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 monthChampagne 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.
Mary Stuart, by name Mary, Queen of Scots, is certainly a woman who left her mark on the medieval period. She became Queen Consort of France following her husband’s accession to the throne as King Francis II (if only for a few months) and is known to have stayed in Reims with her aunt Renata of Lorraine, Abbess of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames in Reims. Hence, perhaps the name of this House, founded in 1867 and now part of the Groupe Thiénot.
The Champagne Houses