Taste Preference Guide

Everyone has their own personal taste preference. Champagne Score provides the information necessary to determine the best selection for your personal taste within your budget. The primary taste and aroma factors are determined by the following:

• Dry/Sweet Scale
• Grape Varietals
• Vintage/Multi-Vintage/Non-Vintage
• Vinification (oak and steel)

Dry/Sweet Scale
Sugar dosage determines how dry or sweet a Champagne brand is. Champagne Score uses the following dry/sweet indicators.

Brut

Brut is the most popular category, making up over 90% of the market, according to the Bureau Du Champagne, USA. The three brut sugar dosage levels are bone dry, very dry and dry.

• Bone Dry          no sugar added
• Very Dry          less than 6 grams per liter of residual sugar
• Dry                   6 to 12 grams per liter of residual sugar

Sweet
Sweet levels are sweeter than brut. The four levels sweeter than brut are medium dry, medium sweet, sweet, and very sweet.

• Medium Dry     12 to 17 grams per liter of residual sugar
• Medium Sweet 17 to 32 grams per liter of residual sugar
• Sweet               32 to 50 grams per liter of residual sugar
• Very Sweet       more than 50 grams per liter of residual sugar

A discussion of Champagne categories can be found in the Champagne Categories section of the Champagne Score Encyclopedia.

Grape Varietals
The three traditional Champagne grapes are pinot noir, chardonnay, and meunier. Some USA sparkling wines are produced with other varietals. Pinot noir and meunier are referred to as black grapes while chardonnay is a white grape. Black grapes are actually dark purple in color while white grapes are light green.

Styles

White blend –A traditional white blend Champagne consists of two or more grape varietals. A typical white blend consists of pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier or only pinot noir and chardonnay.

Rose’ – This is a pink to salmon colored blend. The color usually comes from still pinot noir grapes. A typical rose’ blend consists of pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier or only pinot noir and chardonnay.

Blanc de Blancs (white of whites) – Almost all are 100% chardonnay.

Blanc de Noirs (black of blacks) – Almost all are 100% pinot noir.

A discussion of Champagne styles can be found in the Champagne Score Encyclopedia.

Vintage/Multi-vintage/Non-vintage
The quality of a harvest varies from year to year. Some years are better than others. Vintage Champagne is produced entirely from one year’s harvest. This provides a more consistent indication compared to a non-vintage.

Mult-vintage Champagne comes from more than one year. The dominant harvest is referred to as the base year. Grapes from other years (reserve wines) are blended with the base year wine. The multi-vintage edition is indicated on the label.

Non-vintage Champagne is a blend of grapes from a number of years. The foundation for the non-vintage wines are base wines from the latest harvest. The amount of reserve wines from prior years can vary from as little as 0% to as much as 50% with as many as 6 or more previous vintages added.

Therefore, non-vintage will vary somewhat from year to year. So, non-vintage ratings are not as consistent year to year as vintage or multi-vintage ratings. Use very recent ratings when selecting non-vintage brands.

Stainless steel and Oak Fermentation
Fermentation in stainless steel tanks does not impart additional flavors to the wine. Aging in oak casks will add an oaky influence to the wine’s flavor.