Athiri (Ah-THEE-ree)

By KM Staff
December 11, 2018

Greek grape variety that is easy to grow and produces simple, pleasant wines even at high yields.

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La Grande Dame, Cristal, and Comtes de Champagne are all examples of:

A. Prestige Cuvées

B. Grand Marques

C. Blanc de Blancs

D. Premier Grand Crus

A.

About 40% of all the Champagne sold this year will be sold over the next three months, so it’s a good time to brush up on Champagne terminology. Proprietary names like La Grande Dame, Cristal and Comtes de Champagne are the names that Champagne Houses give to their very top wines which are known as prestige cuvées. The grapes for a prestige cuvee come from the best (and highest-rated) vineyards the House has access to, and the wines usually spend a very long time on the yeast lees–sometimes as much as ten years. As a result, prestige cuvées are usually both a) exquisite and b) expensive. La Grande Dame, Cristal and Comtes de Champagne are the prestige cuvées of Veuve Clicquot, Roederer and Taittinger respectively.

Are you a Placomusophile?

Here’s some great dinner party trivia: If you look at the top of an enclosed bottle of bubbly, you will find a round, metal plate resting over the cork. The wire cage rests on top of… Continue reading

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