What is Champagne? Get to Know the Types & Tastes!

What is Champagne? Get to Know the Types & Tastes!

Champagne is often present at celebratory events. This drink is also equated with class and luxury.

From drinking champagne when celebrating a win or an engagement, or opening champagne at a wedding, this carbonated drink has always been equated with the good things in life.

What’s behind this 7000 year old drink? Is it the same as what is called sparkling wine? Where does it come from as a celebratory drink?

Are there other types? Let’s try to answer these questions in the following guide.

What is champagne?

Like bourbon and tequila, champagne is a drink that depends on the area where it is produced.

Even though this drink is actually sparkling wine, it can only be called champagne if it is made in the Champagne region of France.

Champagne is only made using very specific types of grapes, such as:

Pinot noir
Chardonnay
Pinot meunier

Containing 11% to 13% alcohol, champagne also carries flavors of orange, almond, and apple, which can be very sweet or very sour.

What is the difference between champagne and sparkling wine?

Not only the production area and the grapes used, champagne also goes through two fermentation processes, which is different from other wines.

The first fermentation occurs in the barrel, then the second fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is what differentiates champagne from other wines.

History of champagne

Like most alcoholic drinks, it is difficult to pinpoint when and how champagne was invented. It is said that champagne was discovered thousands of years ago.

History cannot state with certainty whether this drink was first discovered by the French or the British.

Although it is difficult to find true facts, many stories say that champagne was discovered by accident.

According to an oft-repeated story, some winemakers were producing regular wine in winter, and the bad weather had an impact on their final output.

These winemakers carry out fermentation in the cellar. However, because the winter was colder than usual, the yeast in the grapes stopped functioning, and the wine stopped fermenting.

The yeast remains in the wine until summer comes and activates the yeast again. However, the winemakers didn’t know this, so they continued pouring the wine into bottles.

Fermentation continues in the bottle, producing carbon dioxide. Over time, the wine bottles got damaged, and some of them even exploded! This is the beginning of sparkling wine and click here.