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Talk:Star Wars (film)

Paul Blake
Is Paul Blake (Greedo) credited in the cast list in the actual film? I just noticed his only mention in the article is in the filming section in a paragraph devoted to Jabba the Hutt. I imagine he deserves to be in the cast section, but if he is not credited at all in the film credits I'm not sure. Sidebar, the paragraph discussing Jabba fails to mention he was played by Declan Mulholland in the deleted scene that Lucas reinserted into the film with the 1997 special edition. It'd be nice to find a source for that (I'd imagine Rinzler's book states it). – zmbro (talk) (cont) 20:19, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Blake was one of two Greedos, the mask sucked so bad Greedo was a re-shot in CA, played by Maria de Aragon. Would think they go in the Uncredited actors paragraph. Declan Mulholland's Jabba is covered at Changes in Star Wars re-releases. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 21:43, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

CGI
I notice my addition regarding computer animation was reverted (re-reading it, the sentence itself should probably have been rewritten). Since there already is a segment about the computer animation, the new information feels relevant, as it explains why the animation was made in the first place. Lucas could have used a miniature or traditional animation to make the short instruction video in the briefing room, but he wanted the audience to know they were looking at CGI, and for that purpose he decided to use wire-frame models, which is not a representation of what computers were capable of in the 70s (but it did take a lot of effort, about two minutes for each frame). Which explain his choice.

Quotes from the article:

"With Star Wars already in production, George Lucas issued a call for bids from companies and individuals to produce various bits of instrumentation animation — in particular the briefing room sequence. A number of computer artists and some cel animators responded. (The article later says: "The briefing room sequence is the only scene in Star Wars in which digital computer animation was used — other than for occasional background displays as part of the Deathstar set")

Some of the computer people had very sophisticated equipment capable of producing colored and shaded planes and forms. One computer artist even wanted to do most of the model sequences entirely on computers. George spoke with each of the artists and viewed their work, but Larry seemed to understand the kind of look that George wanted for the film.

On the screen the Star Wars audience sees the computer realization of the trench sequence in the form of a “wire cage’’ model rather than as a series of solid forms and planes. One of the early problems in computer graphics was the wire cage versus solid form display. At first computer programs could only call up figures in wire cage format. It was only a few years ago that programs were devised to remove the “hidden lines;’’ the program had to determine which lines would be “hidden’’ by a front surface or plane and remove those lines.

“When George Lucas specified the kind of animation he wanted for the scene, he knew enough about computer animation to ask for a true perspective without the ‘hidden lines’ removed. He wanted the trench and the Deathstar to appear as wire cage figures with all lines and vertices visible. George thought that this sort of image would suggest ‘computer animation’ by having a very mechanical look.”

Larry Cuba suggests that in the future computers will be able to generate pictures of such quality that they will look as though they had been photographed by a camera. In the case of Star Wars, it was thought that such photographic realism might be confusing to the audience, so a wire cage model was specified so that the audience would readily understand that the images were to have been created by a machine.

“I set up a Mitchell 35mm camera with an animation motor in front of the screen and connected it to the computer so that a signal from the program could trigger the animation motor when the image was complete.”

“I suggested that they wait and shoot the sequence in England blue screen; they could print the computer effects in later and have the thing perfect. But no, they wanted to rear project it so that the guys in the briefing room would play to the images while they were talking. Well, my first take worked. There were a couple of problems, but they edited around them.”

