Picture: by kind permission of Comité Champagne – France
Champagne is justly revered for many reasons. One is the time and effort it takes to produce.
All Champagne undergoes a secondary fermentation on its lees in the bottle before the yeast sediment is removed. This generates the famous pop, fizz and bubbles of Champagne and every bottle is matured for a minimum of 15 months before release and in the case of vintage Champagnes, many years more than this.
Several decades ago, most Champagne houses stopped using corks for their second fermentation in order to reduce production costs By introducing metal ‘crown caps’ and automated disgorgement equipment, they were able to speed up production before re-corking and releasing their Champagnes to the market.
While for large scale producers this was perhaps understandable, scientific studies and taste tests consistently show that this results in Champagnes that miss their ultimate potential for complexity and development.
“Cork ‘eats’ the oxygen, creating not only a fresher wine, but also one with more depth and complexity.”
– Frédéric Panaïotis, Chef de caves at Ruinart Champagne quoted in Club Oenologique January 2023.
Picture: Champagne Moussé Fils
Several Grande Marque Champagnes such as Bollinger and Ruinart have now reverted to secondary fermentation under cork – mainly for some of their prestige cuvées. For example, Dom Ruinart 2010 which was only released in 2023, was the first time in more than 50 years this prestige cuvée had been aged entirely under a cork stopper rather than a metal crown cap.
For many smaller independent grower Champagne producers too, the decision to use corks rather than crown caps is certainly worth considering.
Bérèche et Fils implemented this practice a few generations ago and as John Gilman the renowned USA wine commentator viewfromthecellar.com writes simply that Bérêche is “at the top of its game and producing some of the finest wines in all of Champagne!”.
“Champagne aged under corks will be fresher and have more tension – and the ageing potential becomes wonderful!”
– Cedric Moussé, winemaker at Cuisles-based Champagne Moussé Fils
Cédric Moussé
Another independent Champagne producer Cédric Moussé, winemaker at Cuisles-based Champagne Moussé Fils was quoted recently by Vicki Denig in Wine Searcher magazine explaining how under cork ageing is starkly different from that of a crown cap – and changes over time:
“The cork is very tender in the beginning, so there is more gas exchange … as time goes on, the corks become more like wood, and can ultimately provide a tighter closure than those provided by crown caps. With crown caps, the [minimal] gas exchange is always the same.”
Additional labour and cost – but the outcome is worth the output.
Moussé admits that the production cost of ageing under cork generally adds €2-3 per bottle, depending on the corks used, though this doesn’t include the cost of added labour. Disgorging by hand takes him around four times as long as when done mechanically, but he says the outcome is still worth the output.
Independent Champagne Winemaker Etienne Calsac (of his eponymous, Ludes-based estate) agrees: “I’ve done numerous trials and found that ageing my Clos des Maladries cuvée under crown cap for four years is no more interesting than when aged [for shorter periods] under cork, so the shorter ageing period equally brings the benefits that I’m looking for,” he says, adding that cork ageing also renders the wines creamier and more accessible.
Champagne Moussé is imported in the UK by: Special Cases Ltd, 53 Ashfield Road, London W3 7JF.
Email: specialcases@outlook.com
With thanks to:
Wine Searcher magazine: https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2024/10/champagne-goes-under-cork
Club Oenologue: https://cluboenologique.com/story/dom-ruinart-blanc-de-blancs-ageing
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