Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label

Champagne & Sparkling: Non-Vintage from Champagne, France - Other Regions: Champagne

Rating 92Pedigree (Other Vintages) ▼

Pairs Well With

Sparkling wine, champagne included, is simply still wine that has been animated with carbon dioxide bubbles. Wine is made through an interaction of yeast and sugar; the former "eats" the latter, converting it into two substances: alcohol and CO2. In most winemaking the carbon dioxide evaporates into the atmosphere. In champagne and other "champagne method" or bottle-fermented sparkling wines, the gas is caught and permeates the wine. Carbonation may also be added through various bulk processes, but wines produced in these manners are always inferior. Champagne is made in a delineated region of eastern France from almost entirely from three grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier, used either individually or in blends. There are other sparkling wines made in France and in most other wine-producing countries. Cava, the champagne-method sparkling wine of Spain, has become increasingly popular, and there are many good examples from California (many of them produced by French champagne or Spanish cava companies). Sparkling wine of good quality is also made in Oregon, Washington, Australia, Italy, Spain, South America, South Africa, and many other wine regions. The best wines of England's fledgling modern wine industry are sparkling, made with the champagne method. Non-vintage sparkling wines are blended from wine made in two or more years. In the Champagne region particularly, these are often considered superior to vintage-dated wines, because they allow vintners to fine-tune characteristics of flavor and aroma by blending.

Find Recipes

(Each pairing note will also have
a list of recipe searches that match)

Other Champagne & Sparkling: Non-Vintage Wines

WineMaker’s Notes

Veuve Clicquot's signature brut non-vintage is loved the world over for its crisp, full flavors, consistent quality and celebratory yellow label. The predominance of Pinot Noir provides the structure that is so typically Clicquot, while a touch of Pinot Meunier rounds out the blend. Chardonnay adds the elegance and finesse essential in a perfectly balanced wine.

About The Region

The most famous and romantic of all French wines, champagne is sparkling wine made from chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier grapes by the so-called méthode champenoise, or champagne method, in northeastern France. (Four other grape varieties are also permitted — pinot blanc, pinot gris, petit meslier, and arbane — but their use is uncommon.) Still wine has been made in the region since the Middle Ages, and at one time the reds, made from pinot noir, competed in the marketplace with those of Burgundy. Legend credits the Benedictine monk known as Dom Pérignon (1638–1712) with having "invented" champagne when he noticed that new wine sealed in a bottle became carbonated (this is due to the carbon dioxide created during the fermentation process, which in ordinary winemaking dissipates into the atmosphere). In fact, the phenomenon was almost certainly noticed by numerous winemakers in the region, both before and after Pérignon — and in fact the formation of bubbles was seen as a fault, which they tried to prevent. Sparkling champagne didn't become the predominant wine of the region until well after the monk's death. In the méthode champenoise, the wine is blended and fermented in stainless steel tanks. It is then bottled, with a crown cap, with yeast and sugar added to facilitate a secondary fermentation. It is during this process that the wine becomes carbonated. The bottles are stored at a downward angle and turned a quarter-turn ("riddled") at regular intervals so that the dead yeast collects by the cap. The neck of the bottle is next frozen and the cap removed, along with the frozen plug of yeast. The bottle is topped up with the so-called liqueur d'expédition, which is some of the base wine with a small quantity of added sugar (the amount of sugar determines the final dryness or sweetness of the champagne). The bottle is then sealed for the last time until serving, with a cork and wire cage.