| What quality are your grapes? |
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De Watère Champagnes are exclusively made from Premier Cru locations in and around Avenay Val d'Or in the heart of the picturesque Vallée de la Marne, just a few minutes away from Ay, and about 15 minutes from Reims, where all the French Kings were crowned. |
| How old are your vines? |
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The most recent vines were planted in the 1990‘s until 1995 while the majority of vines are from the 1960‘s. So, most of our grapes come from vines that are about 60 years old. |
| Which grapes do you use? |
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We use Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. Chardonnay for freshness and elegance, Pinot Noir for aromas and body. |
| How do you press the grapes? |
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We use a traditional 4,000kg vertical press. However, our current press was entirely new developed combining the traditional vertical setup with most modern precise pressing. This press is the only one of its kind in Champagne.Â
The juice is released both at the bottom and on the sides through a fine mesh, ensuring we only receive the freshest of juices.
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| Which part of the press do you use? |
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De Watère Champagnes are exclusively made from the "Cuvée".
When pressing, we use 4,000kg of grapes that result in a total of 2,550 litres of juice. The first 2,050 litres are of the highest purity: the "Cuvée". This is followed by 500 litres of "Taille". Even though most producers employ the Taille somehow into their wines, we choose to create De Watère Champagnes exclusively from the Cuvée. The remainder of the pressing is brought back into the vineyards as natural fertiliser.
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| In what containers happens the first fermentation? |
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The first fermentation happens in enamelled steel tanks. Here, our Champagnes can ferment without the interference from aromas from outside the pure grape juice.
Enamelled means that a glass powder is heated on a surface, in this case steel, and thereby forms a lasting insulating bond with the steel. This protects the grape juice from steel aromas during fermentation.
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| How do you filter after the first fermentation? |
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Short answer: we don't.
Instead of using either chemicals or mechanical filters, we let gravity do the work. Granted, it does take some patience but we are willing to invest this extra time.
Over time, all the tiny natural particles in the wine float to the bottom of the tank which allows us to remove the wine while leaving the residue in the tanks which are cleaned afterwards for the next Cuvée.
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| How long do De Watère Champagnes mature on the yeast? |
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There is no set time for our Cuvées. Instead of predetermining the maturation period, we taste regularly and decide based on actual development when to release our Cuvées to the market. The longest we have waited in the past was about 96 months.
You can find the exact production dates on the back label of each Prestige bottle. The format is DD/MM/YY
Tirage: the date when the wine was laid to rest. As we usually use two consecutive years in our creations, you can extrapolate from this date. If, for example Tirage is 2022, the harvests of 2020 and 2021 were combined in this bottle.
Degorge: the date when the Champagne was disgorged and the Dosage added. The difference between Tirage and Degorge gives you the maturation time on the yeast.
LOT: an officially registered number stating the date when the final inspection of the bottle was carried out and the labels put on. Its format differs from the other two dates as it needs to fit the official registration system. Its format is DDMMYYYY.
The dates of our current release are:
Tirage: 16/09/16 (the harvests of 2015 and 2014 combined)
Degorge: 15/09/21 (just under five years maturation on the yeast)
LOT: 17092021 (final inspection and labels installed on September 17th 2021)
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| How do you Disgorge? |
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Disgorgement happens manually at De Watère.
Since Champagne matures in the bottles together with yeast to develop those beautiful aromas and the tingling Perlage (effervescence), the yeast remains as residue in the end and has to be removed to result in clear Champagne.
To remove the residue, the bottles are progressively turned and rotated upside down so that the yeast slides to the top of the bottle, right underneath the cork.
The residue is then frozen by shortly dipping the top of the bottle into a below-freezing water solution. Then, the bottles are turned around (the cork now facing upward), the cork is released and the residue ice block shoots out from the bottle. This step is known as "Disgorgement".
Usually, this step is done by machines but at De Watère, nervy bottle is disgorged by hand.
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| What's your Dosage? |
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Typically, our Cuvées receive a Dosage of less than 8 grams, resulting in a very "Brut" Champagne.
The Dosage is added at the end of the production process after Disgorgement.
Disgorgement removes a tiny bit of Champagne along with the residue (see: "Disgorgement") which needs to be replaced.
Typically, a sip of still reserve wine is mixed with syrup and then introduced to the Champagne in the bottle before adding the final cork.
For De Watère, we use disgorged Champagne from the same batch for this step, resulting in a much smoother blend in the end. Of course, this means we need to produce more Champagne than is eventually available for sale. We see this as a welcome sacrifice for the highest quality.
The syrup we use for our Dosage is made from fruit sugar from the very same grapes used to create our Champagnes.
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| What corks do you use? |
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The corks come from Portugal and all three layers are of the highest quality rating.
Corks in Champagne consist of several layers ordered from the contact point with the Champagne in the bottle: two slices of natural cork, 1 medium-grade shred, and natural shredded cork at the very top right under the Plaque (that's the part that forms the top of the mushroom shape in the end).
We use only highest grade natural cork for all three parts.
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| What does "Saignée" mean? |
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"Saignée" means "bled out" in French.
In the context of making Rosé Champagne "Saignée" means that the Rosé is created by leaving the juice and the grape skins in the press together just long enough that the red colour and aromas can "bleed out" into the otherwise clear juice.
Even juice from red grapes is clear. The colour exclusively stems from the skins. You can easily check this by cutting an ordinary red grape open: the flesh is clear.
For the vast majority, Rosé Champagne is created by combining red and white wine. However, this red wine includes bitter tannins which might be desirable in a still red wine but is destructive to sparkling Champagne.
By letting the grapes bleed out (cold macerating), we ensure that we win enough aromas and colour for our Rosé while omitting the bitter tannins. This process requires a tremendous amount of skill and perfect timing or the entire Cuvée pressing (2,050 litres or over 2,700 bottles) is ruined. Consequently, Saignée is very rare and special.
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