Speaking the Champagne Lingo Toff Style

Good day to you! As a first time visitor, we'd like to welcome you to Champagne Toff.

Astonish your fellow champagne fanatics when next sipping your flute of champagne… Don’t fret with the lingo simply customise yourself with senior toff’s champagne lingo and you’ll be the envy of your pack.

Naturally I doubt you’ll be able to use these expressions as precisely as us here at toff HQ but you could bluff your way to supremecy! The very best of luck Squire.

Now concentrate and soak up these expressions.

Toasty - a bready smell to the bouquet that denotes maturity and integrated flavours.

Biscuity - a similar style of bouquet and flavour to toasty, as above.

Complexity - the very best wines have a greater maturity and integration of flavours which last longer in the mouth and have a more defined bouquet. This range of qualities in Champagne is termed complexity, in contrast to more one dimensional varieties.

Yeasty - Champagne is made using a secondary fermentation process to create the fizz and it is the extent of the enzymatic breakdown of the yeast cells that create this particular flavour.

Bead - the technical term for the stream of bubbles. The finer the bead, the better quality the Champagne.

Mousse - this refers to how frothy and lively the Champagne looks in the glass and feels in the mouth

Fresh - Champagne has a higher acidity compared to other white wines and usually features traces of lemon and green apple for a refreshing taste.

Creamy - obvious tastes of vanilla or cream, most apparent in Chardonnay based wines.

Nutty - this flavour usually derives from age and points to maturity of the Champagne.

Maturity - refers to the ageing of the wine in the bottle as opposed to the age of the grapes which are said to be ripe. All Champagne undergo a minimum ageing period of two years with many vintages aged for up to five years. Signs of maturity in Champagne can be a darker, more golden hue, a less fresh palate, a nutty, dried fruit flavour and nose.

Length/persistence - refers to how long the flavour of the Champagne remains after swallowing. Most great wines have good length of flavour.