Champagne Glossary: Tour Terms

Read a tasting sheet with the label

A bottle can be a vintage blanc de blancs brut: the first description identifies the harvest, the second the grape colour and the third the sugar category. These terms answer different questions and can appear together on a label. The professional initials RM, NM or CM describe the producer’s category instead of the style in the glass.

The first-visit guide compares named house experiences; the house-and-grower guide explains the different visiting formats. Use the definitions below when reading the tasting contents on those tickets, especially where a house offers both a short tasting and a longer cellar tour.

Assemblage

Blending base wines to create the finished cuvée, drawing on different grape varieties, villages, plots or years. A non-vintage house blend can combine the new harvest with reserve wines, whereas a vintage blend comes from one harvest.

Autolysis

The breakdown of yeast cells after the bottle fermentation has ended. During time on lees, this slow process releases compounds that contribute to the developing aromas and texture; the sediment is subsequently removed by disgorgement.

Barrel fermentation

Fermentation carried out in a wooden barrel instead of a steel tank. At Krug, small oak casks are part of the preparation of base wines; barrel fermentation and the later bottle fermentation are separate stages.

Blanc de blancs

White Champagne made from white grapes, most commonly Chardonnay. Ruinart gives Chardonnay a central role; the wording identifies the grape colour used and does not describe the wine’s sweetness or its vintage.

Blanc de noirs

White Champagne made from black-skinned grapes, principally Pinot Noir or Meunier. Gentle pressing separates the pale juice from the coloured skins, allowing a white wine to be produced without the extended skin contact used for red wine.

Brut

A sweetness category containing less than 12 grams of sugar per litre. It is the category on many standard house bottlings; the word concerns the finished wine’s sugar level, instead of the number of grapes or years in its blend.

Brut nature

Champagne with less than 3 grams of sugar per litre and no sugar added after the second fermentation. The same broad style may be described as zero dosage; the precise label and producer’s explanation identify the actual wine.

Cellar

The underground or above-ground space where bottles and wines are stored or matured. The chalk quarries at Reims and the cellars along the Avenue de Champagne have different histories; an advertised cellar visit also has its own reception entrance.

Cépage

A grape variety, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Meunier. A cuvée can use one variety or a blend, so the variety names on a tasting sheet describe the ingredients of that wine instead of separate sweetness categories.

Chardonnay

The principal white-skinned grape used in Champagne, especially associated with the Côte des Blancs. A Chardonnay-only Champagne is a blanc de blancs; Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs uses this variety.

Coopérative de manipulation (CM)

The producer category for a cooperative that makes and markets Champagne on its premises from members’ grapes. CM appears with the professional registration number on the label; it identifies the production organisation, not an admission policy for visitors.

Crayère

A chalk quarry, often adapted for storing and ageing bottles. The Saint-Nicaise sites connect former chalk extraction with Champagne production; the Ruinart and Pommery visitor routes offer different examples of these underground spaces.

Cru

A winegrowing origin or village in Champagne usage. Houses may describe the number of crus contributing to an assemblage; that count concerns the origins of the wines and should not be confused with the number of grape varieties.

Cuvée

A wine or blend, and also the name given to the first pressing fraction. Context matters: a named prestige cuvée is a bottled product, while cuvée in a pressing demonstration refers to the juice extracted before the taille.

Demi-sec

The sweetness category with 32–50 grams of sugar per litre. Despite its literal half-dry name, it is sweeter than sec, extra dry and brut; the numeric dosage scale is a clearer comparison than the English meaning of those words.

Dégorgement

The French word for disgorgement: removing the yeast sediment collected in a bottle’s neck. Mechanical disgorgement commonly freezes the neck into a plug, which is expelled under pressure when the temporary closure is removed before the bottle is finished.

Dosage

The finishing addition before final corking, usually a mixture of wine and sugar. The amount and composition help determine the finished style; a brut nature wine meets the no-added-sugar condition as well as the less-than-3-grams-per-litre threshold.

Doux

The sweetest category in the Champagne dosage table, above 50 grams of sugar per litre. Doux is a regulated sweetness description; it does not identify whether the wine is white, rosé, vintage or made from a particular grape.