Also sounds like there was a little more CGI than just the briefing room, even if it's just some minor stuff. Silbad (talk) 10:55, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the detailed post. However, I still don't see how this is notable enough for the article. It seems like something that only people very interested in animation would care about. Many readers who have seen the film are not going to remember the scene or the animation in question, so a discussion of the animation without supporting images is not going to be interesting or informative. Wafflewombat (talk) 10:43, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Well, it was just a few words regarding Lucas' choice. Everything else in the post is just an explanation. But I have a couple additions in regard of the animation without expanding any further about the specific wireframe CGI. Silbad (talk) 22:34, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I took a look at your newest contribution and made some changes, mostly to clarify things for the average reader. I also removed some content that seemed non-essential and would not be understood by the average reader. Please let me know if you find my edits acceptable, or if they have had a negative impact. Wafflewombat (talk) 06:47, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Looks fine. But I changed "Yavin Prime" to "mother planet" as it feels like a better description. Silbad (talk) 05:03, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I did a quick Google search, and I don't think "mother planet" is a common-enough phrase that we can use it in an encyclopedia. Also, when you say "traditional methods," what are you describing, exactly? Traditional methods of what? We might want to change it to "All the other computer monitors and targeting displays featured in the film used various methods, such as backlit gels, to simulate computer graphics." Wafflewombat (talk) 05:54, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I checked by googling "moons" and "mother planet", and found articles from websites like BBC Science Focus Magazine, Harvard Gazette, Smithsonian Magazine, NASA, Science.org and Astronomy & Astrophysics using the phrase, and I also find it pretty self-explanatory. The "traditional methods" is a reference to the article about the creation of these effects, where John Wash explains: “Both Jay and I had done a lot of mimicking computer animation using downshooters, using animation cameras, backlit gels…”. The video the article is linking to calls the handcrafted techniques "old school graphics". Silbad (talk) 06:26, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm okay with using "mother planet" since those sources are credible. But I just think it's a little unclear what "traditional methods" means on the page. If you don't feel that substituting the word "various" for "traditional" is appropriate, can you try re-wording the segment in another way so it's more clear? Wafflewombat (talk) 06:38, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
 * "Mother planet" is used as a reference to the planet its moon or moons are orbiting. Some articles that use the phrase: 20 of the most amazing moons in the Solar System, 21 moons ‘swarm’ planet Uranus, The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Jupiter, Sixty moons for Saturn, How the Moon Found Its Orbit, Asymmetric impacts of near-Earth asteroids on the Moon, Exploring planets and asteroids with 6DoF sensors: Utopia and realism, James B. Pollack and NASA’s Planetary Missions: a Tribute, Is there life on moons? and Pluto – a dwarf in the darkness. Traditional methods simply means pre-CGI methods. John Wash describes the process: "The attack we used was fairly similar to that done on DARK STAR. This was basically generating imagery from bottom-lit artwork which was generated conventionally on standard animation cranes Because things were in such a rush, we’d be briefed on what the shot was to be". Maybe one could describe it as "hand-drawn backlit animation" or "hand-drawn backlight animation" (some write it as backlight, others as backlit). Silbad (talk) 23:20, 21 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I did a little more editing on the segment. Let me know if you find it acceptable. Thank you for being willing to collaborate on this 🙂 Wafflewombat (talk) 00:56, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
 * No problem. The edit looks OK. If hand-drawn backlit animation was the only method, or if they also used others, is difficult to find any info about (unlike articles about the digital CGI). Unless more details are found or becomes available (there is probably something in some old Cinefex issue or other magazines that is not yet available online), the present edit is probably the best way to describe it. Silbad (talk) 16:54, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Like Special effects of The Empire Strikes Back, I do think the special effects of Star Wars are notable enough in their own right for a separate article. In fact, you could make an article that covers both the original film's special effects (models, matte paintings, etc.) and all the extra CGI from the Special edition onwards... – zmbro (talk) (cont) 11:09, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Agree, the movie had such a noticeable production in regard of effects that books have literally been written about it. It should be more than enough material for a whole article about how it was made. Should anyone face the challenge about creating it, one could always add some contributions. Silbad (talk) 22:34, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Question about lead
Should we mention the fact that the Death Star is a space station? As it reads, "the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star" seems to leave it very vague, as a "weapon" can mean anything. I'm thinking expand it to "the Empire's newest weapon, a space station known as the Death Star." – zmbro (talk) (cont) 21:33, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

 * I think it's okay either way. A little clarification is nice, but the Death Star is described as a space station at the beginning of the Plot section, and the lead doesn't need to have more than the most basic plot summary. Wafflewombat (talk) 22:11, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Per Wafflewombat, plus there is a link to the Death Star article in any case. I don't oppose the proposed clarification, though. Betty Logan (talk) 03:02, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Suggestion for plot
Earlier I made an edit in the plot about the TIE fighter dogfight, however, it was deemed unnecessary as it was supposedly 'not essential for a summary'. However, I believe it should be mentioned. It's a scene of its own nevertheless.

