champagne, which is wine that is processed with carbon dioxide (CO2), has earned its top billing for special occasions. It adds "pop" and circumstance when we marry, celebrate the birth of a baby, receive a promotion or, of course, celebratre Valentine's Day. However, Champagne can also make an ordinary meal into a special occasion. It is one of the best wines to have with good food. Try Champagne with salty foods, dishes with parmigiano, egg dishes, soups, salads or sushi, for example.

True Champagne comes only from one region in France about 90 miles northeast of Paris, also called Champagne. Three grapes are grown for Champagne: chardonnay, which provides finesse and elegance, pinot noir for body and texture, and pinot meunier for fruitiness and earthiness.

Although many wines may be made using the exact same methods used in the Champagne region, only those that come from Champagne can be labeled Champagne (with a capital "C"). All others are simply sparkling wines. The relatively small region in which Champagne grapes are produced is one reason Champagne is so expensive.

The Champagne Code

However, just because a bottle of bubbly is labeled Champagne and is expensive doesn't mean it's any good. Some Champagne is truly outstanding, but the Champagne region produces a range of wines that are good, bad and indifferent.

So how can you separate the good from the not so good? One way is to read the label. French label makers put a code - two tiny letters followed by a six-digit license number - at the bottom edge of every label to identify where the grapes come from and how the Champagne is produced. Here's what the letters mean:

N.M.(Negotiant-Manipulant). A dealer or producer may own his or her own grapes, but generally purchases the grapes that go under the producer's label. An N.M. code isn't too helpful, as the quality of N.W. Champagne may range from excellent to awful.

C.M. (Cooperative-Manipulant). Producers pool their resources to produce C.M. Champagnes, which range in quality from decent to poor.

M.A. (Marqued'Acheteur). Producers of M.A. Champagne neither own any grapes nor make any Champagne. They merely broker Champagne made by others after putting a label on it. The quality of these wines is wildly inconsistent.

R.M. (Recolant-Manipulant). R.M. Champagne, although difficult to find, is the real deal. The grower of the grapes also winifies, bottles, and markets the Champagne. Virtually all R.M. Champagnes are at least very good and many are superb.

In addition to these coded letters, the label may include the designation "N.V.," which means non-vintage. That means the wine was made with a blend of grapes from various years. Champagne made from vintage grapes, all from the same year, is higher in quality and more expensive.

Quality Champagne should have tiny, persistent bubbles, which put a creamy feel in your mouth. Flavors run the spectrum from delicate and citrus-like to rich and malt-like. Poorly made Champagne lacks this tightly knit, creamy sensation when sipped.

Champagne's History

Some credit the invention of Champagne to Christopher Merret, an Englishman, and others to a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Perignon, who was the cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers in the 1600s. The process was improved in 1818 when the "veuve" (French for widow) Clicquot developed the remuage or riddling process, a way to remove yeasts from the wine (hence, the well-known Veuve Clicquot champagne).

The complex process for making Champagne includes a secondary fermentation during which natural carbon dioxide gas is trapped inside each bottle. The trapped CO2 eventually becomes Champagne bubbles.

The region of Champagne is one of the coolest wine producing areas in the world. The climate is cold, rainy and unpredictable, while the soil is rich with limestone and very chalky. In the past, French wines would be made in the fall and left to settle over the winter. The cold temperatures in the caves where wine was stored generally stopped fermentation before all the sugar turned into alcohol. Once spring arrived, the wine would continue to ferment.

This change in climate created a foam in the wine that was unique to the region. Initially, winemakers tried to tame the foam, but eventually decided to embrace it. The rest is Champagne history.

Champagne is one of life's simple enjoyments, along with tossing a stuffed toy to my poodle. "Dog Perignon" anyone?

Madeleine Ahlquist is co-owner of One Eleven Chop House and The Sole Proprietor in Worcester, both of which are frequent winners of Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence." Comments? E-mail editorial@worcestermag.com.