WEBVTT - How Champagne Works 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.840 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:25.080 Pierre Clark. There's Charles Jacques Bryant. Jerry. Oh nice, rolling. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.600 Are we allowed to tell everyone your last name, Jerry? 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.560 We've done it before. Okay, what if they go try 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:32.520 to find her on Facebook and find out she doesn't 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.000 actually exist? It's all just a plant, fake Facebook page 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.839 that we've created. I know that she she is an 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.919 actual plant, right that crows in the corner feed me. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.839 I am worried about this one. I'm just gonna go 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.400 ahead and say it. Oh, why you were worried about 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.320 the wine one, for the same reasons we didn't do 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.240 the wine I know, that's why. That's exactly why reason 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.120 exactly for those reasons. No one knows anything about champagne. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:03.000 People spend life times learning this stuff. Yes, but we 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.039 have a show, and everyone knows that we don't spend 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.440 a lifetime learning about what we talk about that We 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.440 just do our research and we try to find the 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.720 most interesting stuff to explain how something works. I know, 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.360 but these with anytime it's something where someone is like 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.000 such a huge like where it's such a big thing 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.160 for so many people. Uh, I just know we're gonna 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:34.560 mess up pronunciations. Since French, so champagne, right, champagny. I 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.600 think that's how bugs Bunny always pronounced it. So you're 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.200 you're following a grand tradition. I didn't know he was 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.400 a drinker. Well, we are going to talk about Champagne's 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.520 a little light. Now do you like champagne? I love champagne, 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.640 love it. I don't. I mainly drink sparkling wine and 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.360 I don't really drink champagne itself. But buddy, this article 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.280 made me want to drink some champagne. Well you do 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.800 a little prosecco? WELLKVA, sure, I don't really discriminate, Okay, 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:05.680 I do. I don't drink any of it. You don't 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.440 like champagne, huh Nah, I don't like sparkling wine. It's 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.600 not just not it's not for chuck as they say, 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:19.320 love it, man um. I particularly love Shandon out in California. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.120 I will say, one time at a party, though many 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.320 years ago, like in the nineties, I drank a lot 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.160 of just champagne, only champagne. This might be why you 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:31.880 don't like champagne. The only time in my life. No, 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.560 I actually, uh, I felt like a twelve year old girl. 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.240 That was wonderful. That's your problem. Champagne is no, no, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:43.520 I mean silly and oh bubbly. It's fun like I 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.760 played hop scotch and stuff like that. Yeah, I know 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:47.919 that's terrible. Why would you ever want to do that again. 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:49.480 I don't mean I felt like a girl because I 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.960 was drinking champagne. That's what I thought. You meant. Well, 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.160 there's your problem. Champagne is not a girly drink. No, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.120 I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who do 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.239 think that. Buddy, I will drink pink champagne. You don't 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.840 with your finger up at a bull fight. Oh gross. Yeah, 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:09.480 you gotta do something to wash the pain away. Uh. Yeah, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.600 it's just not for me. Uh. And that gave me 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:16.400 a such a bad headache the next day. I didn't 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.160 go back to the well. I'll have you know, I 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.239 have someone. If someone wants to toast me, yeah, I 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.840 won't go. No, I'm not drinking that. Well, you were 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.760 probably drinking pretty sweet champagne, weren't you. Usually the higher 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.680 the sugar content and anything, that, the more um of 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.080 a hangover. You're gonna have Yeah, I don't know. Huh, well, 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.440 I love it good. You mean I've been to Shandon twice. Okay, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.120 went on Shandon cruise once. Wow, big fans of Shandon. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.560 Where is that? Hint? Hint? It's out in um Napa. 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.880 Napa Valley's famously attached to Mowett and Shandon. And then 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.200 Shandon went and said, Hey, we're gonna open up something 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.480 in California too. Got you just like cool? Because their 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.560 Tara war is it's heavy beat, it's good, good ter war. 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.120 And that's another thing too. This is what I'm nervous about. 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.400 I'm not nervous about getting it wrong. I'm nervous about 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:10.480 coming across like it's just a complete jackass sophisticate. You know, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.800 I'm not at all. I just like Champagne. I'm I 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.440 know more now about Champagne doing this research for the 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.039 last couple of days than I ever had before. So 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.479 I definitely don't put myself out there. It's like a 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:27.160 um an expert in any way, shape or form. All right, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.000 So that's called everybody put your emails away. Ten minutes 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.880 of caveats by Josh and Chuck. See that was French 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:39.560 and you pronounced it great, said Latin. All right, Well, 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.760 I guess if you don't know anything about Champagne, you 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.159 might have noticed that we already said both the word 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.240 champagne and sparkling wine. And um, I think most people 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.360 probably know this, but some people may not. Um, Champagne 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:56.560 is a region in France, and uh, technically you were 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.880 only supposed to say Champagne for sparkling wine if it 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:04.160 comes from that region. So all Champagne that's sparkling wine 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.080 is sparkling wine, but all sparkling wine is not Champagne. