Higher temperatures and light intensity trigger the sap to flow anew in the vine. The first buds emerge, covered with a downy coating called bourre, then swell and eventually flower. Bud-burst has arrived!
The year’s fruit-bearing canes are tied up by hand to regulate the growth of the vine.
The Champagne month by month
All Champagne wines must spend at least 15 months aging in the bottle before release, rising to three years for vintage wines. In practice, the Champagne Houses cellar their wines for much longer: 2-3 years for non-vintage Champagne, and at least 4-10 years, if not more, for vintage Champagne.
Genial personality, German-born Florens-Louis Heidsieck first discovered Champagne and its wines in 1777. Eight years later he founded his own Champagne House, with none other than Queen Marie-Antoinette as his first brand ambassador. In 1815 he was joined by his nephew Christian and Henri-Guillaume Piper, who married Christian’s widow following her husband’s untimely death in 1835. And with that, Piper and Heidsieck were forever joined together.
The Champagne Houses
