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.
Champagne House Irroy was established in 1820. In 1882 it helped to found the Syndicat du Commerce des Vins de Champagne (now the Union of Champagne Houses). Two hundred years after its creation, the Irroy brand is now enjoying a fresh start as part of the Taittinger stable.
The Champagne Houses