Champagne dosage process
The dosage process consists of adding a tiny amount of liqueur to the champagne. This liqueur is a mixture of pure sugar and reserve wines (wines from previous harvests). Each Champagne house jealously guards the composition of its liqueur de dosage.
This stage is decisive in determining the type of champagne you will enjoy. A low dosage champagne will have a low sugar content. The aromas and intrinsic quality of the champagne are thus enhanced.
The different types of dosage in champagne.
There are 7 types of dosage, corresponding to the quantity of liqueur added to the wine.
- brut nature or "zero dosage": no added sugar and less than 3 grams of residual sugar per liter.
- extra brut: between 0 and 6 grams of sugar per liter
- brut: less than 12 grams of sugar per liter
- extra dry: between 12 and 17 grams of sugar per liter
- sec: between 17 and 32 grams of sugar per liter
- demi-sec: between 32 and 50 grams of sugar per liter
- doux: over 50 grams of sugar per liter
The vast majority of champagnes you taste have this information on the label. This tells you what type of champagne you're buying, and gives you an indication of the type of food with which you can enjoy it.
Here are a few tips on food and champagne pairing:
- Semi-dry Champagne goes perfectly with foie gras or dessert.
- Extra brut Champagne is ideal with seafood.
- A blanc de noirs champagne will sublimate your meats ...
You can discover more food/champagne pairings in this article
Champagne dosage is a matter of taste and fashion.
In the 50s, demi-sec champagne was all the rage, and was enjoyed mainly with dessert.
Today, even though certain Champagne Houses such as Moët et Chandon or Veuve Clicquot have created innovative cuvées designed to be enjoyed like cocktails on the rocks (if you want to know more, we invite you to read this article on champagne on the rocks), the trend is clearly towards less dosage. Brut champagne accounts for 95% of sales, and Extra-Brut and Brut Nature champagnes are becoming increasingly popular. These are champagnes for purists, for thrill-seekers, because champagne is laid bare here. By dosing a champagne, it's easier to correct or hide its acidity or poor elaboration.
For example, DRAPPIER has been delighting us with its Brut Nature champagne for almost twenty years, and today it has become one of their flagship cuvées. Other houses, such as LARMANDIER-BERNIER, have chosen to use very low dosage for their entire range. This low dosage ensures maximum respect for the purity of their champagnes.
