What is it that puts the bubbles in bubbly? The easy answer: carbon dioxide.

But that is not the same as the answer you’ll get to a question that may sound the same, but is very, very different: What is it that puts the sparkle in a glass of Champagne?

The answer — before you start comparing it to a glass of cola — must add up to more than the rather unromantic CO2.

Though an expert will tell you the bubbles in a glass of Champagne are smaller and more discreet than those in any old sparkling wine, you will also be told that those luminous pearls that rise in the flute are barely a measure of anything. They can be misleading because they are as much a function of the glass as they are of the liquid within.

So, then, is Champagne to be judged like every other wine?

Yes, and no.

Beyond the effervescence, the lasting lustre of Champagne is gleaned from centuries of careful polish and care. Look beyond the tradition and you see hundreds of years of brand building that has culminated in one of the world’s most universal symbols of celebration. “Champagne is 50 per cent drink, 50 per cent luxury,” says Ambroise Bobtcheff of Taittinger.

Vineyards of Champagne grapes

A glass of bubbly at G.H. Martel

Ancient cellars and riddling racks at Taittinger

They should know. Once the “favourite of Ian Fleming”, Taittinger featured in many Bond books. Moet & Chandon’s Dom Perignon, on the other hand, was the preferred drink of Pierce ‘Bond’ Brosnan’s early avatar, Remington Steele. Not to mention Napoleon, an early fan of Moet.

But equally, without a strong product, all the allure in the world couldn’t sell 322 million bottles a year. “It is important to remember that Champagne is a wine, not just a bubbly drink that is all about marketing,” stresses Antoine Roland-Billecart of Billecart-Salmon, a large, stylish Champagne house.

True, the bubbles do seem to be the easy part. For the game of Champagne is a complex one with rules, rules and more rules. Here are the ones you should know…

Rule # 1:

The lore is treated with a certain smiling respect.

There is as much real history as there is myth lurking everywhere in and under the region, enchanting the champagne houses and vineyards above ground and the 260 km of caves below it. Most Champagne houses invoke this history generously to add to the mystique.

Taittinger, for instance, which calls its most prestigious wine Comte de Champagne, or Count of Champagne, is built on the ruins of Abbaye Saint Nicaise, destroyed at the end of the French Revolution, above Gallo-Roman chalk pits that date back to the 4th century, which now serve as its cellars.

And at Moet & Chandon’s mansion, images of Scarlett Johansson — the latest brand ambassador for the company owned by luxury giant Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy — nip at the heels of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was friends with founder Jean-Remy Moet. Napoleon visited Jean-Remy on July 26, 1807, a picture of which hangs at the stunning estate in Epernay. An oak cask, a gift from Napoleon, is on display in the cellars.

Moet’s high-end label Dom Perignon is named after the monk who, legend has it, put the bubbles in bubbly in the 18th century, though the facts point to a rather more gradual process with no single inventor. Britain’s early love for the fizzy tipple may have had something to do with Champagne as we know it today. But that doesn’t go down as smooth, does it?

Dom Perignon did make wines, though he did his pioneering work in Limoux, which isn’t even in the Champagne region, after he was banished there for reportedly engaging in activity unbecoming a priest. His story is filled with alluring twists very becoming an ancient inventor. He was, for instance, born and had died on the same days as Louis XV. “It’s a coincidence,” smiles Philippe Wibrotte, Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC; the organisation of growers and Champagne houses). “But there are many coincidences in Champagne.”

Rule # 2:

Champagne comes from Champagne, and Champagne alone. If it is from Italy, it might be called Prosecco. If it’s from Spain, it might be called Cava. If it’s from Australia or California or South Africa, don’t bother — just call it sparkling wine. Even in France, if you’re an inch outside the Champagne region, the name is out of bounds to you.

Here is proof that it is not just the bubbles that give this wine its character. It is the earth from which it is born, the air that cools it, the rain that washes it, the hands that nurture it — in one word, the terroir. And the terroir of the Champagne region can be found nowhere else in the world. So why should you call a wine Champagne just because it sparkles?

Champagne is an example of Appellation d’Origine Contrôée, or AOC — the classification of a product based on geographical location. It is commonly used in wines as well as some foods. Just think Darjeeling tea. It can’t be from Assam, can it?

Nor can the name Champagne be used for any other product. The CIVC, entrusted with protection of the name, has fought and defeated companies big and small that have tried to use the word Champagne for products including cigarettes, perfume (YSL), bubble bath, Australian sandpaper, soap and even an underwear in a bottle labelled ‘Champantie’.

