Learning Champagne as a sommelier: what to know at every level

The short answer: at Level 1 you learn what Champagne is and how it is made; at Certified, the numbers, the bottles and the great houses; at Advanced, the villages, the vineyard and the dosage; at Master level, every cru, the growers and thirty years of vintages. Below is the Court's list for each level, then the knowledge behind it, in one place.

What the Court expects, level by level

Each level has its own page: Champagne for Level 1, Champagne for the Certified exam and the Grand and Premier Cru villages.

The region and its areas

• Size and place: about 34,300 hectares and 319 villages (crus), some 90 miles (about 145 km) east of Paris, in five départements; the Marne has most of the vines.
• Montagne de Reims: more a wooded plateau than a mountain. Mostly Pinot Noir, including north-facing Grand Crus such as Verzenay.
• Vallée de la Marne: Pinot Noir near Épernay, then Meunier further west, where the soils hold more clay. Grand Cru: Aÿ.
• Côte des Blancs: chalk slopes south of Épernay, planted with Chardonnay: Cramant, Avize, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.
• Côte des Bar: in the Aube, far to the south, on marl closer to Chablis than to Reims. Mostly Pinot Noir.
• Côte de Sézanne: a smaller area south of the Côte des Blancs, mainly Chardonnay.

In the vineyard

• Climate: cool and northern, with both oceanic and continental influence. Spring frost and uneven ripening are the yearly worries, and acidity stays high.
• Soils: chalk underneath much of the Marne, which stores water and drains well; marl in the Côte des Bar.
• Grapes: Pinot Noir 38% of the vineyard, Chardonnay 31%, Meunier 31% (Comité Champagne). Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris make up the last fraction, and the rules now allow a disease-resistant variety, Voltis, in small amounts.
• Pruning: only the systems in the rules: taille Chablis, cordon de Royat, Vallée de la Marne (for Meunier only) and Guyot (single, double or asymmetric). At most 18 buds per square metre, with the fruiting wood no higher than 60 cm above the ground.
• Yields are set every year by the Comité Champagne, growers and houses together: 10,000 kg of grapes per hectare in 2024, 9,000 kg in 2025. A shared reserve of wine is kept back for short years.

In the cellar

• Pressing: whole bunches, gently, straight after picking. A press load (a marc) of 4,000 kg gives 2,050 litres of cuvée, the finest first juice, and 500 litres of taille, fruitier and softer.
• First fermentation makes still base wines; the malolactic is the producer's choice. Base wines need at least 9% natural alcohol, and after the second fermentation no Champagne may pass 13%.
• Blending (assemblage): wines from different villages, grapes and years, including reserve wines kept from older harvests.
• Tirage: from 1 January after the harvest, the blend is bottled with the liqueur de tirage: sugar, yeast and a riddling aid. The second fermentation in the bottle (prise de mousse) builds about 6 bar of pressure.
• Ageing on lees: at least 12 months before disgorging; sale no earlier than 15 months after tirage for non-vintage and 36 months for vintage.
• Riddling and disgorging: the lees are worked into the neck, by hand or by machine, then frozen and shot out.
• Dosage: the liqueur d'expédition, wine with or without sugar, sets the final style, from Brut Nature to Doux. Then cork, metal cap and wire cage (muselet).

Reading the label: styles and terms

The two-letter codes have their own guide, and so does vintage Champagne.

A short history

• 1668: Dom Pierre Pérignon, a Benedictine monk, takes charge at the abbey of Hautvillers. He works on careful blending and gentler pressing.
• 1670–1720: sparkling wine becomes a deliberate choice in the region. Cork stoppers arrive in 1685; stronger bottles follow later in the 18th century.
• 1729: Ruinart is founded; the house calls itself the first Champagne house.
• 1816: Madame Clicquot's house develops the riddling table, according to Veuve Clicquot.
• 1837: Jean-Baptiste François finds a way to measure the sugar needed for the second fermentation, so producers can control the pressure.
• 1874: Pommery Nature, the first brut Champagne to succeed commercially, according to the house.
• 1884: Armand Walfard invents disgorging by freezing the neck, still used today.
• Late 19th century: phylloxera; the vineyard is replanted on American rootstocks.
• 1936: Champagne becomes an AOC. 1941: the Comité Champagne is founded.
• 2010: the old percentage scale of villages ends; the Grand and Premier Cru names stay.

The Comité Champagne

The Comité Champagne is the joint trade body of Champagne's growers and houses, set up by a law of 12 April 1941. It speaks for some 16,200 growers, 130 cooperatives and 370 houses. It manages relations between growers and houses, sets each year's harvest yield and the reserve, runs research on the vineyard and the cellar, and protects and promotes the name Champagne around the world.

How to study it

• Draw the map with the four areas, Reims and Épernay, and the Grand Cru villages.
• Learn the numbers in one go: 4,000 kg, 2,050 and 500 litres, 15 and 36 months, 6 bar, 12 g/L for Brut.
• Taste in pairs: blanc de blancs against blanc de noirs, non-vintage against vintage from the same house.
• Quiz yourself daily. SOMM DIGI AI has 3,000+ exam-prep questions and will quiz you on Champagne at your level.

Questions people ask