The other edit was about Luke referring to Obi-Wan as Ben Kenobi, and at the beginning of the movie, Luke is confused about the name Obi-Wan. I believe Ben Kenobi should be mentioned somewhere, and is revealed to be Obi-Wan. One place it could be is here: "He is rescued by Obi-Wan, an elderly hermit. Obi-Wan tells Luke about....". It was removed because of the little leeway on grammar.

Also, one last suggestion is to add a link to Obi-Wan's name in the current plot. This was not from my original edit.

Thank you for your time Auser468 (talk) 08:19, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

 * Thanks for taking the time to post. I added the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" link that you suggested. As far as the TIE dogfight, I wanted to offer a couple quotes from the page How to write a plot summary:
 * "The objective point of a plot summary is to condense a large amount of information into a short, accessible format. It is not to reproduce the experience of reading or watching the story, nor to cover every detail. For those who have not read or seen the story, it should serve as a general overview that fills in on the major points. For those who have, it should be detailed enough to refresh their memory, no more."
 * "A plot summary is not a recap. It should not cover every scene and every moment of a story."
 * I hope this helps explain my decision to remove the TIE segment. If not, please let me know. Wafflewombat (talk) 18:25, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you, that makes sense. Auser468 (talk) 21:57, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Star Wars (film)


text:
Cash flow

Cash flow, in general, refers to payments made into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It can also refer more specifically to a real or virtual movement of money.
 * Cash flow, in its narrow sense, is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account to another. The term 'cash flow' is mostly used to describe payments that are expected to happen in the future, are thus uncertain, and therefore need to be forecast with cash flows.
 * A cash flow $CF$ is determined by its time $t$, nominal amount $N$, currency $CCY$, and account $A$; symbolically, $CF = CF(t, N, CCY, A)$.

Cash flows are narrowly interconnected with the concepts of value, interest rate, and liquidity. A cash flow that shall happen on a future day $t_{N}$ can be transformed into a cash flow of the same value in $t_{0}$. This transformation process is known as discounting, and it takes into account the time value of money by adjusting the nominal amount of the cash flow based on the prevailing interest rates at the time.

Cash flow analysis
Cash flows are often transformed into measures that give information e.g. on a company's value and situation:

 * to determine a project's rate of return or value. The time of cash flows into and out of projects are used as inputs in financial models such as internal rate of return and net present value.
 * to determine problems with a business's liquidity. Being profitable does not necessarily mean being liquid. A company can fail because of a shortage of cash even while profitable.
 * as an alternative measure of a business's profits when it is believed that accrual accounting concepts do not represent economic realities. For instance, a company may be notionally profitable but generating little operational cash (as may be the case for a company that barters its products rather than selling for cash). In such a case, the company may be deriving additional operating cash by issuing shares or raising additional debt finance.
 * cash flow can be used to evaluate the 'quality' of income generated by accrual accounting. When net income is composed of large non-cash items it is considered low quality.
 * to evaluate the risks within a financial product, e.g., matching cash requirements, evaluating default risk, re-investment requirements, etc.

Cash flow notion is based loosely on cash flow statement accounting standards. The term is flexible and can refer to time intervals spanning over past-future. It can refer to the total of all flows involved or a subset of those flows.

Within cash flow analysis, 3 types of cash flow are present and used for the cash flow statement:
 * Cash flow from operating activities - a measure of the cash generated by a company's regular business operations. Operating cash flow indicates whether a company can produce sufficient cash flow to cover current expenses and pay debts.
 * Cash flow from investing activities - the amount of cash generated from investing activities such as purchasing physical assets, investments in securities, or the sale of securities or assets.
 * Cash flow from financing activities - the net flows of cash that are used to fund the company. This includes transactions involving dividends, equity, and debt.