Rule # 3:

With AOC status comes responsibility — and regulation. It starts with the basics: Champagne can only be made from three grapes — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The two Pinots are red berries, but by not allowing the juice prolonged contact with the skin after pressing, white wine is made from red grapes; so too with Champagne.

Then there are four less common grapes — Petit Meslier, Arbanne, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc — which some houses are trying to revive.

There are a certain number of vines that can be planted, with a certain amount of space between rows and a certain number of grapes that can be harvested per hectare. This — just the tip of the iceberg, of course — is all to protect the quality of the output and supply — and thus, also, the final price. It takes 1.2 kg of grapes, around 5 euro (approximately Rs 330) per kg, to make 750 ml of Champagne.

Currently, there are 34,000 hectares producing Champagne grapes. This area is to increase with a careful revision of the appellation now taking place in order to enhance production without compromising quality.

Rule # 4:

Consistency is key in Champagne.

Most houses sell more Brut non-vintage than any other Champagne. The phrase “non-vintage” indicates that the Champagne is a blend of wines from a number of years. As per the regulations, winemakers can keep a certain percentage of each year’s production in reserve, and these are then used to maintain the careful balance of the flagship brand — the Brut non-vintage — which generally is the expression of the house’s identity. The word Brut is a reference to how much sugar is in the wine (see Rule # 7).

Vintage wines are also produced, depending on the quality of the harvest, and these can be quite different in character from year to year.

Rule # 5:

There is Champagne, and then there is Champagne.

Seventeen villages within the 319-village appellation are classified as Grand Cru, which means they produce the finest fruit of the vines in Champagne. Mostly, these coveted wines would be used for special, often vintage, Champagnes.

Just below the Grand Cru is the Premier Cru. And then there are the rest. But with the Champagne tag, there is nothing ordinary about even these vineyards and the characteristically chalky earth they stand on, which cost hundreds of thousands of euro per hectare.

And then, just next to prime Champagne-grape growing ground may lie another hectare of earth growing barley. The appellation’s strict rules on terroir have produced a patchwork landscape of vines and agricultural land, potential millionaires and ordinary farmers.

Rule # 6:

A spoonful of sugar can sweeten the mix.

To make a bottle of Champagne, sugar is added twice. The first time is just after bottling, when it goes in to provide food for the yeast, which eats the sugar to produce alcohol and gas. And since the yeast also feeds on the natural sugars of the wine, the end result can be very dry. So, after the bottle is disgorged (see box on process), sugar can be added depending on whether the maker wants a Brut Zero (no added sugar) Ultra Brut (up to six g), Brut (up to 15 g), Extra Sec (12 to 20 g), Sec (17 to 35 g) and Demi-Sec (33 to 50 g).

Early in the 20th century, at a time when Champagne was usually quite sweet and drunk with dessert, Laurent-Perrier is the house credited with pioneering the “grand vin sans sucre”, or the “great wine without sugar”. This foretold the drier styles in vogue today.

Rule # 7:

When it’s Champagne, some rules can be broken. To produce pink Champagne, a rosé, winemakers are permitted to blend red with white wine. This is despite the fact that elsewhere in France and the European Union, this practice for still wines is banned. There, it is mandatory to use the age-old process by which the juices are left in contact with the macerated skins of black grapes for just enough time for colour to bleed into the juice. The skins are removed before the pink wine becomes red wine!

However, the process of Champagne is considered so complex as it is, that leeway on this front is allowed. The houses make their own red wine, usually from the Pinot Noir grape, and blend it with white wine. Some houses, like Laurent-Perrier for instance, still exclusively use the maceration method for their rosés.

Rule # 8:

There is vast variety to choose from. Though you may think there are only two types of Champagne — white and pink, this is only part of the story.

Different levels of sugar, non-vintage and vintage, oak or no oak all make a difference to taste. Then there are Prestige Cuvées, which are the elite bunch, often made with Grand Cru grapes and aged for a longer time.

While choosing a Champagne, look at the label for the following phrases — blanc de blanc or blanc de noir. A blanc de blanc is exclusively from white grapes, i.e. Chardonnay. A blanc de noir is made from only black grapes. You can expect more freshness and acidity from the former, more fruitiness and body from the latter.

Rule # 9:

Antiquity and modernity each has its place in Champagne.

Steel vats have long been used in the winemaking process, and for a number of years now, some houses have dispensed with oak-aging to produce fresher, fruitier flavours.

Hand-riddling, by which the almost-ready bottles of Champagne are painstakingly turned to get rid of the dead yeast, has been widely replaced by machines that can handle whole crates at a time with identical results.

