You may have heard the terms ‘Old World’ and ‘New World’ of wines before, but maybe you are not really sure what exactly what it means? Well, this is a little introduction:

‘Old World’ encompass the wine producing countries based in Europe solely – France, Spain, Italy, Germany or Portugal for the most renown ones, but also Switzerland/Austria/Bulgaria/ Moldavia/Croatia/Ukraine/Russia/Greece, or even England (much more recent, but they do produces some more than decent sparkling wines). These countries have a very strong history with wines, with some areas known to have grown grapes for over 2,000 years.

The tightly rooted traditions means that the production is very regulated according the regions specificities, and producers tend to showcase more of the typicality of a small areas rather than of a definite grape itself; this is why wines are often made from a blend of different varietals, from 2 types to up to 18 for some villages! Many producers won’t be listing the grapes varietals on the labels itself, either by choice, or because the actual classification won’t allow them. Many areas do not allow irrigation and would be much more dependent on the weather condition for the growing season, so quality will vary according to the vintages, especially for the more premium wines.

The ‘New World’ corresponds to wine producing countries in the rest of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, USA, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, but also Uruguay/Brazil/China or even India. The oldest areas were in South Americas, where grapes were introduces 300-400 years ago y Missionaries, but in some wine region in other parts of the world, vines where planted only 30 years ago. The regulation, while still present, would be a bit looser than in Europe, and wineries will have more liberty to produce wines. Irrigation is mostly present everywhere, especially in very dry area like in Australia, so the producers can control more the grape volume of production – making it slightly easier to have a consistent flavour profile year after year. Much of the production would be for single varietal wines, and almost always indicated on the label – making it easier for most of the people to understand and purchase.

The origin of the wine doesn’t guarantee the quality or the simplicity of the wine, this is why I encourage you to open your horizon and discover wines from across the world, do not focus in a single varietal or country/ region, there is enough good wines across the world to have a great and fun Journey into great wines.

 With Malaysia’s weather not being the best for wine it's important to store your wines properly in order to get the best out of them. A wine storage cabinet is a great solution to keep bottles for a long period at perfect conditions, without risk of spoilage. However, you may not have the space or need for one. But there’s a way to get around this, as long as you do not intend to keep your precious bottles for a few years.

The best way will be to store your bottles in a room without windows (the sun is a wine’s nemesis!) and without large changes in temperature.

A kitchen cupboard is not the best place, because of the heat from the cooktop or oven. This is why we offer a minimum order of only 3 or 6 bottles at a time so the quality of the wines are preserved by avoiding cramped storage space with too many bottles at once.

That said, if you have a good wine cabinet, you will be sure that your wines are stored at perfect conditions and environment. A simple fridge is not good for long time storage as the humidity is too low. It may dry-out the cork and risk to damage your precious wines. There’s nothing more disappointing than waiting for years for a bottle to arrive at maturity, and finding it out it is corked when you open it!

If you have a bottle opened and want to save some for tomorrow, the best thing to do is to place the cork back and store it in the fridge – even for the reds. If you keep the bottles outside, it will spoil sooner. Some bottles will be good for a few days to a week (it may even get better!). While others may start to fade out after a couple of days. Only way to find out which ones is to try!

Now that you know what goes into making Champagne and the different classifications & terminology used, let's take a look at some of the types of Champagne and producers you may come across when shopping for Champagne!

TYPES OF WINES:
BLANC DE BLANCS: Made from 100% Chardonnay

BLANC DE NOIRS: Made from 100% Pinots, mostly Pinot Noir.

ROSÉ: Produced by adding a small amount of still Pinot noir red wine to the sparkling wine cuvée.

ROSÉ DE SAIGNÉE: Saignée = bleeding. Made from 100% Pinots, produced by leaving the clear juice of black grapes to macerate on its skins for a brief time – more tedious work than a regular Rosé is required, so they will often be more expensive.


TYPES OF PRODUCERS
Because of the scale of production and availability of grapes, wineries are classified according to the way they source their grapes and produce Champagnes. Many land owners in Champagne do not actually produce wines, but are simply growers, and sell the grapes to producers which need the volume. They work as contracted growers, and have a certain limit of volume per hectares to not go over, depending on where they are based.

NM - Négociant manipulant:
These companies own some vineyards, but also buy grapes to make their wines. For example, Veuve-Clicquot, Moet and Bollinger. They buy grapes from across the regions and showcase the house style with their various blends.