Business' financials
The (total) net cash flow of a company over a period (typically a quarter, half year, or a full year) is equal to the change in cash balance over this period: positive if the cash balance increases (more cash becomes available), negative if the cash balance decreases. The total net cash flow for a project is the sum of cash flows that are classified in three areas:

 * Operational cash flows: cash received or expended as a result of the company's internal business activities. Operating cash flow of a project is determined by:
 * OCF = incremental earnings+depreciation=(earning before interest and tax−tax)+depreciation
 * OCF = earning before interest and tax*(1−tax rate)+ depreciation
 * OCF = (revenue − cost of good sold − operating expense − depreciation)* (1−tax rate)+depreciation
 * OCF = (Revenue − cost of good sold − operating expense)* (1−tax rate)+ depreciation* (tax rate)

Depreciation*(tax rate) which locates at the end of the formula is called depreciation shield through which we can see that there is a negative relation between depreciation and cash flow.

 * Changing in net working capital: it is the cost or revenue related to the company's short-term asset like inventory.
 * Capital spending: this is the cost or gain related to the company's fix asset such as the cash used to buy a new equipment or the cash which is gained from selling an old equipment.

The sum of the three component above will be the cash flow for a project.

And the cash flow for a company also include three parts:

 * Operating cash flow: refers to the cash received or loss because of the internal activities of a company such as the cash received from sales revenue or the cash paid to the workers.
 * Investment cash flow: refers to the cash flow which related to the company's fixed assets such as equipment building and so on such as the cash used to buy a new equipment or a building
 * Financing cash flow: cash flow from a company's financing activities like issuing stock or paying dividends.

The sum of the three components above will be the total cash flow of a company.

Examples
The net cash flow only provides a limited amount of information. Compare, for instance, the cash flows over three years of two companies:

Company B has a higher yearly cash flow. However, Company A is actually earning more cash by its core activities and has already spent 45M in long term investments, of which the revenues will only show up after three years.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cash flow


text:
Champagne

Champagne is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, specific grape-pressing methods and secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to cause carbonation.

The grapes Pinot noir, Pinot meunier, and Chardonnay are used to produce almost all Champagne, but small amounts of Pinot blanc, Pinot gris (called Fromenteau in Champagne), Arbane, and Petit Meslier are vinified as well.

Champagne became associated with royalty in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The leading manufacturers made efforts to associate their Champagnes with nobility and royalty through advertising and packaging, which led to its popularity among the emerging middle class.

Origins
Still wines from the Champagne region were known before medieval times. The Romans were the first to plant vineyards in this area of northeast France, with the region being tentatively cultivated by the 5th century. Cultivation was initially slow due to the unpopular edict by Emperor Domitian that all colonial vines must be uprooted. When Emperor Probus, the son of a gardener, rescinded the edict, a temple to Bacchus was erected, and the region started to produce a light, fruity, red wine that contrasted with heavier Italian brews often fortified with resin and herbs. Later, church owned vineyards, and monks produced wine for use in the sacrament of the Eucharist. French kings were traditionally anointed in Reims, and champagne was served as part of coronation festivities. The Champenois were envious of the reputation of the wines made by their Burgundian neighbours to the south and sought to produce wines of equal acclaim. However, the northern climate of the region gave the Champenois a unique set of challenges in making red wine. At the far extremes of sustainable viticulture, the grapes would struggle to ripen fully and often would have bracing levels of acidity and low sugar levels. The wines would be lighter bodied and thinner than the Burgundy wines they sought to outdo.

Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not invent sparkling wine, though he did make important contributions to the production and quality of both still and sparkling Champagne wines. The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was invented by Benedictine monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne, in 1531. They achieved this by bottling the wine before the initial fermentation had ended. Over a century later, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation six years before Dom Pérignon set foot in the Abbey of Hautvillers. Merret presented a paper at the Royal Society, in which he detailed what is now called méthode traditionnelle i.e. Traditional method, in 1662. Merret's discoveries coincided also with English glass-makers' technical developments that allowed bottles to be produced that could withstand the required internal pressures during secondary fermentation. French glass-makers at this time could not produce bottles of the required quality or strength. As early as 1663, the poet Samuel Butler referred to "brisk champagne".

