Laurent Champs, Champagne Vilmart & Cie, on the specifics of the 2021 harvest
Laurent Champs, the Chardonnay trendsetter from Rilly-la-Montagne in the Reimser Bergland, shares his feelings about the last harvest in Champagne. And why he learns something new with every harvest.
Laurent Champs, Champagne Vilmart & Cie, on the specifics of the 2021 harvest
Laurent Champs, the Chardonnay trendsetter from Rilly-la-Montagne in the Reimser Bergland, shares his feelings about the last harvest in Champagne. And why he learns something new with every harvest.
More Kulinaro-German:
Jost auf der Maur, Facts, April 14, 1998: Health! Finally there is a neat list of what makes champagne the best sparkling wine. Why does the best sparkling wine in the world grow in Champagne? The oenologists of Champagne are happy to answer the edifying question. But their information is incomplete, especially since they embellish their product with alchemical charm. Palaeontologists, geologists, chemists, historians and physicians, on the other hand, can inject knowledge that goes far beyond the science of sparkling water. That is why the new book by Christian Göldenboog is exciting. Champagne pearl number 1: Champagne is healthy because it is the wine with the lowest histamine content of all. Although this tissue hormone lowers blood pressure even in the smallest amounts, it dilates the capillaries and therefore gives the revelers headaches before the glasses are empty. It's a good thing that around a billion bottles of the low-histamine thirst quencher are currently stored in Champagne. Champagne pearl number 2: champagne eats medicine. The claim is a derivation of the "French Paradox": The French consume 30 percent more fat in the form of butter, olive oil, lard or crème fraîche than the Americans, and yet more Americans die from heart attacks, although they also die more exercise and smoke less. Serge Renaud, Rector of the Institut National de la Santé, sees the reason for this in the enjoyment of wine. Wine acts on the platelets and it can wash them off the arterial walls. In any case, the doctors around Reims and Epernay advise their older patients in particular to drink champagne to refresh themselves. Champagne pearl number 3: Champagne has an immediate effect because, thanks to the carbonic acid in champagne, the pharmacological effect of the alcohol occurs more quickly than with still wine. Champagne pearl number 4: The Champagnards would have to drink their sparkling wine themselves, it would be so great and unattractive if champagne didn't thrive in the largest cemetery in the world. The global catastrophe 65 million years ago, in the course of which the dinosaurs had to say goodbye, also meant the end of the coccoliths, tiny calcareous algae in the sea. At that geological point in time, the so-called Paris Basin and thus the Champagne region were flooded with warm seawater. After they die, the tiny calcareous algae float to the bottom and accumulate: the deposit grows by ten centimeters in a thousand years. Finally, the coccoliths form the 100 meter thick layer of chalk on which the Champagne vineyards are planted today. The vine has to fight on this globally unique wine soil. On the other hand, the chalk stores heat, allows meteoric water to seep away quickly, but thanks to its high porosity it can store up to 600 liters of water in one cubic meter. With this reserve, the vine survives even the driest summer. As liana plants, they get the water from the chalk at a depth of ten meters. This subsoil, the terroir, brings the unique character of the luxury sparkling water. Champagne pearl number 5: The inventor of champagne is not - as the legend would have it - the monk Dom Pérignon, but the friar Oudart. He noticed that the addition of yeast and 24 grams of sugar per liter during fermentation created such high gas pressure that carbonic acid combined with the wine.
Share by: