WEBVTT - Selects: How Champagne Works 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.480 M Hey everyone, it's Josh and for this week's select, 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:07.240 I've chosen our two thousand seventeen episode, How Champagne Works. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.600 It's a charming little episode that fair warning will almost 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.040 certainly make you want a glass of champagne, unless you're Chuck, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:24.040 though I suspect he secretly did too. Enjoy Welcome to 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:33.480 Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:38.880 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, Pierre Clark. There's 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:47.960 Charles Jacques Ryant. Jerry. Oh nice rolling. Are we allowed 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.120 to tell everyone your last name? Jerry? We've done it before. Okay, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.560 what if they go try to find on Facebook and 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.600 find out she doesn't actually exist? It's all just a plant, 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.320 fake Facebook page that we've created. I know that she 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.880 she is an actual plant, right that crows in the 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:08.399 corner feed me. I am worried about this one. I'm 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.640 just gonna go ahead and say it. Oh, why you 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.760 were worried about the wine one, for the same reasons 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.080 we didn't do the wine one. I know. That's why. 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:20.000 That's exactly why, exactly for those reasons. No one knows 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.559 anything about champagne. People spend lifetimes learning the stuff. Yes, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.160 but we have a show, and everyone knows that we 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.200 don't spend a lifetime learning about all we talk about that. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.080 We just do our research and we try to find 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.720 the most interesting stuff to explain how something works. I know, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:42.280 but these with anytime it's something where someone is like 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:45.920 such a huge like where it's such a big thing 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.080 for so many people. Uh, I just know we're gonna 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:56.480 mess up pronunciations. It's French, so champagne, right, Champagne. I 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.280 think that's how bugs Bunny always pronounced it. Yeah, so 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.040 you're you're following a grand tradition. I didn't know he 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.800 was a drinker. Well we are going to talk about 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.400 champagne's a little late. Now. Do you like champagne? I 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.320 love champagne? Okay, I love it. I don't I mainly 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.040 drink sparkling wine and I don't really drink champagne itself. 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.040 But buddy, this article made me want to drink some champagne. Well, 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.520 you do a little proseccolla. Sure, I don't really discriminate, Okay, 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.639 I do. I don't drink any of it. You don't 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.400 like champagne, huh nah, I don't like sparkling wine. It's 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.520 not just not it's not for chuck it save love 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:41.280 it man um. I particularly love Shandon out in California. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.040 I will say, one time, at a party, though many 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.280 years ago, like in the nineties, I drank a lot 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.079 of just champagne, only champagne. This might be why you 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:53.840 don't like champagne. The only time in my life. No, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.480 I actually, uh, I felt like a twelve year old girl. 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.080 That was wonderful. That's your problem. No, champagne is no know, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:05.800 I mean silly and bubbly. It's fun like I played 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.400 hop scotch and stuff like that. Yeah, I know, that's terrible. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.040 Why would you ever want to do that again. I 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:11.480 don't mean I felt like a girl because I was 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:13.880 drinking champagne. That's what I thought. You meant, like, well, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.119 there's your problem. Champagne is not a girly drink. No. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.040 I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who do 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.360 think that. Buddy, I will drink pink champagne at with 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:27.000 your finger up at a bull fight. Oh gross. Yeah, 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.480 you gotta do something to wash the pain away. Uh. Yeah, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:33.520 it's just not for me. Uh. And that gave me 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:38.360 a such a bad headache. The next day, I didn't 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.120 go back to the well, I'll have you know, I 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.200 have someone if someone wants to toast me, yeah, I 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.760 won't go. No, I'm not drinking that. Well, you were 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.640 probably drinking pretty sweet, Champagne, weren't you. Usually the higher 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.640 the sugar content and anything, that the more um of 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.000 a hangover you're gonna have. Yeah, I don't know. Huh, Well, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.320 I love it good. You mean I've been to shand 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:03.600 on twice. Okay, when on Shandon cruise once, big fans 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.640 of Shandon. Where is that? Hint? Hint, It's out in 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.680 um Napa Napa Valley. It's famously attached to Mowett and Shandon. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.680 And then Shandon went and said, hey, we're gonna open 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.240 up something in California too. You just like cool because 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.480 their tear war is it's got a good tar war. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.080 And that's another thing too. This is what I'm nervous about. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.320 I'm not nervous about getting it wrong. I'm nervous about 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:32.400 coming across like it's just a complete jackass sophisticate. You know, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.719 I'm not at all. I just like Champagne. I'm I 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.360 know more now about Champagne doing this research for the 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.960 last couple of days than I ever had before, so 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.440 I definitely don't put myself out there. It's like a 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:49.080 UM an expert in any way, shape or form. All right, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:51.919 So that's called everybody put your emails away. Ten minutes 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.839 of caveats by Josh and Chuck. See that was French 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:01.480 and you pronounced it great? Is that Latin? All right? Well, 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.680 I guess if you don't know anything about Champagne, you 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.080 might have noticed that we already said both the word 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.200 champagne and sparkling wine. And um, I think most people 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.320 probably know this, but some people may not. Um. Champagne 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:18.480 is a region in France, and uh, technically you were 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.839 only supposed to say Champagne for sparkling wine if it 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:26.080 comes from that region. So all champagne that's sparkling wine 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.080 is sparkling wine, but all sparkling wine is not Champagne. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.000 That's right. That that I think that's simplified. Uh. In 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.760 Champagne itself, the region is about hour and a half 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.919 ninety minutes or so northeast of Paris or east, and 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.400 this UM article points out that it's one of the 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.240 least visited regions of France. But I bet, I bet 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.440 they have their fair amount of enthusiasts that go to 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:52.480 but maybe just not as many. I don't know. It's 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.120 the south of France or other Burgundy maybe right, well, 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.680 Burgundy comes to mind for sure. Apparently Sablie, I didn't 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:00.880 realize that that was a wine growing region, did you. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.520 I don't think I did. And the very famous mad 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:13.359 dog Nutrian so silly, so um so, Champagne is a region. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.560 It's also a sparkling wine. But yeah, like you said, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.400 you you can't make sparkling wine outside of this this 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.120 Champagne region. And you can even make sparkling wine inside 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.360 of the Champagne region. And unless you're following a very 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:32.640 strictly controlled process within this particular region of France, you 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:36.120 are not allowed anywhere in the world to call your 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:41.640 sparkling wine Champagne. It's what's what's called an Appalachian applechian. 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.599 Now that's a mountain range. It's what's called a um 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:55.640 Appalachian trail Appellatian de origine control or AOC is what 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:57.800 we're gonna call it. But it's basically the same thing 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.000 with um Bourbon here in the United States eights right, Yeah, 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.560 where you have to follow specific rules, and you have 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.200 to make it within a specific region. And the whole 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.000 point is it's you don't want just any schmo making 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.360 something that's similar to your product but not nearly as good, 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.080 that's not going through anywhere near the painstaking amount of 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.640 process um and labor that you're doing and still call 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.160 it the same thing you're calling it. You don't want 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.280 to do that. Yeah, now you have to restrict it, 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.960 especially the French. You know that they're not going to 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.760 be all willy nilly about that. That's their region. Yeah, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:37.600 apparently there's something like food acres, which I don't think 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.560 is a lot. And what are those cities? The two 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.520 main cities are rem and Epernay. But uh, we even 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.200 have a thing in here that says if you say M, 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:52.720 then you're an American city slicker. If you say realms M. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.960 I've seen plenty wrong, is what they say in the 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.440 in that help me out article that we got. I 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.280 think you just are in some fans in France with 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.520 that one. Well, by any other name, it is still Champagne. 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.400 And those are the cities, and there are but three 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.720 grapes that you can use to make champagne. You can't 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:18.200 just say oh, that that muscadine looks nice. They do 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.320 here in Georgia. Let's throw it in a bottle in 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.320 fer minute. Uh, pete, put this in your mouth to 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.320 spit it up in the bottle. There are three grapes 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.320 and they are the pinot noir grape, the Chardonnay grape, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.040 and um, how do you pronounce that last one? Peanut 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.880 mon okay, which is another dark grape or red grape 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.079 or black grape I think is what they call it. Yeah, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.520 if you ever talked to a real wine person, you 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.920 don't know the lingo, you're gonna be confused quick when 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.680 they say things like black grapes, right, I mean, like, 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.320 what the heck is a black grape? But if you 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.200 dig into it, you start to find that there's a 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.400 lot of overlapping words. There's a lot of multiple terms 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.079 that describe the same thing. Yeah, black grape, red grape, 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.480 same thing. Yeah, you know, purple grape. Well not if 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.040 you say that, you're gonna get laughed out of nava, Right, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.280 I like the purple grapes concorde, I think is what 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.440 they're calling. But chardon Ay is um of those three 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.080 is the only all white grape. So um. And you 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:14.880 know a lot of people might not know this. It's 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:19.640 the same with uh still wine. But you know inside 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:25.160 that black skin is white pulp. Yeah, depending on when 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.840 you pick the grape. So if you pick it early, 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.360 before it has a chance to turn reddish, you can 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:36.880 conceivably squeeze clear or white grape juice from red or 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.599 black grapes. That's right, And that's what's happening in the 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.640 case of Champagne. Yeah, because if you look at it, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.360 you're like, well, I mean, this is this is clear? 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.079 How is this made from red grapes? Well, as we'll 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.080 see later on, you have dompering. You want to think 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.040 I should well, we should go ahead and talk about that. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.040 I guess. Well, let's talk about Champagne a little bit 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.320 for first, and then we'll get to Domparing. So the 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:01.000 region itself is pretty ancient. Um. The first vineyards in 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.959 Champagne were planted by the Romans, who also mine chalk 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.600 in the area, and there's extensive chalk quarries that are 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.200 underground that have served as Champagne sellers for generations. So 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.600 the place has been making wine. The region has been 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:22.839 making wine for millennia. UM. But it wasn't until about 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:27.760 the sixteen seventeen hundreds when they really kind of took 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.160 what was a naturally occurring problem, which was carbonation happening 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.400 in their wine, and went to town with it. They said, 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.600 if you can't beat them, join them. So they took 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.960 this thing that was viewed as a flaw in their wine, 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.600 carbonation sparkling wine, and they figured out how to make 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.120 it even more so and made it its own thing. Yeah, 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.760 and that um in that region, that chalk is very 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.680 key to uh what you end up getting because it's 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.720 very reflective because it's white. It is so it reflects 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.199 the sun light from the ground back up to the leaves. Right. Yeah, 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:07.200 it's a very unique region. Like and apparently it's uh like, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.199 if you stumbled upon that region today in our advanced 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.120 wine making techniques and sparkling wine techniques, you probably wouldn't say, hey, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.440 this is a great place to have a vineyard, right 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.360 you go, Sacra blue. This soil is terrible. Uh, well 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.760 you might um because it's I think it's a little 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.760 tougher to grow like it. It's a very fine line 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:32.120 between getting a successful uh harvest in that region, which 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.439 makes it I think very special yeah, it does. Like Um. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:41.079 Apparently they have cold, short, wet growing seasons, and apparently 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.680 that's where the original Um sparkling wine and Champagne came from. 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:51.120 It was a freak of natural um, natural climate, and 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:56.160 natural conditions growing conditions right, because as we'll see, a 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:01.400 second um fermentation is what creates the carbonation, and that 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:06.240 would happen naturally because they would harvest the wine, make wine, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.200 store it, and then it would get um cold all 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.199 of a sudden, like early before the fermentation process was done, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.400 so fermentation would basically stop, but then there'd be a 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.680 lot of sugar and yeasts left in their wine that 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:23.080 hadn't fermented when they started it. So when Um spring 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.280 came around again and things started to warm up, a 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.480 second fermentation process started, and that's really what kicked off 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.640 the bubbles. But for a long time the people in 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.320 in Um Champagne and the Champagne region were tearing their 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.280 hair out because they didn't want this. It was a 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.640 sign that their wine was terrible, poorly made. And like 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:42.920 I said, it wasn't until Don Perann Young came along 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.880 Um who didn't like it himself, uh, but was one 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.040 of the people who created a lot of the techniques 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:54.400 that helped um established Champagne as the sparkling wine capital 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.480 of the world. So he didn't care for it, No, 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.440 he didn't. He didn't, Um he could. He called it 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.640 mad wine, I think, is what he calls. Yeah. He 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.400 was a Benedictine monk in the area. And and and 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.640 he was the seller master, which is um. If you 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.720 are a seller master, you are in charge as far 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.760 as Champagne goes with basically making the master blend of 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:21.120 the Champagne are talking, yes, the cove and when you 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:25.439 put it together, that's the assemblange, right, So Don Perignon 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.080 was the guy in charge of that for this abbey. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.040 He was a monk. His name was Pierre Parignon. Dom 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.360 is like you knowes you're a monk, Benedictine monk. And 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.800 he was one of the ones who established a lot 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:43.840 of the groundwork for creating sparkling wine, creating Champagne very 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.760 interesting like um up to that point you would have 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.320 um sparkling wines in your cellar. But they were using 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:55.520 like wood and hemp to like stop these bottles. Well, 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.360 that didn't work all that well. Bottles were very frequently 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:02.040 explode and sells were very dangerous places to be because 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.160 one one of these stoppers came out, it shoot across 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.720 the room, hit another bottle, and that bottle stopped would 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:08.719 come out, and all of a sudden you have a 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.559 chain reaction of these wooden stoppers like flying at your head. Yeah, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.560 three stooges or something. Right, So, um, dom Perignon came 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.640 up with the idea of using cork stoppers in thicker 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.680 English type bottles that could withstand the pressure, um holding 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.880 them down with little rope muzzles. Now we use foil 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.560 and wire. What's that called a muzzle? Yeah, a muzzle. 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.680 There's a French word for it, but I can't find 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.560 it my note, something like that. So he came up 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.040 with a bunch of stuff. He also was the first 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:44.240 one to start blending wines from the region, and as 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.360 we'll talk about in a few Um, that's the basis 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.440 of champagne. It's a blend champagne. Champagne is a blend 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:55.080 of wine. That's right. Should we take a break ourselves? Yeah, 0:14:55.120 --> 0:15:28.480 I'm getting excited. Don't you want some champagne? Sorry? Really no, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:30.600 I mean if you opened a bottle of champagne in here, 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.960 I would I would drink a flute. Yeah, because uh, hey, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.640 it's rude when you're offered something to turn your nose 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.720 about it unless you're under twenty one and be it 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.080 might help me to relax a little bit. Yeah, it 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.200 really would about this thing, you'd feel great. Um. Should 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.440 we talk a little bit about uh the champagne method. Yes, 0:15:51.960 --> 0:16:00.000 what the French call method champagne? Was okay, method champagne, 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:05.920 so to say, if the closures set them. Um, this 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.040 is one reason why champagne is a bit more expensive, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.120 or can be a bit more expensive. Um is because 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.160 there's there's a lot of processes involved, and not like 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.040 there's not with still wine, but champagne kind of takes 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.720 it a step further. It's time consuming and it there 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.640 are people's hands and feet involved a lot of times. 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.120 And like you said, it's it is. It starts with 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.360 making wine. Actually it starts even further back to that. 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:39.000 It starts with growing great, that's right. Uh. But fermentation 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:40.680 you know all wines are for a minute of course, 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.000 and that's the um. That's when sugar breaks down from 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.600 the grape juice turns it into alcohol, delicious delicious alcohol, 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.920 and that is called wine. Um. And just like regular 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.680 wine still wine. Like you said, I guess we shouldn't 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.680 call it regular wine, just still wine. Um. They start basic, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.160 they start with those grapes. Uh. And in the case 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:10.960 of Champagne, they are pressed with human feet, which still happens. 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.160 And I can't help but think of that video still 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:18.719 after all these years, that poor lady h and uh 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.960 chateau a lawn? Right was that in Georgia? Yeah? I 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.639 don't think I knew that it was Georgia, like Morning 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.040 show Atlanta Morning, So I think it was like Box 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.720 Live or something like that. I just I can still 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:32.520 hear it. I haven't seen it in years. But if 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.280 you don't know what we're talking about, there was a 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.720 one of the early viral videos of this uh of 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:42.359 this woman on location doing a story about wine in Georgia, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.280 and she was stomping on the wine and uh fell 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.800 on a platform for some reason. Yeah, and she fell 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.760 out of the barrel and and hurt herself. But it 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:57.240 sounded like she was in very much heavy distress, like 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.480 new dimensions of pain. Yeah, are this ounds that the 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.879 woman made? I've never heard anything like it before or 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:07.280 since neither. Um. Yeah, I'm very sure she's okay. Yeah, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.199 that's why I don't mind talking about it now. It's 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.359 not like she was, you know, named for life or 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.720 anything like that. I was thinking I Love Lucy too. 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.359 Oh yeah, they're very famous grape stompings. Yeah, you know, 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.359 or she gets in like a grape throwing fight with 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:21.960 the lady and Lucy she was always getting into trouble. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.760 When I was shot in the studio where they film 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.480 that show one time in California, right there in Hollywood, Yeah, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.119 it was kind of neat. Yeah, one of the grips 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:31.280 just came over. He's like, you know, this is the 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:37.159 I Love Lucy studio. I smelled the grapes. Uh, all right, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.920 so where were we? Um feet feet? Yeah? Which is 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.199 this wonderful old world technique that I didn't know this. 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.520 I didn't know that you have to do that for champagne. 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.680 Is it just because it's so delicate? Yeah, I think 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:51.840 that's part of it. But also they kind of shy 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:56.320 away from machinery and the method champagne was really yes, 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.600 all right, it's a it's a traditional method, even though 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.600 if you look back at the history of wine making, 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:07.320 champagne is very relatively new. Like we're talking six hundreds. Right, 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.119 they've been making wine for many thousands of years, so 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.080 this is a fairly new invention, but it was still 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.639 invented at a time where you mainly used human labor 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.399 for for things like this. So yeah, they've they've tended 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.240 to preserve that as much as possible. All Right, Well, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:31.400 you've got your juice, your white juice, and um, well 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.800 they put it in stainless steel. That's unless you're super 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.480 old world. I