In France, the first sparkling champagne was created accidentally; the pressure in the bottle led it to be called "the devil's wine" (le vin du diable), as bottles exploded or corks popped. At the time, bubbles were considered a fault. In 1844, Adolphe Jaquesson invented the muselet to prevent the corks from blowing out. Initial versions were difficult to apply and inconvenient to remove. Even when it was deliberately produced as a sparkling wine, champagne was for a very long time made by the méthode rurale, where the wine was bottled before the initial fermentation had finished. Champagne did not use the méthode champenoise until the 19th century, about 200 years after Merret documented the process. The 19th century saw a dramatic growth in champagne production, going from a regional production of 300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850. In 2007, champagne sales hit a record of 338.7 million bottles.

In the 19th century, champagne was noticeably sweeter than today's champagnes. The trend towards drier champagne began when Perrier-Jouët decided not to sweeten his 1846 vintage before exporting it to London. The designation Brut Champagne was created for the British in 1876.

The only wines that are legally allowed to be named “Champagne” must be bottled within 100 miles of the Champagne region in France. The name is legally protected by European law and an 1891 treaty that requires true champagne to be produced in the Champagne region and made from the Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, or Chardonnay grapes grown in this region.

Rights to the name

The Champagne winemaking community, under the auspices of the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine produced in the region to protect its economic interests. They include codification of the most suitable growing places, the most suitable grape types (most Champagne is a blend of up to three grape varieties, though other varieties are allowed), and a lengthy set of requirements specifying most aspects of viticulture. This includes pruning, vineyard yield, the degree of pressing, and the time that wine must remain on its lees before bottling. It can also limit the release of Champagne to market to maintain prices. Only when a wine meets these requirements may it be labelled Champagne. The rules agreed upon by the CIVC are submitted for the final approval of the Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (formerly the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, INAO).

In 2007, the INAO, the government organization that controls wine appellations in France, was preparing to make the largest revision of the region's legal boundaries since 1927 in response to economic pressures. With soaring demand and limited production of grapes, Champagne houses say the rising price could produce a consumer backlash that would harm the industry for years into the future. That and political pressure from villages that wanted to be included in the expanded boundaries led to the move. Changes are subject to significant scientific review and are said not to impact Champagne-produced grapes until 2020. A final decision is not expected until 2023 or 2024.

Use of the word Champagne
Sparkling wines are produced worldwide, but many legal structures reserve the word Champagne exclusively for sparkling wines from the Champagne region, made in accordance with Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne regulations. In the European Union and many other countries, the name Champagne is legally protected by the Madrid system under an 1891 treaty, which reserved it for the sparkling wine produced in the eponymous region and adhering to the standards defined for it as an appellation d'origine contrôlée; the protection was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Over 70 countries have adopted similar legal protection. Most recently Australia, Chile, Brazil, Canada and China passed laws or signed agreements with Europe that limit the use of the term "Champagne" to only those products produced in the Champagne region. The United States bans the use of all new U.S.-produced wine brands. However, those that had approval to use the term on labels before 2006 may continue to use it, provided the term is accompanied by the wine's actual origin (e.g., "California"). The majority of US-produced sparkling wines do not use the term Champagne on their labels, and some states, such as Oregon, ban producers in their states from using the term.

Several key U.S. wine regions, such as those in California (Napa, Sonoma Valley, Paso Robles), Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington, came to consider the remaining semi-generic labels as harmful to their reputations (cf. Napa Declaration on Place).

Even the terms méthode champenoise and Champagne method were forbidden by an EU court decision in 1994. the description most often used for sparkling wines using the second fermentation in the bottle process, but not from the Champagne region, is méthode traditionnelle. Sparkling wines are produced worldwide, and many producers use special terms to define them: Spain uses Cava, Italy designates it spumante, and South Africa uses cap classique. An Italian sparkling wine made from the Muscat grape uses the DOCG Asti and from the Glera grape the DOC Prosecco. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other French wine regions cannot use the name Champagne: e.g., Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant. In 2008, more than 3,000 bottles of sparkling wine produced in California labelled with the term "Champagne" were destroyed by Belgian government authorities.

