(festive music)
- Hey, everyone.
I'm Jerry James Stone, and in today's What the Fork,
we're gonna talk about the champagne
and the different types of champagne that are out there.
So let's get drinking.
Or, let's get talking.
So champagne is basically sparkling wine.
We have sparkling wine here in the United States,
but to be called champagne,
it has to be grapes that are grown in the region,
the designation in France, the Champagne area.
So those wine growing regions,
or that designated wine growing region, in France,
Champagne, the one I'm talking about,
that's considered to be an Appellation d'Origine Controlee,
so that's basically, AOC, for short,
not to be confused with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
which is also AOC, and, you know, also kind of bubbly,
but completely separate things.
So we have something similar here in the United States,
similar to the designated areas that France has.
Here, they're called appellation of origin,
and that's usually a political boundary,
something like the county or the state.
Now, there are also federally designated areas,
and those are called AVAs,
which is American Viticultural Area.
So that's the federally defined area, but once again,
it's basically just determining
where those grapes came from.
For example, AVAs, there's a lot of AVAs in Napa.
Napa itself is one.
Sonoma County.
Those are some of the ones
that you're probably familiar with here in America.
Wine grown in those regions, sparkling wine,
cannot be called champagne, based on those rules.
So one of the main things about champagne is
it's typically made from three different grape varietals,
and how much of each varietal is used
just really depends on what sort of style
the winemaker is going for.
Those three types include chardonnay, the white grape,
and there's also dark wine grapes,
which is either pinot noir or pinot meunier.
So if you're watching this video,
well, this next part probably doesn't apply to you.
So champagne is kind of broken into either vintage champagne
or non-vintage champagne,
and what that means is it really comes down to the year
that those grapes were grown.
If it's a vintage champagne, then that means
most of those grapes, 60% of those grapes,
come from the same year.
Winemakers can use up to 40% of older grapes
when making champagne and still consider it to be vintage.
But if you're buying vintage champagne,
you probably already know that,
because it costs a lot of coin,
and this video is probably not helping you at all.
If you are not maybe as familiar
with what vintage champagne is,
you're probably buying non-vintage champagne,
which is a blend of whatever the winemaker wants
in order to make tasty, tasty wine.
Another type of champagne you might have seen
is prestige cuvee, and really, really,
that just means fancy.
Like, that's what cuvee is.
Cuvee is just a blend.
Winemakers are taking the best grapes that they have
and just making a delicious wine,
so it's not a single varietal.
If it is champagne though, there's a good chance
it's still probably part of those three
that I originally mentioned,
the chardonnay, pinot noir, or pinot meunier.
Those are the typical grapes that are used
in making champagne.
There are some varieties, but I'm not gonna get into that
to make it too confusing, but if you see a prestige cuvee
or any sort of cuvee around champagne,
that just means blend.
Another thing to consider with champagne is
there's a few other styles that are available,
and it really depends on, as I mentioned before,
there's the three grape varietals that are used
for making champagne, right?
There's the chardonnay, there's the pinot noir,
and then there's the pinot meunier.
So how those three varietals are used
and what the final product is
also has its own champagne type.
One of those types is called blanc de noir.
That pretty much means whites from blacks,
which feels a little racist when you translate it,
but hey, you know what?
Hashtag black grapes matter.
Basically, it's a white wine champagne
made from black grapes.
How that happens is that there's no contact with the skin
of the grape during fermentation.
So it's just the grape juice,
which is sort of a clear yellowish liquid.
It's that skin contact during fermentation
that actually changes the color.
But that doesn't happen with blanc de noir.
On the opposite side of that,
there is basically white champagne.
So it's blanc de blanc,
which is sort of like the Trump supporter of champagnes.
It's whites from whites.
And in that case, that means that it's white grapes
that are used, the chardonnay grapes,
and those are used to make just a basic, simple champagne.
So just to recap that a little bit,
in case it got a little confusing,
there's the two different styles that are based on
the color of the champagne.
There's the blanc de blanc,
which is made from chardonnay grapes,
and then there's the blanc de noir,
which is a white sparkling champagne made from red grapes,
and in that case, it's the pinot noir or pinot meunier.
And then lastly, there's pink champagne, or rose champagne,
which is like, in Harry Potter terms,
the half-blood of champagnes.
It's a mix of all three varietals on some level.
It doesn't have to be, but on some level, it usually is.
It could be chardonnay, pinot noir, or pinot meunier.
The thing is that it gets its color in two separate ways.
So it could get its color from the dark red grape skins
from the pinot noir or the pinot meunier,
or sometimes it's just straight up pinot noir
that's like the actual pinot noir wine,
but just added to the pink champagne to give it its color.
But it's a mix of those three varietals.
That's just how the muggles do it, right?
So now you know everything you need to know about champagne.
There's the different types,
from blanc de blanc, to blanc de noir, from prestige cuvee,
what that region means in France,
what we have in the United States.
If you find this video helpful, hey, give me a thumbs up.
Drop a comment.
Let me know if you want to know something about champagne
or just anything else.
And if you like to cook or drink like I do,
please subscribe.
I release new videos every single week.
See you guys next time.
(festive music)
They're known as Appellation d'Origine Controlee.
So, in short, AOC.
Not to be confused with Alexandria.
And already (beep) it up again, so.
(laughs)