guess, uh, some people do use wood still, 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.280 but yeah, that you're allowed to use for the for 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.800 the initial fermentation where you're like you're just making the 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.080 basic wine, you can use Yeah, so there it sits 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.479 for a long time, ferments becomes still wine and uh, 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.280 like we said, this is just the first fermentation and 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.920 then you move on to the blending, which is where 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.600 that all important seller master comes in. Right, So if 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:03.000 you're seller master for a champagne house, you are unless 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.880 you're very specific type of champagne house where you actually 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.920 make champagne from growing the grapes to the finished product. Um, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:15.760 you were probably going around the champagne region trying different champagne's, 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.000 are trying different wines still wines, and you're coming up 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.959 within your head a blend of all these different wines, 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:25.760 and that blend, as we said before, it is called 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.680 the couve a, and the couve a is it's just 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.119 that it's a blend of wine and it has mainly 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.520 three different factors involved that you have to take any consideration. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.720 If you're the seller master, right, if it's a vintage 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.920 cuve a vintage blend of wines, then that means it's 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.640 using grapes that we're all grown in the same year, 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.800 the same growing season. Yeah, and I imagine these seller masters, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:49.960 I mean he said they're tasting things. I'm sure they are, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.920 but I imagine these seller masters in Champagne also kind 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.240 of know exactly where they're gonna go for most of 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.680 these sure, and they also would know like, well, if 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.000 you as have two thousand seven vintage wine that was 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.760 a great year, or um that year was kind of rough, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.159 it might take a at a neat edge to it 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.679 some other two thousand nine grapes. I'm using too, Right, 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.720 these are what these people are walking around within their heads, 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.680 that kind of that level of information. So they're putting 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:20.800 it all together. They come up with these clever little 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.320 blends and each blends a cue a. Again, one of 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.840 the things they can take into account is the vintage 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.280 the years. Yeah, Like you said that, if it's a 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:31.639 vintage wine, it's just from the one year growing season. 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.440 If it's non vintage, that means you can you're combining 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.200 various years, right. And typically vintage wines I think tend 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:42.080 to be more expensive, I have. I get the impression 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:43.800 that they tend to be a little more revered. They 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:47.760 definitely take longer to mature. Yeah, the fermentation process is 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.199 longer than the non vintage. And you'll see this on 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.680 the label. It'll say vintage, else it will say envy 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.119 a lot of times. Um. The two other things for 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:02.400 a seller master to take into account are um, the varietals, Yeah, 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:08.600 and the crew right yeah, c R you so crew 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.680 is the c R E W or the c R 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:17.040 U E with an umla over the yes. Um, the 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.760 crew is it's a vineyard basically, So you can have 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:25.080 grapes all from one vineyard, from different years and different riotals, um, 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:27.639 and that'd still be what's called a single crew, or 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:32.240 you could mix different crews, different vineyards grapes um to 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.480 to create a couve. Yeah. And the Grand Crew. You 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.280 might have seen that before on a bottle. Um that's 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.560 a if you get the grand Crew status, then you're 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:44.600 really cooking with gases. My dad used to say, uh. 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:47.600 In the mid nineteen eighties, Um, well, initially there were 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.480 only twelve villages that had that Grand Crew status, and 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:56.800 then they expanded at the seventeen um because five more 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:58.600 villages and I'm not going to try and pronounce all 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.920 those were added to the list. And um, it says 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.680 here that less than nine it's incredibly low. Of all 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.800 the vineyard land in Champagne has Grand Crew rating, right, 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:14.560 So again acres only nine percent of that is the 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.520 top rated. Basically, it's saying this land is the primo 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.119 land for growing Champagne grapes. So if you get grapes 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:24.560 that are grown there by these people who really know 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.440 what they're doing, it's you're gonna pay through the nose 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:31.240 for it. So a Grand crew Um, Champagne is going 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.600 to be pretty expensive. But there's a there's a reason 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:39.000 behind it. It's not just marketing and varietals too. Like 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.240 you said, there's three grapes, right, just those three, and 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:44.920 depending on how you put them together, you can come 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:47.800 up with a type of cuve as well. Right, So 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:51.400 blanc to blanc means white of whites. That's made just 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:56.000 with Chardonnay grapes blocked and no air is made with um, 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.520 just one of the other black grapes, either the peanot 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.760 moonier or the pen know noir. That's right, um. But 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:06.320 all those three things are factored together to create a 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.720