“The modernisation of the process has helped democratise Champagne,” says Philippe Aubry of Aubry, a relatively small Champagne maker. Reducing manpower and waste by use of modern technologies is what makes the time- and cost-intensive process accessible to smaller players.

Another very modern concern is with the environment. Though even here, it is the ancient respect for terroir that makes all the more pressing the commitment to leave things for the next generation as this generation found it.

By next year, 100 per cent of water used in the Champagne-making process will be recycled. (By Champagne law, no irrigation is allowed anyhow.) Efforts are on to reduce packaging and weight of the bottles and by 2020, they aim to cut CO2 emissions by 25 per cent.

The CIVC also keeps a close watch on the climate and provides weather warnings to growers. Though by its own admission, the only thing farmers are permitted to do in case of, for instance, a hailstorm, is “to go to the vineyards and pray”.

Rule # 10:

This might be the most important one. Forget the pop, the bubbles, the celebration, the mystique. Champagne is meant to be enjoyed.

In France, average Champagne consumption is three bottles per head, per year. In India, one bottle of Champagne is consumed per year for every 4,130 people. Much room for improvement.

Does drinking more Champagne make it any less special? Not likely, says Daniel Lorson, director, communication, CIVC, who has grown up in the region, and now is working closely with its most famous product. “When my friends from other parts of France come over, and I open a bottle of Champagne, they ask me what’s the occasion,” he says. “I tell them it is a celebration that we have all come together.”

Celebration, they believe, like Champagne, should be an every-day affair.

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LESSER rules:

Serving glasses: The old-fashioned bowl-style coupe is out — you can use that for ice cream instead. So is the too-narrow flute that leaves no room for your nose. Now it is the era of the tulip-shaped Champagne glass, wider around the centre but still tapering at the top to concentrate the aromas.

Opening the bottle: Before you open that bottle and send the cork flying on its path to blind or maim your dinner guest, know that loud pops and Champagne showers are considered the wasteful preserve of Formula One drivers. The propah way to open a bottle of bubbly is to twist open the wire lock on the cage (muselet), then, keeping your thumb over the top, twisting the bottle with one hand in one direction while gently twisting the cork in the other. A more muted pop or a sensuous sigh are the acceptable sounds.

Serving temperature: Ideally around 10°C. Refrigerate for around three hours, or keep it in a bucket of ice for 20 minutes.

Pairing: Like all wine, Champagne is best paired with food, though many can also be consumed as an aperitif. Sweeter Champagnes go best with dessert, Brut pairs well with fish and poultry, roses complement more robust flavours, and work particularly well if you are at a table where diners are ordering different kinds of dishes.
Drink it, don’t spray it: From Moet, Formula One — the most high-profile sprayer of Champagne — has moved to Mumm. Many Champagne houses will have nothing to do with this kind of sacrilege. Nor should you.

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The process

Stainless steel vats in Billecart-Salmon

Champagne starts its life like every wine, on the vine. The grapes are harvested mid-September, and each kind of grape, and sometimes those from each parcel of each vineyard, will be pressed separately, the juices making their way into stainless steel holding tanks. There they rest till the pressing is complete, before they commence alcoholic fermentation in another set of stainless steel tanks, which can take up to one month.

Some winemakers will then decide whether they will use malolactic fermentation, a process by which the very fresh, green apple-tasting malic acid is converted to the more rounded, softer lactic acid.

Then the blends are built, often taking months of tasting. The wines are mixed in huge blending tanks. Some may be aged in oak barrels. The wine is then bottled and yeast and sugar (tirage) added to induce the second fermentation, sealed with crown caps (or cork) and kept in the cellar. The yeast eats the sugar, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, which is what gives the Champagne its bubbles. After about a month, the sugar is consumed, and in the absence of food, the yeast dies.

The Champagne continues to age till it is deemed ready (minimum of 15 months for a Brut non-vintage and three years for a vintage), at which time the bottles are shifted to riddling racks, where the bottles are carefully turned so that lees (dead yeast and other waste) collects under the cap of the bottle. This process is most often conducted mechanically now.

The bottles are transported upside down to a machine that freezes the top of the bottle. The seal is then broken and the pressure in the bottle forces the frozen mass out. Depending on the kind of Champagne being produced, the dosage is added, comprising wine (to top up the bottle to the required weight since some has been lost with the lees) and, often, sugar. The bottle is then corked, wire cage twisted safely over it, and then cleaned and packaged. Finally, it is ready to drink.

Do you love/hate Champagne? Tell t2@abpmail.com