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Wine and Food Pairing: 10 Secrets to Enhancing Your Dishes with White Wine and Champagne
Wine and Food Pairing: 10 Secrets to Enhancing Your Dishes with White Wine and Champagne
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Les accords mets et vins sont un art subtil qui, lorsqu'il est bien maîtrisé, permet d'enrichir profondément...

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Champagne vs Italian Wines : Two Worlds of Bubbles and Emotions to Discover
Champagne vs Italian Wines : Two Worlds of Bubbles and Emotions to Discover
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In the world of wine, there are few comparisons as fascinating as that between champagne and Italian wines. On one...

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The perfect glass for champagne: between aesthetics and sensory experience
The perfect glass for champagne: between aesthetics and sensory experience
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Champagne is more than just a sparkling wine, it's a symbol of elegance, celebration and refinement. Yet many people...

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How to recognize a good champagne? The essential criteria
How to recognize a good champagne? The essential criteria
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Champagne is synonymous with celebration and excellence, but not all champagnes are created equal. Some are real...

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Champagne: A Sparkling Treasure Appreciated in Switzerland
Champagne: A Sparkling Treasure Appreciated in Switzerland
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Le champagne est une boisson synonyme de célébration et de raffinement. En Suisse, la culture du vin est très...

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Soil and subsoil of the Champenois vineyards

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The subsoil is mainly limestone, as are 75% of the outcropping sediments (chalk, marl and limestone). This type of subsoil favors soil drainage and lends a distinctive minerality to certain Champagne wines.

The Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne and Vitry-le-François vineyards are located on outcropping chalk, while the Montagne de Reims is on buried chalk. The Vallée de la Marne (west of Châtillon-sur-Marne) and the small massifs around Reims (Saint-Thierry, Vallée de l'Ardre and Montagne Ouest) tend towards marl, clay or sand. The Côte des Bar (Bar-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Seine) is mainly composed of marl.

Champagne chalk is composed of calcite granules derived from the skeletons of marine micro-organisms (coccolites) and is characterized by the presence of belemnite fossils (mollusks from the secondary era). Its high porosity makes it a veritable water reservoir (300 to 400 liters per m3), ensuring an adequate water supply for the plant, even in the driest summers.

Chalk retains water by capillary action, forcing the vine to absorb it. This results in moderate water stress during the growing season, favoring the balance between the fruit's various acids, sugar and aroma precursors that will be revealed in the wine to come.

Lithological formations inthe Champagne vineyards