RM - Récoltant manipulant:
Also known as Grower Champagne. A grower that also makes wines solely from its own grapes, very often coming from a single village. For example, Salon, Jacquesson & Jacques Selosse

CM - Coopérative de manipulation:
Co-operatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together. For example, Blin, Nicolas Feuillate & Jacquart).

SR - Société de récoltants:
An association of growers making shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative.

Last week, I talked about the production of Champagne. Of course there is a lot more that goes into the production process but it should give you a basic understanding of what goes into your bottle of bubbly. This week, let's take a look at some of the terms you're bound to come across when shopping for Champagnes!

NV (NON-VINTAGE):
Most commonly used for Champagne, it is a product of blended wines from multiple vintages. Most of the base will be from a single year vintage. Producers will blend anywhere from 10-15% (or even as high as 40%) of wine from older vintages. This is a way for the estates to showcase their trademark taste and style year after year.

MILLESIME:
Wines from a single vintage. Reserved for top-Cuvée, and best years only.

PRESTIGE CUVÉE:
A cuvée de prestige is a proprietary-blend wine that is considered to be the top of a producer's range. Famous examples include Moët & Chandon's ‘Dom Pérignon’, Louis Roederer's ‘Cristal’, Laurent-Perrier's ‘Grand Siècle’, and Pol Roger's Cuvée ‘Sir Winston Churchill’. Perhaps the original prestige cuvée was Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, launched in 1936 with the 1921 vintage.

DOSAGE:
The amount of sugar added after the second fermentation and aging varies from champagne to champagne and will dictate its sweetness level.

• BRUT ZERO: No sugar added.
• EXTRA-BRUT: less than 6 grams of sugar per liter  
• BRUT: less than 15 grams of sugar per liter 
• EXTRA-DRY: 12 to 20 grams of sugar per liter  
• DRY: 17 to 35 grams of sugar per liter 
• DEMI-SEC: 33 to 50 grams of sugar per liter 
• DOUX: more than 50 grams of sugar per liter 

 PREMIER CRUS AND GRAND CRUS: As in the neighboring Burgundy region, the Champagne uses classification to separate the best parcels/areas from the rest. They can be classified as Premier (1st) Crus (for the very good ones) and Grand Crus (for the very best). They have more drastic requirements regarding lower volume of production per hectare and work in the vineyards. Vintage Champagnes and Prestige cuvées are often made with grapes coming from the more reputed parcels.

Now that we've covered Champagne-speak and you talk about it like a pro, check out Part 3 to find out more about the different types of Champagne and producers.

Champagne: a name synonymous with celebrations for centuries. Champagne may still remain a mystery for some. Here are a few clues to get you acquainted with this prestigious, enigmatic  beverage.

First and foremost, ‘Champagne’ wines must come solely from the Champagne region, situated an hours drive, North-East of Paris. A bottle also needs to go through a drastic list of requirement to be entitled to bear the name ‘Champagne’. Other French regions using the same methods will use the term ‘Crémant’ like in de Bourgogne, de Loir, d’Alsace. The term ‘Champagne’ has now been finally forbidden to be used by other countries, as it was very confusing for consumers.

The Champagne region is characterized by a cool climate and great soils, providing the best condition to grow high-quality grapes. Vines have been present here since the Roman times and have been recognized as outstanding throughout history. However, the proper ‘Champagne’ sparkling wines started only to appear in the late 15th Century, most likely by accident at first, before being properly developed.

Champagne refers to wines made in the region, but also using a specific technique called ‘Méthode Champenoise’, or ‘Méthode Traditionelle’ which requires a 2nd fermentation to take place in the bottle, naturally creating  bubbles. Basic sparkling wines can be made by simply adding gas to wines.

As for the ‘Méthode Champenoise’, a ‘regular’ wine is produced first with an alcoholic content of about 8%. It is then transferred to the bottle, where sugar and yeast are added, provoking the second fermentation.  The sugar is broken down by the yeast, creating extra alcohol, and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – hence the bubbles!

The bottle must rest for a minimum of 15 months for the process to happen, in the cold cellars dug underground in the region – with Premium Cuvées resting for many years. During this time, the bottle must be moved and rotated to loosen the sediments created by the second fermentation. An old technique called ‘Remuage’ (Riddling) is used: The bottle neck is inserted through a wooden rack, and progressively lifted and turned daily to bring up all the sediments to the top of the neck across a period of 4 to 6 weeks. It is traditionally done by hand (a good ‘remueur’ can proceed to up to 40,000 bottles a day!), but some wineries may use machine-mounted riddlers called ‘gyropallettes’.

