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.
Pierre-Nicolas Perrier and Rose-Adélaïde Jouët shared a passion for nature and the arts. She was a young woman of culture from a merchant family; he was a skilled winegrower and botanist. They married in 1810 and founded the House of Perrier-Jouët the following year. The House now belongs to the Pernod-Ricard Group.
The Champagne Houses