Regardless of the legal requirements for labeling, extensive education efforts by the Champagne region, and the use of alternative names by non-Champagne sparkling wine producers, some consumers, and wine sellers, including "Korbels California Champagne", use Champagne as a generic term for white sparkling wines, regardless of origin.

The village of Champagne, Switzerland has traditionally made a still wine labelled as "Champagne": the earliest records of viticulture dated to 1657. In 1999, in an accord with the EU, the Swiss government conceded that, by 2004, the village would phase out the use of the name. Sales dropped from 110,000 bottles a year to 32,000 after the change. In April 2008, the villagers resolved to fight against the restriction following a Swiss open-air vote.

In the Soviet Union, all sparkling wines were called шампанское (shampanskoe, Russian for "that, which is of Champagne"). The name is still used today for some brands of sparkling wines produced in former Soviet republics, such as Sovetskoye Shampanskoye and Rossiyskoe Shampanskoe. In 2021, Russia banned the use of the designation шампанское for imported sparkling wine, including sparkling wine produced in the Champagne wine region, reserving the designation for domestically produced sparkling wine only.

Production

Formerly known as méthode champenoise or méthode classique, champagne is produced by a traditional method. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and rock sugar to the bottle – although each brand has its own secret recipe. According to the appellation d'origine contrôlée a minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop all the flavour. For years where the harvest is exceptional, a millésime is declared and some champagne will be made from and labelled as the products of a single vintage (vintage champagne) rather than a blend of multiple years' harvests. This means that the champagne will be very good and has to mature for at least 3 years. During this time the champagne bottle is sealed with a crown cap similar to that used on beer bottles.

After aging, the bottle is manipulated, either manually or mechanically, in a process called remuage (or "riddling" in English), so that the lees settle in the neck of the bottle. After chilling the bottles, the neck is frozen, and the cap removed. This process is called disgorgement. The 6 bar pressure in the bottle forces out the ice containing the lees. Some wine from previous vintages and additional sugar (le dosage) is added to maintain the level within the bottle and adjust the sweetness of the finished wine. The bottle is then quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide in solution.

Bubbles
An initial burst of effervescence occurs when the champagne contacts the dry glass on pouring. These bubbles form on imperfections in the glass that facilitate nucleation or, to a minimal extent, on cellulose fibres left over from the wiping and drying process as shown with a high-speed video camera. However, after the initial rush, these naturally occurring imperfections are typically too small to consistently act as nucleation points as the surface tension of the liquid smooths out these minute irregularities. The nucleation sites that act as a source for the ongoing effervescence are not natural imperfections in the glass, but actually occur where the glass has been etched by the manufacturer or the customer. This etching is typically done with acid, a laser, or a glass etching tool from a craft shop to provide nucleation sites for continuous bubble formation (note that not all glasses are etched in this way). In 1662 this method was developed in England, as records from the Royal Society show.

Dom Pérignon was originally charged by his superiors at the Abbey of Hautvillers to get rid of the bubbles since the pressure in the bottles caused many of them to burst in the cellar. As sparkling wine production increased in the early 18th century, cellar workers had to wear a heavy iron mask to prevent injury from spontaneously bursting bottles. The disturbance caused by one bottle exploding could cause a chain reaction, with it being routine for cellars to lose 20–90% of their bottles this way. The mysterious circumstance surrounding the then unknown process of fermentation and carbonic gas caused some critics to call the sparkling creations "The Devil's Wine".

