Just before Easter we came across an old bottle of Summerhill Cipes Brut in my Father-in-Law’s wine cellar. Cipes (rhymes with pipes) Brut is a sparkling wine that Summerhill produces using the traditional Champagne method (methode champenoise). Before I get too much into discussing Summerhill and Cipes Brut though, I want to briefly explain what makes Champagne unique because “all Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne.”
Just as Whisky can only be called Scotch when it comes from Scotland, so too can sparkling wine only be called Champagne when it comes from the Champagne region in France. In addition to this, Champagne must adhere to some very specific rules, for instance it can only be made from three grape varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Champagne must also undergo a second fermentation in the bottle (this adds the bubbles), unlike some sparkling wines which undergo second fermentation in a large tank.
The first stage of making Champagne is to create a white wine by gently pressing the grapes and fermenting them, producing a wine relatively low in alcohol and high acidity.
You may have noticed that most Champagne does not have a vintage (a year) marked on the bottle. Champagne will only be given a vintage if the grapes were particularly good that year, otherwise it will be made using a blend of wines from different vintages in order to achieve a particular flavour profile. The blending of the base wine for Champagne is called Assemblage.
After Assemblage a liqueur de tirage is added to the wine which contains a mixture of wine, sugar and yeast. Next, the mixture of wine and liqueur de tirage is put into thick-walled bottles that can withstand the pressure build-up that will occur during the second fermentation, and the bottle is sealed with a cap. The wine is then allowed to undergo the second fermentation which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide – bubbles!
The yeast from the liqueur de tirage will die when all the sugar is consumed and then the Champagne will be allowed to age on the lees (dead yeast cells) producing yeasty and toasty notes in the wine. At a minimum the wine is aged on the lees for 15 months, for non-vintage Champagne, and 3 years for vintage Champagne. The time that Champagne spends on the lees is called en tirage.
Before the Champagne can be made ready for the consumer the dead yeast cells must be removed and this is accomplished through a process called riddling or Le Remuage. The Champagne bottle is placed in a riddling rack at an angle of 75 degrees and the bottle is turned 1/8th of a turn every day forcing the dead yeast cells into the neck of the bottle. Once the lees are in the neck of the bottle, it is kept upside down and the neck of the bottle is frozen forming a plug. When the cap is removed from the bottle the pressure inside forces the plug out, which is called disgorging. Then liqueur d’expedition or dosage (a mixture of white wine and sugar) is added to adjust the sweetness of the Champagne and top-up the bottle. The bottle is then corked and the cork wired into place to secure it. The sweetness of the Champagne is indicated on the bottle: Brut Nature (this wine contains no dosage and is bone dry with 0-3 grams per liter (g/l) of residual sugar); Extra Brut (no sweetness with 0-6 g/l of residual sugar); Brut (little detectable sweetness and less than 12 g/l of residual sugar); Extra Sec (some detectable sweetness with 12-17 g/l of residual sugar); Sec (noticeable sweetness with 17-32 g/l of residual sugar); Demi-Sec (moderately sweet as it contains 32-50 g/l of residual sugar); and Doux (not often produced, these wines are very sweet with greater than 50 g/l of residual sugar).
With the discovery of the old bottle of Cipes I decided to invite some friends by to try it alongside a current vintage. As mentioned, Cipes is made using the traditional Champagne method but it is made using a unique blend of organic grapes: 70% Riesling, 20% Pinot Blanc and 10% Chardonnay; the wine is kept En Tirage for 18 months. Cipes Brut has been produced since 1992 and it has been winning awards just as long, including a Double Gold Medal at the 2016 San Francisco International Wine Competition.
For me, Cipes has a distinct aroma of minerality (or petroleum) that I associate with Riesling. On the nose there were also green apples and toasty notes – almost like roasting almonds. On the palate I found big, vibrant Granny Smith apples. The wine was almost sweet at the tip of the tongue but this was quickly chased away by juicy, mouthwatering acidity. The bubbles were vigorous and persistent. We also detected a hint of melon; perhaps honeydew.
Next we opened the older bottle of Cipes. I was in touch with Summerhill and their winemaker felt that this bottle might be from the early 1990’s. When opening the bottle, I found that the cork was still securely in-place and it did emit a good “pop” when it was released. The colour of the wine was much darker than the current vintage of Cipes; I would liken it to the colour of apple juice. The wine still had bubbles, albeit much more restrained than the current vintage. On the nose it smelled musty, with sherry and raisin notes, and sometimes a whiff of red apples. On the palate I still got apples, but now they were red delicious and almost tended towards a candied apple. There were hints of vanilla and maybe even caramel. The acidity was lower in this wine but the finish was longer and it almost seemed like it had tannins because it had a slightly mouth-drying effect.
Given the nose on this wine (and I have to admit that the nose was challenging to get past) a few of my guests felt it was “corked” or “off”, but when I tasted the wine I wasn’t so sure. It had not turned into vinegar and the wine had not lost its fruit; there were no notes of wet dog or damp cardboard either. I have very limited experience with aged wines so it is difficult to know exactly what took place; perhaps the wine was simply stored past its prime. Cipes Brut is also a very unique wine, given its blend of grape varietals, therefore it is even difficult to compare it to older Champagne.
Left cork (current vintage) and right cork (1990’s vintage)
Champagne and sparkling wine are refreshing and, due to their acidity, they can be quite versatile in terms of food pairings. Pair it with everything from potato chips to sushi to charcuterie. BC wineries are increasingly making sparkling wines in the traditional Champagne method and they are fantastic. Sparkling wine does not need a special occasion either – as Summerhill recommends, “don’t wait for a special occasion, just open a bottle and create one!”
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