Hey Reader—
It's been nonstop harvest since the end of August, and on Tuesday I finally brought in my last fruit of the season: Saperavi and Cabernet Franc, both from the same vineyard in the Columbia Gorge AVA in Oregon (check out Wine Enthusiast's article on this region below). The Franc is headed for a rosé, and the Saperavi is going to be a super inky red.
But I had this past Monday off from cellar work, right before the big pick day, and did I rest? Nope. I really cannot stay away from wine. So I spent the day at Tanya Morning Star's Champagne Sensory Workshop at Ora Et Labora wine shop here in Portland.
The whole class was about how terroir shapes what ends up in your glass when it comes to Champagne. We tasted through a lineup of mostly Grand Cru bottles (what a treat!), and I walked away with pages of notes and a whole new appreciation for how much the ground matters in sparkling wine. It was such a fun lesson that I wanted to share some of it with you this week.
So if you're a Champagne lover (or just Champagne curious), this one's for you!
Let's get into it.
Cheers,
Sip Smarter: Your Weekly Wine Lesson
How Champagne's Terroir Changes What's in Your Glass
First, a quick shout-out to our teacher. Tanya Morning Star is the wine educator at Cellar Muse, an Official Ambassador of Bourgogne Wines, and an Official Champagne Educator. She has a gift for making a region that can feel a little intimidating feel very approachable.
So what is "terroir," anyway?
You'll hear this word everywhere in wine, and it basically means a sense of place. Terroir is everything about where a wine is grown that shapes how it tastes: the soil, the climate, the slope and direction of the hillside, and (depending on who you ask) the people and traditions working that land.
It's the reason two bottles made from the same grape, by the same method, can taste completely different. Same grape. Different dirt. Very different wine.
And Champagne might be one of the best places in the world to see it in action.
First, the climate
Champagne sits about as far north as grapes can reliably ripen. Its climate is continental with an oceanic influence, which means cold winters and a real risk of frost, but also steady, fairly damp conditions with rain throughout the growing season. According to the Comité Champagne, the average annual temperature is around 11°C (about 52°F). That's cool!
This is exactly why Champagne works as sparkling wine. Grapes grown somewhere this cool hang onto lots of bright, zippy acidity, and that acidity is the backbone of great bubbly.
A little history (because it explains a lot)
A few things from Tanya's class that I loved:
The church was making wine first. Monasteries were growing grapes and making wine in Champagne long before it was famous for bubbles. The monk Dom Pérignon is often credited with "inventing" Champagne, but what he really spent his career doing was trying to improve the region's wine.
The river was a highway to Paris. The Marne River gave Champagne direct access to Paris, which meant its wines made their way to the nobility, and that's a big part of how Champagne became the drink of celebration.
Champagne has been on the front lines of major wars. Those same valleys and hills that make great vineyards also made the region a battleground, again and again.
The Champagne widows. Back in the 19th century, French law made it very hard for a married woman to own or run a business, but a widow could. So in Champagne, a lot of women ended up owning land and running houses, and they shaped the region in huge ways. Think Barbe-Nicole Clicquot (the Veuve in Veuve Clicquot literally means "widow"), Louise Pommery, and later Lily Bollinger.
The big message: it's all about the chalk (mostly)
If there's one thing to remember about Champagne soils, it's chalk. The region's subsoil is about 75% limestone, which includes chalk, marl, and harder limestone.
Chalk is kind of a magic trick for vines. It's porous, so it acts like a sponge. It drains well, so roots don't sit in water, but in dry spells the vines can draw that stored moisture back up. That gentle push and pull helps grapes ripen slowly and evenly while keeping their freshness.
But not all of Champagne is chalk, and that's where it gets fun. Here's a simple cheat sheet:
Chalk (Côte des Blancs, much of the Montagne de Reims): Think pure chalk with very little topsoil. These wines are often taut, linear, and precise, with high acidity and that "mineral," almost saline taste people rave about. This is classic Chardonnay country, home to famous Grand Cru villages like Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.
Marl, clay, and sand (Vallée de la Marne): Heavier soils that hold more water. This is Meunier's happy place, and wines from here often feel rounder, fruitier, and more generous, sometimes easier to enjoy young.
