Please note this post will grow as needed over time.
Bouzy- A commune of the Marne department in northeastern France. The vineyards of Bouzy are rated Grand Cru
Brut – The most common style of champagne which allows between 0-15 grams per liter of dosage.
Chef de cave- The chief (winemaker) in the cellar.
Cru- A vineyard or group of vineyards, especially of a recognized quality.
Coeur de cuvée- Translates literally, “the heart of the first pressing”.
Cuvee- Defined in Champagne is the first 2,050 liters of juice from a 4,000-kilogram press, which represents the finest portion of the pressing.
Disgorgement- The removal of a frozen slug of sediment from the neck of the bottle after riddling and before dosage.
Dosage- The final addition to top off the recently disgorged bottle, usually a mix of wine and or sugar called liqueur d’expedition or Liqueurde dosage.
Echelle des crus- The rating system used in Champagne to determine a fair price for the grapes of a given village. Grand cru are rated 100% with premier cru rating 90% to 99%.
Grand cru – The seventeen highest rated villages (100%) on the echelle de crus scale of the 324 villages in the area.
Gyro-palette- A mechanized crate used to riddle Champagne automatically.
Mesnil-sur-Oger- An important village in the Côte des Blancs subregion of Champagne. Vineyards and are classified as Grand Cru (100%) in the Champagne vineyard classification. A Clos vineyard in the village is the source of Krug’s Clos du Mesnil.
NM- (Négociant-Manipulant)- A producer (Champagne house) who source the majority of their grapes from growers rather than growing the grapes themselves.
NV- Non vintage, Champagne made from multiple harvest blended for overall balance, harmony and house style as the Chef de cave sees it.
Oger- A village in the Côte de Blancs subregion of Champagne. Their vineyards are classified as Grand Cru (100%) in the Champagne vineyard classification.
Riddling- The process of moving the lees sediment into the neck of the bottle prior to disgorgement, performed by and or gyro-palette.
RM (Récoltant-Manipulant)- A producer who grows grapes and makes champagne exclusively from their own vines, although an RM is legally allowed to augment their grape production with purchases of up to five percent of their harvest.
Taillet- Juice from the second pressing of the grapes, composed of 500 liters of juice directly after the initial pressing of 2,050 liters for the Cuvee.
Terroir- Terroir can be very loosely translated as “a sense of place,” which is embodied in certain characteristic qualities, the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the production of the wine (this concept is applied to other things as well, e.g. cheese). It is the set of special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place, interacting with plant genetics.
Tête de cuvée- A prestige cuvée represents the best a house has to offer, the most expensive, champagne in a house’s range. Louis Roederer’s Cristal is probably among the most well known along with Dom Pérignon.