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.080 That's right. That that I think that's simplified. Uh. In 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.800 Champagne itself, the region is about hour and a half 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.040 ninety minutes or so northeast of Paris or east. And 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.440 this UM article points out that it's one of the 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.320 least visited regions of France. But I bet I bet 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.960 they have their fair amount of enthusiasts that go, but 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:30.600 maybe just not as many. I don't know. It's the 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.680 south of France or other Burgundy maybe right, Well, Burgundy 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.080 comes to mind for sure. Apparently Sablie I didn't realize 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.160 that that was a wine growing region, did you, I 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.400 don't think I did, and the very famous mad dog, 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:51.440 the Nutrian so silly, so um so. Champagne is a region. 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.600 It's also a sparkling wine. But yeah, like you said, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:58.480 you can't make sparkling wine outside of this this Champagne region, 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.279 and you can even make spar kling wine inside of 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.960 the Champagne region. And unless you're following a very strictly 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:10.880 controlled process within this particular region of France, you are 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.719 not allowed anywhere in the world to call your sparkling 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:21.039 wine Champagne. It's what's what's called an Appalachian applechian. Now 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:26.960 that's a mountain range. It's what's called a umpan trail 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:33.880 Appellatian de origine control or ao C is what we're 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.080 gonna call it. But it's basically the same thing with 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.400 um bourbon here in the United States, right where you 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.000 have to follow specific rules and you have to make 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.800 it within a specific region. And the whole point is 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.640 it's you don't want just any schmo making something that's 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.159 similar to your product but not nearly as good, that's 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.719 not going through anywhere near the painstaking amount of process 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.800 um and labor that you're doing, and still call it 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.320 this same thing you're calling it. You don't want to 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.320 do that. Yeah, so you have to sure restrict it, 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.120 especially the French. You know that they're not gonna be 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.320 all willy nilly about that. That's their region. Yeah, apparently 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:16.160 there's something like acres, which I don't think is a lot. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.360 And what are those cities. The two main cities are 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.960 Rim and Epernay. But uh, we even have a thing 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:25.760 in here that says if you say Rim, then you're 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:31.360 an American city slicker. If you say m, I've seen 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.160 plenty of wrongs, is what they say in the in 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.680 that help me out article that we got. I think 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:42.120 you just earned some fans in France with that one. Well, 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.840 by any other name, it is still Champagne. And those 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.640 are the cities. And there are but three grapes that 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.040 you can use to make champagne. You can't just say, 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.040 oh that that muscadine looks nice. They do here in Georgia. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.400 Just throw it in a bottle in fer minute, Pete, 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.480 put this in your mouth to spit it up. In 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.000 the bottom. There are three grapes and they are the 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.640 peanut and noir grape, the Chardonnay grape, and um, how 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.040 do you pronounce that last one peanut, Okay, which is 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.720 another dark grape or red grape or black grape I 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.600 think is what they call it. Yeah, if you ever 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.360 talked to a real wine person, you don't know the lingo, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.680 You're gonna be confused quick when they say things like 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.280 black grapes, right, I mean, like, what the heck is 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.120 a black grape? But if you dig into it, you 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.880 start to find that there's a lot of overlapping words. 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:34.040 There's a lot of multiple terms that describe the same thing. Yeah, 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.400 black grape, red grape, same thing. Yeah, you know, purple grape. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.040 Why not if you say that, you're gonna get laughed 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.839 out of nava, right, I like the purple grapes. Concorde 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.400 I think is what they're calling But chardon ay is 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.000 um of those three is the only all white grape. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.160 So um. And you know a lot of people might 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.240 not know this. It's the same with uh still wine. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:02.240 But you know inside that black skin is white pulp. Yeah, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.120 depending on when you pick the grape, So if you 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.760 pick it early, before it has a chance to turn reddish, 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:14.240 you can conceivably squeeze clear or white grape juice from 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.559 red or black grapes. That's right, and that's what's happening 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.439 in the case of Champagne. Yeah, because if you look 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.000 at it, you're like, well, I mean, this is this 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.840 is clear? How is this made from red grapes? Well, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:26.800 as we'll see later on, you have domperiren You wanted 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.640 to think we shoul well, we should go ahead and 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.600 talk about that. I guess well, let's talk about Champagne 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.480 a little bit for first, and then we'll get to 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.839 dom Perignon. So the region itself is pretty ancient UM. 