Houses

The Champagne Houses

• 10 major trades in Champagne
• Definition of a Champagne House
• Grandes Marques Champagne Houses: 10 criteria

Heritage

• Rheims and surrounding area
• Epernay and surrounding area
• Elsewhere in Champagne

The art of tasting

• The fundamentals
• Champagne tasting
• Sensory pleasure
• Taste and aroma
• Common mistakes and how to avoid them
• Before opening the bottle
• Choosing a brand
• Choosing the right wine glass
• The proper way to chill Champagne
• Serving Etiquette
• Uncorking a bottle of Champagne
• Serving Champagne
• Maximise the pleasure
• The language of the senses
• Storing your bottles of Champagne
• Champagne & health
• Bringing out the flavours in food
• A glassworks in Champagne
• A satirical take on the pedantic and pretentious wine taster
• Champagne at the bottom of the sea
• Professional tastings
• What is the best glass for Champagne?
• Your very good health!
• “Sabler” or “Sabrer” Champagne.

Appellation

Geographical area

• Vine age

Stages in winemaking

• From grapevine to grapes and must
• Work in the Vineyard
• Harvests
• Pressing
• From grape must to still wines
• A vat for each terroir
• Blending a Grande Marque cuvee
• {Tirage} or bottling the blended wine
• From still wine to sparkling wine
• Second fermentation ("capturing the sparkle")
• The slow awakening of the aromas ...
• Pointage, Remuage (riddling) and Dépointage
• Preparation for shipment many years later
• Disgorgement
• Dosage
• Corking and muselage
• Ready for shipment
• {Poignetage} or ({Piquetage}
• Packaging and labelling
• Labeling
• House vineyards test new methods of cultivation
• Special cuvée with minimum dosage (less than 6 g/l)
• Stop frost!
• The casks and coopers of Champagne
• The history of riddling (remuage)
• The history of the muselet and its collectable plaque

The Champagne Terroir: A living heritage

Definition and protection

• Definition
• Definition and law
• Defence
• Defending the appellation

Industry

Sustainable development

• Economy

Organisation

• Champagne Growers and Houses
• Union des Maisons de Champagne
• Comité Champagne - CIVC
• Champagne growers’ union
• Wine Growers and Houses in France and Europe
• French Winegrowers and Wine Houses
• EU Wine Growers and Wineries
• International Organisations
• Commission Tripartite du Champagne (established 1919)
• Fédération des Exportateurs de Vins et Spiritueux
• Joint Champagne Committee (established 1969)
• Union des Maisons & Marques de Vin or UMVIN

Professional Associations

• Association Viticole Champenoise (Champagne viticultural association)
• Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne
• Champagne brokers (courtiers)
• Union of Champagne Oenologists
• Archiconfrérie Saint-Vincent (Champagne Winegrowers fraternity of St Vincent)
• Corporation des Tonneliers-Cavistes (corporation of coopers and cellarmen)
• Corporation des Vignerons (corporation of Champagne Winegrowers
• Association des Responsables de Domaine Viticole
• Friendly society of Champagne Cellar Masters
• Club for young Champagne merchants

News

• News 2026
• News 2025
• News 2024
• News 2022
• News 2021
• News 2020
• News 2019

Encyclopedias

Champagne Guest Book

• BEFORE SPARKLING CHAMPAGNE
• Colonel François Bonal

Photothèque UMC

• Houses
• Making Champagne
• Reims Cathedral
• Events
• Champagnes, lifetyles and design trends
• Miscellaneous

Video Library

• UNESCO World Heritage
• {Terre de Champagne} (land of Champagne)
• The Champagne Terroir
• From vine to wine
• Champagne tasting
• Miscellany

Books about vines and wines

• The keys to the wines of Champagne

Exceptional vintages

• 1998 Harvest Overview - nothing short of a miracle
• 1996 Harvest Overview - serenity restored
• 1995 Harvest Overview - looking to the future
• 1990 Harvest Overview - doubts and expectations
• 1989 Harvest Overview - a welcome resurrection
• 1988 Harvest Overview - a turnaround
• 1985 Harvest Overview - surprisingly good results
• 1982 Harvest Overview - Timely and Historic
• 1979 Harvest Overview - a fine harvest but not enough to replenish stocks
• 1973 Harvest Overview - the second largest harvest of the century
• 1969 - Harvest Overview
• 1961 Harvest Overview - bumper harvest meets expectations
• 1959 Harvest Overview - a vintage unlike any other
• 1955 Harvest Overview - a memorable vintage
• 1949 Harvest Overview
• 1947 Harvest overview
• 1945 Harvest Overview

The grand history of the Champagne Houses

• Chapter II
• Chapter III
• Chapter IV
• Chapter V
• Chapter VI
• Chapter VII
• Chapter VIII
• Chapter IX
• Chapter I

Champagne, star of the seventh art

• Introduction
• Bubbles and the Cinematograph
• Champagne in Silent films
• Hollywood: parties and prohibition
• Champagne’s popularity in French Cinema
• Masterpieces and Champagne
• Cult Bubbles
• Bond & Bubbles
• Champagne and films for foodies
• Champagne in musical comedies
• Champagne in Slapstick films
• Champagne and westerns
• Even super heroes drink it...
• ... So too do toons

Champagne people

• Trois veuves hors du commun
• Hommes de Dieu
• Biographies

Professional

UMC

• Origins and mission
• How it began
• Missions
• 130^th Anniversary
• A professional occasion
• Social welfare in the 19^th Century