Champagne-Ardenne

Champagne for sale online at Italian Wine Selection 

The area of France called "Champagne" is a Region renowned worldwide for the production of the sparkling wines that take their name from it: champagne wines. These wines are produced using the "Champenoise" method, which involves the refermentation in the bottle of different grape varieties or vines from the Champagne area. Between 100 and 1700, the Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon, in an attempt to obtain a Burgundy-style still wine, managed to make wine by keeping grapes from different vineyards separate (wines in cuvées). Each cru has unique qualities, so he focused, through the application of strict rules in the cultivation of the vines, on reducing yields to increase the concentration of the wine. Champagne as we know it today, however, was not concretely born until the early 1880s with the development of the rémuage system (bottle rotation to allow sediment to slide down to the neck where it is then easily removed), and with the addition of a "liqueur de dosage." Champagne vineyards are classified according to the cru scale, so the three categories are Grand Cru, Premier Cru and Cru. The elaboration of champagnes starts from cuvées wines, usually acidic and low in alcohol, furthermore in the case of Sans Année the cuvée is made up of different wines from different vintages while when it is different wines from the same vintage we speak of Millésimes or Vintage. Champagne made from a single wine is a rare exception, the general lines lead rather to mixing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. In the Italian Wine Selection wine shop we present a selection of champagnes that can be purchased online, scents and flavors of the Champagne area just a click away, from Blanc de Blancs to Blanc de Noirs via Rosé Champagnes.    

The wineries of Champagne 

Thousands of winemakers are involved in the Champagne area, estimated at more than 15,000, supplying grapes to more than a hundred maisons for Champagne processing. The three wines usually used for the production of this wine product clearly differ in characteristics and give this renowned wine specific qualities, for example, Chardonnay adds elegance and finesse while Pinot Noir serves to provide aroma and structure, the latter propped up by Pinot Meunier, which compared to the former also adds a greater amount and complexity of fruity aromas. In the carnet of champagnes of Italian Wine Selection we find several wineries, we recall among them Agrapart, Billecart, Bollinger, De Sousa, Dom Perignon, Laurent Perrier, Moet & Chandon, Ruinart and many others.