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.680 The first vineyards in Champagne were planted by the Romans, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.360 who also mine chalk in the area, and there's extensive 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.840 chalk quarries that are underground that have served as Champagne 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.760 sellers for generations. So the place has been making wine. 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:58.640 The region has been making wine for millennia UM. But 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:04.880 it wasn't until about the sixteen seventeen hundreds when they 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.360 really kind of took what was a naturally occurring problem, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.400 which was carbonation happening in their wine, and went to 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.840 town with it. They said, if you can't beat them, 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.840 join them. So they took this thing that was viewed 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.440 as a flaw in their wine carbonation sparkling wine, and 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.680 they figured out how to make it even more so 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.280 and made it its own thing. Yeah, and that um 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.760 in that region, that chalk is very key to uh 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.520 what you end up getting because it's very reflective because 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.439 it's white. It is so it reflects the sunlight from 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.440 the ground back up to the leaves. Right. Yeah, it's 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.280 a very unique region, like and apparently it's uh like, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.280 if you stumbled upon that region today in our advanced 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.199 wine making techniques and sparkling wine techniques, you probably wouldn't say, hey, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.520 this is a great place to have a vineyard, right 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.800 you go, sacral soil is terrible. Uh, well you might, 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.360 um because it's I think it's a little tougher to 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.480 grow like it. It's a very fine line between getting 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:10.560 a successful uh harvest in that region, which it makes 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.520 it I think very special. Yeah, it does. Like um 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:19.160 apparently they have cold, short, wet growing seasons and apparently 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.719 that's where the original um sparkling wine and champagne came from. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:29.160 It was a freak of natural um, natural climate and 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:34.240 natural conditions growing conditions, right because as we'll see a 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:39.439 second um, fermentation is what creates the carbonation and that 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:44.280 would happen naturally because they would harvest the wine, make wine, 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:48.280 store it, and then it would get um cold all 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.240 of a sudden, like early before the fermentation process was done, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.520 so fermentation would basically stop. But then there'll be a 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.760 lot of sugar and yeasts left in their wine that 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:01.120 hadn't fermented when they started it. So when um spring 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.200 came around again and the things started to warm up, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.360 a second fermentation process started, and that's really what kicked 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.040 off the bubbles. But for a long time, the people 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.160 in in Um Champagne and the Champagne region, we're tearing 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.240 their hair out because they didn't want this. It was 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.560 a sign that their wine was terrible, poorly made. And 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.960 like I said, it wasn't until Don Perignon came along 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.960 Um who didn't like it himself. Uh, but was one 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.079 of the people who created a lot of the techniques 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:32.560 that helped established Champagne as the sparkling wine capital of 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.360 the world. So he didn't care for it, No, he didn't, 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.480 he didn't, Um he could. He called it mad wine, 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.920 I think is what he called. Yeah. He was a 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.840 Benedictine monk in the area, and and and he was 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.120 the seller master, which is um. If you are a 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:51.400 seller master, you are in charge as far as champagne 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:57.880 goes with basically making the master blend of the champagne, yes, 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.360 the covey and when you put it together the assemblange. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.480 So Don Perignon was the guy in charge of that 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:06.599 for this abbey. He was a monk. His name was 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.600 Pierre Parignon. Dom is like it denotes your a monk, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.079 Benedictine monk and um. He was one of the ones 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.120 who established a lot of the groundwork for creating sparkling 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.400 want creating champagne very interesting like um up to that 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:28.280 point you would have um sparkling wines in your cellar. 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.040 But they were using like wood and hemp to like 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.800 stop these bottles. Well, that didn't work all that Well, 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.040 bottles were very frequently explode, and sellers were very dangerous 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.360 places to be because one one of these stoppers came out, 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.920 it shoot across the room, hit another bottle, and that 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:46.520 bottle stop would come out and all of a sudden 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.440 you have a chain reaction of these wooden stoppers like 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.199 flying at your head. Yeah, three stooges or something. Right, 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.800 So um, Don Perignon came up with the idea of 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:02.080 using cork stoppers in thicker English type bottles which could 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.920 withstand the pressure. Um holding him down with little rope muzzles, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:11.600 now we use foil and wire. What's that called a muzzle? Yeah, muzzle? 