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| fine champagne - the lees have it |
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Champagne is the most romantic of wines but what is it that makes a truly great champagne or for that matter a great sparkling wine from Australia and elsewhere ( only sparking wine produced in the Champagne region of northern France can bear the name Champagne ).
Always with wine making it begins with the fruit, and in the case of
champagne what we want is finest quality cool-climate Pinot Noir and
Chardonnay grapes. Still it is not simply good fruit and competent
wine-making that makes a great champagne. The secret lies in the
yeast, in fact dead yeast.
Champagne is made by fermenting crushed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
grapes in what is called the primary fermentation, after which the
wine is placed in bottles with some added sugar to undergo a secondary
fermentation that produces all of those lovely bubbles. The other
by-product of this second fermentation is a sediment referred to as
the 'Lees', made up mainly of dead yeast cells.
In lesser quality champagne the lees are removed ( once a satisfactory
quality of bubble is achieved ) through a cunning process involving
keeping the bottles partly inverted and regularly and carefully
turning them ( referred to as riddling ), so that the lees gradually
accumulate in the neck of the bottle. The end of the neck is then
cooled so it freezes and when the temporary metal stopper is removed
from the bottle the icy plug of frozen sediment is ejected. Then the
familiar popping cork is inserted et voila, champagne!
In fine champagne however, the lees are not removed but rather stay
with the wine to do their magic. A minimum of 18 months is required
for the yeast cells to break down and release their amino acids and
other complex components into the wine and slowly transform its
character. In some of the finest champagnes this "Lees
Ageing" can last for 5 years or more.
This extra contact with the lees does all sorts of wonderful things to
the champagne, adding to it complex biscuity aromas, a more delicate,
savoury flavour as well as giving it fine, persistent bubbles.
Next time you enjoy a meal of light flavoured fish such as butter
fish, blue eye or monk fish, rather than reaching for a Sauvignon
Blanc try a lovely fresh champagne preferably one that has been
blessed by extended lees ageing.
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