Champagne holds its breath until the Saints de Glace (Ice Saints) are safely past (11, 12, 13 May), dreading a spring freeze that might destroy the future harvest’s fruitful buds.
Desuckering removes the non-fruitful buds (suckers or gourmands). Any unwanted growth is removed to optimise sugar concentration and encourage good sap flow.
The Champagne month by month
Champagne bottles come in many different sizes, ranging from the classic Champagne bottle (75cl) and the magnum (1.5l) to very large bottles with biblical-sounding names. These include the Jeroboam (3l), the Nebuchadnezzar (15l) and the 30-litre Melchizedec or Midas – the mightiest of them all, standing 1.10m tall and holding the equivalent of 40 standard bottles.
Belgian-born Paul-François Vranken founded his namesake House in 1976. Nine years later he acquired Chateau des Castaignes, followed in 2004 by the Villa Demoiselle, whose location inspired the name of the brand’s signature cuvee, Demoiselle. Now the Vranken Head Office, the building is a masterpiece of Art Nouveau, and stands as a tribute to the project management team in charge of the four-year restoration programme.
The Champagne Houses