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:13.720 There's a French word for it, but I can't find 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.480 it my not what's something like that? So he came 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:18.880 up with a bunch of stuff. He also was the 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.120 first one to start blending wines from the region, and 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.040 as we'll talk about in a few Um, that's the 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.200 basis of champagne. It's a blend champagne. Champagne is a 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.640 blend of wine. That's right. Should we take a break 0:14:32.240 --> 0:15:06.560 like ourselves? Yeah, I'm getting excited. Don't you want some champagne? Really? No? 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:08.680 I mean if you opened a bottle of champagne in here, 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.000 I would. I would drink a flute because, uh, hey, 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.720 it's rude when you're offered something to turn your nose 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.760 about it unless you're under twenty one and b it 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.120 might help me to relax a little bit about it, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.280 really would about this thing? You'd feel great? Um, should 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.480 we talk a little bit about uh the champagne method? Yes, 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:38.400 what the French call method champagne was okay, method champagne. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:44.000 So let's see if the closer stuff them. Um. This 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.119 is one reason why champagne is a bit more expensive, 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.200 or can be a bit more expensive. Um. It's because 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.240 there's there's a lot of processes involved, and not like 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.120 there's not with still wine, but champagne kind of takes 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.760 it a step further. It's time consuming, and it there 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:06.160 are people's hands and feet involved a lot of times. Yeah. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.200 And like you said, it's it is. It starts with 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.600 making wine. Actually it starts even further back then. It 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.280 starts with growing, that's right. Uh. But fermentation, you know, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.120 all wines are for a minute, of course, and that's 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.400 the Um. That's when sugar breaks down from the grape 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.960 juice turns it into alcohol, delicious delicious alcohol, and that 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.840 is called wine. Um. And just like regular wine, still wine, 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.440 like you said, I guess we should call it regular wine, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.800 just still wine. Still. Um. They start, they start with 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.520 those grapes. Uh. And in the case of champagne, they 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:49.680 are pressed with human feet, which still happens. And I 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:51.600 can't help but think of that video still after all 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:58.360 these years, that poor lady uh and uh Chateau Lan, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.520 right was that? And George? Yeah, I don't think I 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.080 knew that it was Georgia, like Morning show Atlanta Morning, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.000 So I think it was like Fox Live or something 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.119 like that. I just I can still hear it. I 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:10.920 haven't seen it in years. But if you don't know 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:12.720 what we're talking about, there was a one of the 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:17.199 early viral videos of this uh of this woman on 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.679 location doing a story about wine in Georgia, and she 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.440 was stomping on the wine and UH on a platform 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:26.760 for some reason, and she fell out of the barrel 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.760 and and hurt herself. But it sounded like she was 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:37.240 in very much heavy distress, like new dimensions of pain. Yea. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.720 Or the sounds that the woman made. I've never heard 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.560 anything like it before or since. Um, yeah, I'm very 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.120 sure sure she was Okay. Yeah, that's why I don't 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:47.959 mind talking about it now. It's not like she was, 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.240 you know, maimed for life or anything like that. I 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.560 was thinking, I love Lucy too. Oh yeah, very famous 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.320 grape stompings. Yeah, you know, or she gets in like 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.879 a grape throwing fight with the lady Lucy. She was 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.800 always getting into trouble. One I was shot in the 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.520 studio where they film that show one time in California, 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:07.480 right there in Hollywood. Yeah, it's kind of neat. Yeah. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:08.840 One of the groups just came over. He was like, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.720 you know, this is the I love Lucy studio. I 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:16.360 smelled the grapes. Uh, all right, so where were we? Um? 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:21.080 Feet feet? Yeah? Which is this wonderful old world technique 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.000 that I didn't know this. I didn't know that you 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.680 have to do that for champagne. Is it just because 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.520 it's so delicate? Yeah, I think that's part of it. 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.280 But also they kind of shy away from machinery and 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.720 the method champagne was really yes, a right, it's a 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.480 it's a traditional method. Even though if you look back 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.040 at the history of whine making, champagne is very relatively new, 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.920 Like we're talking sixteen sev hundreds, right, They've been making 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.760 wine for many thousands of years, so this is a 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.919 fairly new invention, but it was still invented at a 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.600 time where you mainly used human labor for for things 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.919 like this. So yeah, they've I've tended to preserve that 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.240 as much as possible. All Right, Well, you've got your juice, 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:10.000 your white juice, and um, well, they put it in 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.760 stainless steel vats unless you're super old world. I guess, 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.080 uh some people do use wood still, but yeah, that 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.600 you're allowed to use for the for the initial fermentation 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.199 where you're like you're just making the basic wine. You 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.359 can use thing. Yeah, So there it sits for a 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:29.200 long time, ferments becomes still wine and uh, like we said, 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.360 this is just the first fermentation, and then you move 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.000 on to the blending, which is where that all important 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.159 seller master comes in. Right, So if you're a seller 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.640 master for a champagne house, you are unless you're very 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.480 specific type of champagne house where you actually make champagne 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.159 from growing the grapes to the finished product. Um, you 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:53.840 were probably going around the Champagne region trying different champagne's, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.080 are trying different wines still wines, and you're coming up 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:01.000 within your head a blend of all these different wines. 