Champagne brut - a sip of a real drink

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Champagne wines have a fairly complex classification system, which depends on several indicators. One of the main criteria that distinguishes champagne is its sugar content, which determines the taste of wine. If we talk about brut champagne, these are dry wines, the sugar content of which is very low. It is these wines - dry and semi-dry, made in the best ancient traditions of France and are considered the most expensive and valuable varieties of champagne.

Sommeliers don't generally appreciate champagnes with a high sugar content, as it makes it difficult to distinguish between flavors and is often designed to mask wine defects.

In general terms, the classification of champagnes, based on the criterion of their sugar content, looks like this:

• natural brut - wine with no sugar or less than 0.3%;

• extra brut - wines with sugar content in the range of 0.3-0.6%;

• brut - or so-called classic brut, dry champagne: sugar level in the range of 0.6-1.5%;

• extra dry - a wine that can be both semi-sweet and semi-dry (1.5-2% sugar);

• dry (sec) - champagne with a sugar content of 1.7 to 3.5%;

• demi-sec– contains up to 5% sugar;

• Deuce is a rare dessert champagne with sugar levels above 5%.

Champagne brut can be made from any grape: white or red. But the classic option is white brut wine. Although red grape champagnes taste little different from white ones, if the correct procedure for peeling the berries is followed.

Brut is made from classic grape varieties such as Pinot Meunier, Pinot Black and Chardonnay. Young brut is a pale yellow champagne, sometimes with a pink sparkle. Very refreshing, stormy wine with a fruity or berry aroma with a hint of fresh white bread. Aged brut (from 3 years old) is a stronger champagne, the taste of which gives off herbs. The color is dark yellow, the aroma gives off apple, dried fruits, spices, the taste is somewhat reminiscent of croissants. Ripe brut (from 5 years old) has fewer bubbles, but with a stronger, more complex and very rich taste. Its color is dark yellow, has a brown tint. The aroma gives off dried fruits and roasted nuts, sometimes a hint of coffee slips through.

Distinguish between vintage brut and blanc de blanc.

Vintage (Millesime) has the same characteristics as regular brut, only with the obligatory indication of the year when the grapes were harvested.

Blanc de Blanc is squeezed exclusively from Chardonnay. It is, as a rule, a fresh wine that retains the aroma of grapes, with a pleasantly sour taste. Young champagne has a pale yellow hue with a green haze, agechanges color to golden. Young Blanc de Blanc fragrant smells of citrus, flowering mint, forest flowers. Aged - has a flavor similar to Cuvée brut.

Champagne brut has its merits, the main of which is that it is very difficult to fake. Extraneous additives in wine are drowned out most often just by sugar. And every counterfeit comes sweetened. Dry wines always have their own delicate, refined bouquet. We can say that brut champagne is the hallmark of its manufacturer.

This wine also has positive aspects in terms of consumption.

• Firstly, it can be combined with almost any dish, from appetizers to dessert.
• Secondly, brut champagne won't bring you a heavy hangover. Alcohol is generally easier to tolerate the less sugar it contains.
• Thirdly, when drinking this wine, problems of the gastrointestinal tract are minimized, since the fermentation process is very low due to the absence of sugar.
• Well, and the last, positive factor is the low-calorie content of the product.