Most Champagne that we know is pretty expensive. Its hard to shell out 80-100 bucks for a bottle bubbles when you can buy 3-5 bottles of still wines for the same price. I am not going to try and rationalize the cost of a 500-1000 bottle of Champagne, but I want you guys to get a better feeling of how champagne is made so that you can understand where your money is going.
First I want to talk about the region of Champagne. This is the most northerly wine producing region in France and really pushes the envelope for the cultivation of grapes. It almost gets too cold to the point where the grapes can not ripen. It often rains, limited the amount of sunshine and warmth that reach the vines. Late Spring frosts are a killer and are the most dangerous. The weather is unforgiving, and the decrease in yields sometimes adds the cost of a bottle of Champagne.
So here are the steps for the Methode Champenois:
Step 1 : The grapes are harvested like any other wine, pressed and fermented in large stainless steel or glass vats. Some producers use 225 liter barriques such as Krug, Bollinger and Vilmart for this fermentation.
Step 2: 5-6 months later the wine is ready for blending. Non-vintage champagne is a blend of about 40-50 wines from as many as 10 different years. This part is crucial because this it what gives the champagne their consistency in taste year after year. The blending technician is very skilled and knows exactly the percentages of which wines to blend depending on the current years organoleptic qualities.
Step 3: After the wines are blended in a vat, a liquer de tirage is added to the wine. This blend is a carefully mixed quantity of mostly liquid sugar and yeast. The sugar and the yeast are what allow the second fermentation to take place in the bottle.
Step 4: After the addition of the liquer de tirage, the wine is bottled and capped. If too much sugar was added in the liquer, the bottle can explode, 
and if not enough, their will be no carbonation. Remember the equation for fermentation is : sugar + yeast—->ethanol + CO2. After the bottling they are laid on their sides in chalk caves so the 2nd fermentation can take place. During this period the yeast die in a process called autolysis. The dead yeast cells sink to the bottom imparting yeasty, bread-like aromas to the wine as well as complexity. The bottles must be left in this position for at least 15 months for non-vintage and 3 years for vintage champagne.
Her you can see some of the dead yeast cells
Step 5: So what do you do with all these dead yeast cells? Their is a long and
sometimes laborious process called remuage. This is when the dead yeast cells are coaxed into the neck of the bottle. Back before the use of machinery, a man called a remuer, would turn and angle every
bottle of champagne a little downward every day into a vertical position. A top remuer can riddle 40,000 bottles per day. Some houses still use a remuer but they are very costly and time consuming. Most houses now use a girasol. This a piece of machinery holds about 500 bottles and replicates the remuage process.
Step 6: Now that the bottles are in a vertical position some 12 to 20 weeks later it is time to remove all that sediment that has accumulated in the neck. One method called a la volee, uses the pressure inside of bottle to force the sediment out after the enclosure has been removed. The other and more common method is called a la glace. In this method the neck of the bottle is dipped into a freezing brine solution. This freezes the sediment and when the enclosure is removed the ice shoots out. This process is called degorgement for obvious reasons.
Machinery to add the dosage
Step 7: To replace some of the wine that has been lost during the last step, a measured amount of sweetened wine is added to the bottle. This mixture is called the liqueur d’expedition and is what gives the wine some residual sugar and house flavor. Next the champagne is topped with the mushroom cork a wire cage and is ready for shipment or storage.
As you can see it is not easy to produce champagne. I forgot to mention that the caves where the champagne is stored are carved from the chalk soils that run 20 feet into the ground. The chalk provides the perfect storage temperature for the wine. By capturing heat during the day and radiating it during the cold nights, the internal temperature remains constant. I hope this has helped you to appreciate champagne in a different light.
Next: The science of bubbles…
