Champagne in the spotlight for the holidays

It's time to toast with the family! It's time to take out your most beautiful flutes and your best champagne from the cellar.

How not to distort your champagne?

It's best to avoid the common mistake of putting your bottle of champagne in the freezer. Like all wines, champagne must be kept at a stable temperature, between 10 and 12 degrees and away from light so as not to lose taste qualities.

We prefer the champagne bucket

A champagne is savoured chilled but never iced. The ideal is to refresh the champagne 20 to 30 minutes before serving, in an ice bucket filled with water and ice cubes.

The advantage of the champagne bucket?

The champagne will be gently cooled and once poured into the glass it will warm up and reach the perfect temperature.

What is the ideal temperature?

8 degrees. Except for rosés and vintages: between 10 and 12 degrees. If there is no champagne bucket, place the champagne in the least cold part of the freezer, such as the door.

 © Pixabay 

Where is champagne made?

A famous legend says that a Benedictine monk living in Hautvillers Abbey invented champagne by sealing bottles of white wine with beeswax. Dom Pérignon actually had the idea of blending different grape varieties on the press, thus greatly improving the quality of the wine. He also advocates the use of corks to preserve wine more efficiently, as well as bottles to prevent explosions.

Champagne is the fruit of natural effervescence

The bubbles in champagne are a natural process resulting from the region's cold climate. From a technical point of view, this wine is produced in the departments of Marne, Aisne, Seinte-et-Marne, Haute-Marne and Aube. The calcareous soils of the region, associated with the oceanic and continental climate, allow the production of this gran vin, which comes in three different grape varieties: pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay. 15,000 winegrowers produce more than 268 million bottles every year, and this region covers nearly 35,000 hectares in four different areas:

The Marne valley, the Reims mountain, the Côte des Bar, the Côte des Blancs.