Extra brut

A sweetness category with 0–6 grams of sugar per litre. Its range overlaps the low end of brut; unlike brut nature, the label alone does not impose the same no-sugar-addition condition after the second fermentation.

Extra dry

The category containing 12–17 grams of sugar per litre, sweeter than brut. The English wording can therefore mislead a visitor comparing bottles; use the dosage table when choosing between an extra dry and an extra brut wine.

Grand Cru

A village classification used within the Champagne appellation. The Côte des Blancs group includes Chouilly, Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry; a Grand Cru description concerns the origin of grapes, not the length or price of a cellar tour.

Gyropalette

An automated riddling machine that turns and tilts groups of bottles to move the yeast sediment towards the neck. It performs the same practical separation stage as manual riddling on wooden racks, before the sediment is expelled during disgorgement.

Lees

The sediment containing yeasts left after fermentation. Bottles remain in contact with this material during maturation on lees, allowing autolysis to contribute to the wine’s development; the clear Champagne is separated from the deposit towards the end of production.

Lieu-dit

A named vineyard place or plot. When a producer identifies a lieu-dit bottling, the geographical name is more specific than a broad regional description; the label and technical sheet establish which named parcel supplies the wine.

Liqueur de tirage

The preparation added for the second fermentation, combining wine, sugar and yeasts. After bottling and temporary closure, those yeasts consume the sugar, producing alcohol and the carbon dioxide retained inside the bottle as the wine becomes sparkling.

Liqueur d’expédition

The wine-and-sugar mixture used for the finishing dosage, also called liqueur de dosage. This addition comes after disgorgement and is distinct from liqueur de tirage, which is used earlier to start the fermentation that creates the bubbles.

Magnum

A bottle holding 1.5 litres, equivalent to two standard 75-centilitre bottles. Bottle size is separate from the cuvée and dosage; compare the volume when assessing a shelf price or deciding how much wine to bring home.

Malolactic fermentation

The conversion of malic acid to lactic acid by bacteria. A Champagne producer can allow or prevent this stage as part of its style; it is separate from the yeast-driven bottle fermentation responsible for the wine’s sparkle.

Marc

The traditional Champagne press-load unit of 4,000 kilograms of grapes. Pressing separates the cuvée and taille juice fractions; the word can also appear in the name of a grape-marc spirit, where the context is distillation instead of a press load.

Meunier

One of Champagne’s three principal grape varieties, with dark skins and pale juice. It is important in the Vallée de la Marne, and its name refers to the flour-like white appearance of young leaves and buds instead of a particular sweetness.

Méthode champenoise / traditionnelle

The method in which the wine’s second fermentation takes place in the bottle. Traditional-method sparkling wines are made outside Champagne too; the Champagne appellation additionally specifies origin, permitted practices and maturation requirements for wines carrying its protected name.

Millésime

The harvest year of a vintage Champagne. A millésimé is made from that single harvest, whereas a non-vintage blend can combine years; a year printed on a disgorgement note is a different piece of information from the harvest vintage.

Muselet

The wire cage securing the final cork against pressure from inside the bottle. It is fitted during the finishing stage after disgorgement and dosage; the temporary cap used while the wine matures on lees is a different closure.

Négociant-manipulant (NM)

A producer or company buying grapes, must or wines to make Champagne on its own premises and sell under its own label. An NM can also own vineyards; the category is not a statement that all its grapes are purchased.

Non-vintage

A wine without a single harvest year declared as its vintage, commonly blending the latest harvest with reserve wines. The aim can be continuity of house style, but different producers use their own proportions and reserves instead of one universal recipe.

Oak

The wood used for some fermentation or ageing vessels. A barrel-aged base wine and a Champagne matured in bottle are different production stages; references to oak in a house description should be read alongside that wine’s actual technical information.

Pinot Noir

A dark-skinned grape used for white and rosé Champagne, prominent in the Montagne de Reims and Côte des Bar. Gentle pressing can yield pale juice; extended contact with the skins instead supplies colour when a red or macerated rosé wine is made.

