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 monthIn good years, those wines produced in excess of the cap set for each harvest are set aside for release in the event of a future harvest shortfall. Known as the “inter-professional Champagne wine reserve”, these reserve stocks represent a particularly ingenious solution to the problem of meeting market demand in good and bad years alike, with no loss of quality.
Out story begins with Athanase de Villermont, a great soldier who proved himself in the American War of Independence. On his return to France, he inherited a vast family estate and met German-born Joseph Bollinger with whom he founded Bollinger & Cie in 1829. In 1837 Joseph married Athanase’s daughter, Louise-Charlotte – and so was born the Bollinger dynasty.
The Champagne Houses