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.
Pol Roger began selling Champagne wines in 1849. Two years later he founded his own Champagne House in Epernay, close to his home village of Aÿ. He was succeeded by his two sons, followed by his grandson Jacques and his wife Odette – who became friends with Winston Churchill, the man behind the name of the brand’s prestige cuvee. In 2020, the company welcomed the sixth generation of the family.
The Champagne Houses