Premier Cru

A Champagne village classification distinct from Grand Cru. The phrase concerns grape origin; it does not automatically mean a producer offers visits, and it supplies no information about a particular wine’s dosage, maturity or visitor-ticket inclusions.

Prise de mousse

The second fermentation that gives Champagne its bubbles, literally the capture of the sparkle. Sugar and yeast introduced at tirage produce carbon dioxide inside the closed bottle; maturation continues afterwards while the wine remains in contact with its lees.

Pupitre

A wooden riddling rack that holds bottles at an angle while a remueur turns them. During the process the bottles are progressively tilted neck-down, guiding the sediment towards the closure; old racks can be displayed even where production now uses machines.

Remuage

The French word for riddling, the controlled turning and tilting of bottles that collects sediment in the neck. It happens after maturation and before disgorgement; the deposit is moved into position at this stage instead of removed from the bottle.

Reserve wines

Wines held back from earlier harvests for later use in blends. A non-vintage cuvée may draw on these reserves to balance the new harvest; the producer’s own description establishes how the reserves are stored and how many years are represented.

Récoltant-manipulant (RM)

A grower who makes and markets Champagne from the grapes of their own harvest on their premises. The registration initials identify this producer category; they are read alongside the company name and commune printed on the bottle label.

Riddling

The English name for remuage. It can be manual on pupitres or automated using a machine; both methods move the lees into the bottle neck so that disgorgement can separate the sediment from the clear wine.

Rosé

Champagne with a pink colour, made through blending or maceration. Blended rosé combines base white wines with a still red Champagne wine before the second fermentation; skin contact supplies the colour in a macerated rosé, including saignée formats.

Sabrage

Opening a pressurised bottle by striking along the neck with a sabre or suitable tool. Some producers advertise a supervised sabrage experience separately from a cellar visit; the activity, supervision and price must be confirmed in the booked product.

Saignée

A rosé-making approach involving contact between juice and dark grape skins before the coloured juice is drawn off. It is a maceration technique, distinct from adding finished still red wine to white base wines for a blended rosé.

Sec

The dosage category with 17–32 grams of sugar per litre. The literal French word means dry, but on the Champagne sweetness scale sec is sweeter than extra dry or brut, making the numeric range useful when comparing unfamiliar labels.

Sur pointe

The neck-down position reached as riddling brings the deposit towards the closure. Bottles seen standing this way are at a different stage from bottles lying horizontally on their sides during the long maturation period on lees.

Taille

The pressing fraction collected after the cuvée juice. Producers keep fractions separate because their characteristics differ; an explanation of cuvée and taille at the press therefore concerns juice selection, instead of the later choice between brut and demi-sec.

Terroir

The interaction of a vineyard’s natural setting and the grower’s work, including soil, subsoil, exposure and climate. Champagne’s chalk, clay and marl vary between places; a single-village or plot wine can be used to explore those differences.

Tirage

Bottling the prepared wine with the additions needed for the second fermentation. The bottle is temporarily closed while fermentation and maturation proceed; tirage takes place before riddling, disgorgement, dosage and the fitting of the final cork and wire cage.

Vin clair

A still base wine tasted before the bottle fermentation has created the sparkle. Cellar teams compare vins clairs when planning the assemblage; tasting one at a specifically advertised workshop is a different offer from an ordinary finished-Champagne tasting.

Vintage

The English term for a millésime: a Champagne from one harvest year. Vintage cuvées have a minimum three-year maturation period before release, and houses can keep particular wines longer; the wine’s harvest year alone does not give its disgorgement date.

The Champagne dosage table

The minimum maturation periods

Non-vintage Champagne has a minimum 15-month cellar maturation period from tirage, including at least 12 months on lees. Vintage Champagne has a minimum three-year maturation period. Comité Champagne distinguishes these legal minima from the longer periods used by many houses; a tour’s description of a prestige wine can therefore quote a much longer ageing time.

The lees-contact period, the total time in the producer’s cellar and the interval after disgorgement are different measurements. A label’s harvest year and an optional disgorgement date help identify the sequence, but neither on its own establishes how long that individual bottle spent on lees.

Questions and answers