Champagne must tackle pressing issue

Champagne producers must harness modern technology and expertise to refine the region’s pressing process, believes Dom Pérignon oenologist Vincent Chaperon.

Speaking at an event in London to present the house’s new 2005 vintage as part of a showcase for Dom Pérignon’s recently introduced “plenitude” concept of late-released expressions, Chaperon highlighted the pressing phase of the winemaking process as a barrier to optimum quality.

“I think the future in Champagne will be about pressing,” he declared. “We’re still working with the older generation’s use of cuvée [first pressing] and taille [second pressing], but I think we can refine it. Thirty years ago Champagne was really in advance of everyone else, but today there are people who are going further in their separation of the pressings.”

Although pressing, like other aspects of Champagne production, is already regulated under AOC law, Chaperon argued that even greater attention to detail is needed.

“Every year the grapes are different,” he remarked. “There are a lot of parameters in the construction of juices during the 12 hours of pressing. It’s even more complex than in bottle, where the process is very slow. With pressing in three hours you can drastically affect the content of your juice; it’s very fragile.”

Outlining the deficiencies of the current system, Chaperon continued: “I know there is some cuvée in our taille and some taille in our cuvée. Today we have tools that show a big change in the nature of the juices before the end of the cuvée.”

As a result, he observed: “The rule Champagne has defined is certainly the best recipe for the average of vintage, vineyards and grape varieties, but it is not good on specific details. We must be more precise, especially because today we have all the tools to measure what is occurring. At the end of the day it will always be a human decision, but we have more information than in the past.”

Chaperon also linked this close attention to the character and quality of grapes coming into the winery to the challenge posed by the fact that few producers in Champagne grow their own grapes.

“We must develop a closer relationship between vineyard and winery,” he insisted. “We have to move beyond picking at a minimum sugar and alcohol potential because we know from looking at vintages like 2003 and 2004 that 12° potential alcohol can express itself in different ways. We have to look at other factors – phenolic ripeness and aromatic ripeness.”

A detailed look at changes in Champagne production will appear in June’s issue of the drinks business.