Then, the covering which is actually a simple metal cap is removed, either after or as it is being dipped into liquid nitrogen (to freeze the sediments). The pressure will naturally expel the sediments. At this time, the ‘liquid de dosage’ made of Reserve wines plus sugar is, added which determines the classification. We'll go further into detail in future posts.

Et voila! You have Champagne! Of course there are many more aspects and details involved in the making of Champagnes like volume of production, selection of parcels, art of blending of different vintages, ageing etc. But this is essentially what is involved in its production.

Check out Part 2 of this article series where we talk about some of the classifications and terminology used when talking about Champagnes.

Last week, in Part 1 of  "What is an AOC?", I talked briefly about what it means and how it came to be. In this week's Wine101, let's look at the classifications used across France, Spain & Italy:

	France	Spain		Italy
1	AOC	Denominación de Origin Protteta (DOP)	DOCa	DOP	DOCG
			DO		DOC
2	AOVDQS	VCPRD		-
3	Vin de Pays (VDP)	Vino de La Tierra (VT)		Indicazione geografica tipica (IGT)
4	Vin de Table	Vino de Mesa		Vino de Tavola

Spain and Italy have two different levels for their highest classification (DOP), according to their provenance. The level 2 classifications are usually intermediaries between the AOC and VDP classification, while level 4 is mostly used for the cheapest, simplest wines.

The European Union has now created a new appellation, IGP to standardize level 3 across the countries, which is now used progressively everywhere and is supposed to simplify things a little. It loosely translates to "Indication: Geographically Protected).

Having the highest classification doesn't necessarily guarantee that a wine will be better than one with a lower classification. The best example of this comes from Italy: any Chianti is granted a DOCG status, regardless of whether it comes from the most premium parts of the Rufina sub-region, or the lowest part of the appellation that produces simple wines. Some of the best wines and most expensive wines in Italy (like Ornellaia, Solaia or Masseto, for example) comes from premium parts of Tuscany. They are made from the local varietal Sangiovese blended with Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, which are only authorized in a small amount. As a result the wines will be declassified as IGT. Despite this declassification, winemakers prefer to make the best wines they can using their grapes.

 So the best way to know if a wine is truly good or not is to try it!

The organic movement is quickly growing and the wine industry is not about to miss out on it!

Organic wine is wine made from grapes grown in accordance with principles of organic farming, which typically excludes the use of artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Technically, a wine cannot be organic itself as very often, preservatives like sulfur Dioxide/SO2 are added. So organic wine it is actually wine made from organically grown grapes.

In ‘conventional’ farming, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are used to treat crops against disease and encourage higher volumes of production. Those chemical make their way up the roots to the leaves and fruits. A very small amount may actually have a detectable presence in the wines.

There are different levels of organic farming:

Some wineries have a ‘Natural’ approach, with full organic farming and no addition of preservatives. These ‘Natural’ wines, in most cases, are made for immediate consumption, because they don’t age or travel well. This is why it is quite unlikely we will find any here in Malaysia. They will be too sensitive to the climate.

Some wineries or even wine regions employ a fully sustainable approach. This means implementing the recycling of their rain water, creation of their own compost and re-introduction of specific wildlife (birds or insects) to fight actual disease among other sustainable actions. They allow themselves the uses of selected chemicals like copper or sulfates but only in dire cases on of disease attacks and not for systematic use.

Organic farming however, forbids the use of such chemicals. After a few years of rehabilitation, the vines produce healthier grapes that are more resistant to disease. Recently, the Kingdom of Bhutan took action to become the first country in the world to be 100% organic, banning the use of any chemicals in their lands. As far as I know, they do not produce wines but organic farming can be used in the cultivation of any crop.

Another level of organic farming is the biodynamic farming. Created in the 1920’s by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian esotericist/philosopher/social reformer and architect, the approach emphasizes on the holistic development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system. All natural treatment done in the vineyards are done following the cycle of the moon all for the improvement of the soil quality.

Sounds a bit crazy doesn’t it? Organic farming is not a guarantee to make better wines, but the grapes produced will definitely be much higher quality. you can actually feel the difference between drinking organic wines and regular wines (especially the next morning). Some organic farming methods like biodynamic farming seems a bit over the top for many. However, many of the most renowned wineries in the world do not apply it for nothing. For example, Domaine de La Romanée-Conti in Burgundy has implemented it for many years and produces one of the world’s most sought-after (and most expensive) wine.

Here at Wine Talk, we try to provide a wide range of good quality wines. We offer a few Organic Wines that have been produced using the best sustainable practices. Give them a try and let us know what you think of organic wines!