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.919 And that blend, as we said before, is called the 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.959 couve a. And the couve a is it's just that 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.520 it's a blend of wine and it has mainly three 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.600 different factors involved that you have to take any consideration 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.960 if you're the seller master. Right, if it's a vintage 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.960 couve a vintage blend of wines. Then that means it's 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.720 using grapes that we're all grown in the same year, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.840 the same growing season. Yeah, and I imagine these seller masters, 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.000 I mean he said they're tasting things. I'm sure they are, 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.000 but I imagine these seller masters in Champagne also kind 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.280 of know exactly where they're gonna go for most of 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.760 these sure, and they also would know like, well, if 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.080 you guys have two thousand seven vintage wine that was 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.840 a great year, or um that year was kind of rough, 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.240 it might take a at a neat edge to it 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.719 some other two thousand nine grapes I'm using too, Right, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.760 these are what these people are walking around within their heads, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.720 that kind of that level of information. So they're putting 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.199 it all together. They come up with these clever little blends, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.520 and each blend to cue a. Again, one of the 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.359 things they can take into account is the vintage the years. Yeah, 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.120 like you said that, if it's a vintage wine, it's 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.840 just from the one year growing season. If it's non vintage, 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.840 that means you can you're combining various years, right, And 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:18.040 typically vintage wines I think tend to be more expensive 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.720 I have. I get the impression that they tend to 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.280 be a little more revered. They definitely take longer to mature. Yeah, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.480 the fermentation process is longer than the non vintage. And 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.840 you'll see this on the label. It'll say vintage, else 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.960 it will say envy a lot of times. Um. The 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.080 two other things for a seller master to take into 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:45.000 account are um, the varietals and the crew. Right yeah, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.440 c R you So crew is c R E W 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.600 or the c R U E with an umla over 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:57.200 the rock. Yes. Um, the crew is it's a vineyard basically, 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.040 So you can have grapes all from vineyard from different 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.160 years and different ritals um, and that'd still be what's 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.280 called a single crew. Or you could mix different crews, 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:12.320 different vineyards grapes um to to create a couve. Yeah. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:14.560 And the grand crew you might have seen that before 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:17.399 on a bottle. Um. That's a If you get the 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.840 grand crew status, then you're really cooking with gases. My 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.920 dad used to say, uh. In the mid nineteen eighties, Um, well, 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.840 initially there were only twelve villages that had that grand 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.200 crew status, and then in h they expanded at the 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:35.760 seventeen UM because five more villages and I'm not going 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.160 to try and pronounce all those were added to the list. 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.359 And um it says here that less than nine percent, 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.080 it's incredibly low. Of all the vineyard land in Champagne 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:50.720 has grand crew rating, right, So again thou acres only 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.600 nine percent of that is the top rated. Basically, it's 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.320 saying this land is the primo land for growing Champagne grapes. 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:01.600 So if you get apes that are grown there by 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.400 these people who really know what they're doing, it's you're 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.040 gonna pay through the nose for it. So a grand 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:11.239 crew um Champagne is going to be pretty expensive, but 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:14.719 there's a there's a reason behind it. It's not just 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:18.879 marketing now, and varietals too. Like you said, there's three grapes, right, 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.240 just those three, and depending on how you put them together, 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.680 you can come up with a type of cuve as well. Right, 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.200 So blanc to blanc means white of whites. That's made 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:34.080 just with Chardonnay grapes. Blanc noir is made with um 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:36.600 just one of the other black grapes, either the Peanot 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:41.200 monier or the Pinot noir. That's right, um. But all 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:44.880 those three things are factored together to create a specific 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:46.960 cuve A well, and then you've got your rose that 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:50.360 you mentioned earlier, your pink wine or is My friend 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:53.440 Stacy calls it pink crack. It's good stuff. She gets 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.199 ahold of that stuff. Watch out, yeah, um, and that 0:23:57.400 --> 0:23:59.560 is uh well, they there's a couple of ways you 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:04.360 can do the Um. Sometimes you leave some of the 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:06.720