This video (courtesy of Luxury Channel) takes us to the Champagne region of France within the Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne House. In total, their vine territories spread across 2000 ha or 300 different villages. The Champagne region is made of 5 counties: Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne.
Cellar Master Jean Pierre Vincent is the man in charge for the grapes overall. His role is to be at every step of the wine making process but also to go around the world to taste wines. He gives his two basic rules to create great Champagne:
-mix grapes from various villages of the region
-mix the 3 grape types (Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay) as they all bring different nuances to the wine
I.e. Chardonnay is all about lightness, citrusy and elegance whereas Pinot Noir adds some structure, depth and intensity. The Pinot Meunier binds those together with roundness and ensures a balanced style.
Consistency of taste has been ensured overtime for Nicolas Feuillatte as there has only been one Cellar Master; Jean Pierre Vincent is truly the guardian of the brand taste. He judges this year’s harvest based on 4 criterions: degree, acidity, maturity, grape aspect.
The video then follows each stage of the Champagne production where we learn how the precious bubbles are added: during the 2ndary fermentation, sugar and yeast are incorporated in the still wine. The yeast will consume sugar and create bubbles of carbon dioxide plus alcohol. That carbon dioxide, being made in the bottle, is what creates the bubbles. Nicolas Feuillatte adopted temperature controlled environments, which enables to control every stage of the production.
500 million bottles have been produced since the Nicolas Feuillatte House was started.
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