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History
Wine Making
Types and Methods
Famous People
Misc. Bubbly
100
Being in nearly the northern most climate where grapes can grow, combined with chalky soil deposits from ancient seabeds make this area one of the best in the world in which to grow the grapes for sparkling wine.
What is the the Champagne region in France?
100
This is one of only three grape varieties that can be used to make Champagne.
What is pinot noir, pinor meunier, or chardonnay?
100
Referring to a wine in which all of the grapes came from the same harvest year.
What is vintage?
100
This famous Benedictine monk and pioneering winemaker is often mistakenly credited with inventing sparkling wine, but actually worked hard to prevent his wine from developing bubbles, which in France were considered a fault in wine at the time (17th century) and caused many broken bottles.
Who is Dom Pierre Perignon?
100
The term seen on wine labels which signifies that the wine is blended from different years. Most champagne and sparkling wine is this.
What is non-vintage?
200
A sparkling wine, primarily NOT made in the method champenoise, named after the village in Italy where it first originated.
What is Prosecco?
200
A sparkling wine made this way must undergo the secondary fermentation process in the bottle, rather than in large tanks. All Champagne is made this way, which allows more contact with the "lees" and therefore more complex and nutty flavors to develop.
What is the method champenoise?
200
One of the few unregulated words in Champagne, referring to the carefully selected blend of wines to create a repeatable finished product. The great champagne houses have expert blenders who blend wines to achieve their distinctive taste each year.
What is Cuvee? Prestige Cuvee is supposed to be a blend of what are considered to be at the top of the producers range.
200
This fictional British spy said, "My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit."
Who is James Bond?
200
White wine produced entirely from from dark skinned grapes.
What is blanc de noir?
300
Otherwise known as the "big brands" of champagne, their special talent lies in crafting of cuvees (blends) with a timeless style unique to each one. In 1882 they formed Syndicat du Commerce des Vins de Champagne to protect the name "Champagne", and the union prosecuted anyone who misused the name ‘Champagne’, whether in France or abroad, and it invariably won its case. ‘Champagne’ might have otherwise become the generic term for all sparkling wines. The most powerful of these today is Moet & Chandon.
What are the Champagne Houses?
300
Critical to winemaking, this substance is added to the pressed grapes (grape juice), eats the glucose and fructose naturally occurring in the grape juice, and creates ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide as a by product.
What is yeast?
300
Sparkling wine from France that is made in the exact same method as champagne but is not from the champagne region.
What is Cremant?
300
This woman famously once said "I only drink champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not."
Who is Coco Chanel?
300
The most popular sweetness level of the sparkling wines/champagnes today, with no more than 12 grams of sugar per liter permitted.
What is Brut?
400
While the French were struggling to get rid of bubbles in wine, this country's glassmakers developed stronger bottles that would not break, and are credited with developing the first real taste for sparkling wines as something to enjoy in its own right.
Who are the British?
400
After the secondary fermentation, a special liqueur of wine and cane sugar is added to the sparkling wine to bring the sweetness to the desired level (brut, demi-sec, etc). This term refers to the addition of this sugar.
What is dosage?
400
What wine makers call freshly pressed grape-juice.
What is grape must?
400
Known as the Grand Dame of Champagne, widowed at age 27 during the Napoleanic wars and finding herself with a fledgling winery, she perfected the art of riddling, invented the riddling rack to create a crystal clear champagne, and through sheer effort and skill launched her winery into a powerhouse where it remains today. She snuck a boat around the naval blockade to establish her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia.
Who is Barb Nicole Ponsardin Cliquot or the Widow Cliquot (Vueve Cliquot).
400
Processing some of this in with the wine is what provides rose sparkling wines their pink color.
What are the skins of the grapes?
500
Which Champagne house co-bought an English vineyard to make sparkling wine in 2015?
What is Champagne Taittinger?
500
This phrase refers to when a bottle of sparkling wine is laying sideways or angled downwards during the secondary fermentation process in the bottle.
What is "resting on the lees?"
500
The name for the workers who, every day or two, twist the bottles and angle them further downward, gradually moving the lees toward the next of the bottle.
Who are the "riddlers"?
500
Although likely just a myth, the champagne coupe is said to have been modeled on the breasts of one of these women.
Who is Marie Antoinette or Madame du Pompadour (mistress of Louis XV).
500
And academic study confirmed there are about this number of bubbles in one glass of champagne/sparkling wine.
What is one million?