Champagne Grande Réserve

Grape varieties : 46% Chardonnay, 39% Pinot noir, 15% Pinot meunier

Alcohol : 12%

Guard : 1-5 years

France, home of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne, is undoubtedly the most important wine producing country in the world. For centuries, it produced wine in greater quantities than any other country. Wine is ingrained in French culture at almost every level of society; it is the drink of the elite and the common people, and a key symbol of Roman Catholicism, the majority religion in France. The diversity of French wines is due, in part, to the country's wide variety of climates.

Champagne, its northernmost region, enjoys one of the coolest climates in the wine-growing world, in stark contrast to the hot and dry Rhône Valley. Bordeaux, in the southwest, has a maritime climate strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and by the various rivers that wind between its vineyards. Far from any oceanic influence, eastern regions like Burgundy and Alsace have a continental climate, with hot, dry summers and cold winters. In the deep south of France, Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon enjoy a decidedly Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot summers and relatively mild winters.

Each sub-region can be defined by its particular geographical characteristics, which in turn create specific characteristics in the wines produced there. From the granite hills of Beaujolais to the famous limestone slopes of Chablis and the gravels of the Médoc, the sites on which the French vineyard was developed are considered vitally important and are at the heart of the notion of terroir.

The champagne

Champagne is the name of the world's most famous sparkling wine, the appellation under which it is sold, and the French wine region from which it comes. The Champagne region lies at the northern edge of the world's wine regions, with average temperatures lower than any other French wine region. As is the case with many French wines, it was the Champagne region's terroir (and more specifically the climate) that dictated the grape varieties to be grown in its vineyards. Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay are among the few grape varieties capable of performing in the cold, humid climate of northern France. In addition to the climatic conditions of the particular vintage and the characteristics of the grape varieties, there is a third element of the specificity of Champagne. The landscape which gave Champagne its name (“large expanse of flat country” in old French) forms an undulating relief on the white and limestone soils of the Paris Basin. This famous chalk stands out from the limestone soils of other French wine-growing regions, because it is much finer and more porous.