Kimmeridgian marl and limestone (Côte des Bar, down south in the Aube): Older soils, the same family you find in Chablis and Sancerre. Pinot Noir here often comes across riper and fleshier.
Tanya had us taste this in real time. Our first flight included Champagne Lombard, a house founded in 1925 in Épernay. Lombard is a grower/merchant, and today it's run by Thomas Lombard, who has really leaned into terroir with single-village and single-plot bottlings. Tasting a chalky Grand Cru next to a wine from the clay and marl of the Marne Valley makes the whole concept click in a way no textbook can.
What "cru" means in Champagne (it's not the same as Burgundy!)
This one tripped me up a couple times during my WSET studies, so I love that Tanya spelled it out:
- In Burgundy, "cru" = a vineyard. A Grand Cru is a specific, named vineyard site.
- In Champagne, "cru" = a town (village). A Grand Cru is an entire village rated at the top of the scale.
Champagne has 319 villages (crus). Only 17 are Grand Cru and 42 are Premier Cru. Within those villages, there are countless small plots, each with its own little mix of soil, slope, and sun, which is why Champagne has so many unique terroirs to explore.
The big takeaway?
Next time you're at a wine shop or looking at a restaurant list, don't just pick a Champagne by the brand name you recognize. Try asking:
"Do you have something from the Côte des Blancs? I want something really crisp and chalky."
"Anything from the Marne Valley? I'm in the mood for something a little rounder and fruitier."
"Do you have any grower Champagnes?" (Look for RM, récoltant-manipulant, in small print on the label. It means the grower made the wine from their own grapes.)
You don't need to memorize every village. Just knowing "chalk = tension and precision, clay and marl = roundness and fruit" puts you miles ahead, and helps you find the bubbly you actually love.
Vine To Glass
Wine Of The Week: Famille Moussé "L'Esquisse" Blanc de Blancs (Vallée de la Marne)
Most of what we tasted in Tanya's class were Grand Cru Champagnes that sit around $140 retail. And I loved them all. But the bottle I adored was this one, and it's much easier on the wallet at $65.
About the producer
Famille Moussé (formerly Moussé Fils) is a family grower in the village of Cuisles in the Vallée de la Marne, now run by Cédric Moussé. He's best known for Meunier, a grape that's often treated like Champagne's underdog, and he's become something of a champion for it. So a 100% Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs is a little bit of a departure for him, and a lovely one.
The fruit comes from Cuisles and Jonquery, and the soils are a great example of how terroir isn't just about chalk. The subsoil is marl (a mix of limestone and clay, full of ancient shells) that drains well, topped with pure clay. That's a very different foundation from the chalk of the Côte des Blancs, and you can taste it in the wine's softness.
This one is farmed organically and spent about 24 months aging on its lees (the spent yeast cells, which give Champagne that toasty, creamy depth). It's a multi-vintage blend built mostly on the 2023 harvest, and it's finished with no added dosage (the little sugar top-up that many Champagnes get), so what you taste is really the fruit and the place.
Fun facts I loved
Cédric is serious about sustainability. He uses lightweight bottles (glass is one of wine's biggest carbon costs), and he's swapped the usual foil capsule over the cork for a paper one. Fun fact: those capsules aren't even required by law anymore!
My tasting notes
My first impression: soft, charming, and delicate.
It's pure and clean, with a really fun nose. Bright and floral, with red apple (think Red Delicious), plus a little cheese-rind note, a bit like tangy goat cheese. That savory, slightly sour note comes from malolactic conversion, a process where sharper, green-apple-style acid gets converted into softer, creamier acid. It's part of why this wine feels so gentle and round rather than sharp.
It's bright, expressive, and so easy to love. I'd put it in the "great value" column without hesitation.
What I'd Pair It With
- Goat cheese, or a whole cheese board (lean into that cheese-rind note!)
- Oysters or a simple shrimp cocktail
- Fried chicken, fries, or salty potato chips (trust me)
- Gougères or anything buttery and flaky
- Roast chicken with herbs
You don't have to spend Grand Cru money to taste terroir in a glass. Sometimes the grower bottle from the "less famous" region is the one that steals the show.
Cork Report
This Week’s Wine News Roundup
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The Drinker’s Guide to the Columbia River Gorge
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- We Asked 9 Sommeliers: What Chardonnay Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? (2026)