Champagne producers
There are more than one hundred champagne houses and 19,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) in Champagne. These companies manage some 32,000 hectares of vineyards in the region. The type of champagne producer can be identified from the abbreviations followed by the official number on the bottle:

 * NM: Négociant manipulant. These companies (including the majority of the larger brands) buy grapes and make the wine
 * CM: Coopérative de manipulation. Cooperatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together
 * RM: Récoltant manipulant. (Also known as Grower Champagne) A grower that also makes wine from its own grapes (a maximum of 5% of purchased grapes is permitted). Note that co-operative members who take their bottles to be disgorged at the co-op can now label themselves as RM instead of RC
 * SR: Société de récoltants. An association of growers making a shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative
 * RC: Récoltant coopérateur. A co-operative member selling champagne produced by the co-operative under its own name and label
 * MA: Marque auxiliaire or Marque d'acheteur. A brand name unrelated to the producer or grower; the name is owned by someone else, for example a supermarket
 * ND: Négociant distributeur. A wine merchant selling under his own name

Marketing

In the 19th century, champagne was produced and promoted to mark contemporary political events, such as the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1893, and the Tennis Court Oath to mark the centennial of French Revolution, linking champagne to French nationalist ideology. Négociants also managed to market champagne by identifying it with leisure activities and sporting events. They also successfuly appealed to a broader range of consumers by highlighting the different qualities of sparkling wine versus ordinary wine, associating champagne brands with royalty and nobility, and selling off-brands under the names of importers from France at a lower cost. However, selling off-brands at a lower price proved to be unsuccessful, since "there was an assumption that cheap sparkling wine was not authentic." Since the beginning of the Belle Époque period, champagne has gone from a regional product serving a niche market to a national commodity which is distributed globally.

The popularity of champagne is particularly attributed to the success of champagne producers in marketing the wine's image as a royal and aristocratic drink. Laurent-Perrier's advertisements in late 1890 boasted their champagne was the favourite of Leopold II of Belgium, George I of Greece, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, and John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham, among other nobles, knights, and military officers. Despite this royal prestige, champagne houses also portrayed champagne as a luxury which could be enjoyed by anyone, and was fit for any occasion. This strategy worked, and, by the turn of the 20th century, the majority of champagne drinkers were middle class.

In the 19th century, champagne producers made a concentrated effort to market their wine to women. This is done by having the sweeter champagne associates with female, whereas the dry champagne with male and foreign markets. This was in stark contrast to the traditionally "male aura" that the wines of France had—particularly Burgundy and Bordeaux. Laurent-Perrier again took the lead in this area with advertisements touting their wine's favour with the Countess of Dudley, the wife of the 9th Earl of Stamford, the wife of the Baron Tollemache, and the opera singer Adelina Patti. Champagne labels were designed with images of romantic love and marriage as well as other special occasions that were deemed important to women, such as the baptism of a child.

In some advertisements, the champagne houses catered to political interest such as the labels that appeared on different brands on bottles commemorating the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789. On some labels there were flattering images of Marie Antoinette that appealed to the conservative factions of French citizens that viewed the former queen as a martyr. On other labels there were stirring images of Revolutionary scenes that appealed to the liberal left sentiments of French citizens. As World War I loomed, champagne houses put images of soldiers and countries' flags on their bottles, customizing the image for each country to which the wine was imported. During the Dreyfus affair, one champagne house released a champagne antijuif with antisemitic advertisements to take advantage of the wave of Antisemitism that hit parts of France.

Champagne is typically drunk during celebrations. For example, British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a champagne reception to celebrate London winning the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. It is also used to launch ships when a bottle is smashed over the hull during the ship's launch. If the bottle fails to break this is often thought to be bad luck.

Wine-producing districts of Champagne
Champagne is a single appellation d'origine contrôlée but the territory is divided into next sub-regions, known as wine-producing districts, and each of them has distinct characteristics. The main wine-producing districts of the Champagne wine region: Reims, Marne Valley, Côte des Blancs, Côtes des Bar, Côtes de Sezzane.

As a general rule, grapes used must be the white Chardonnay, or the dark-skinned "red wine grapes" Pinot noir or Pinot meunier, which, due to the gentle pressing of the grapes and absence of skin contact during fermentation, usually also yield a white base wine. Most Champagnes, including Rosé wines, are made from a blend of all three grapes, although blanc de blancs ("white from whites") Champagnes are made from 100% Chardonnay and blanc de noirs ("white from blacks") Champagnes are made solely from Pinot noir, Pinot meunier or a mix of the two.

Four other grape varieties are permitted, mostly for historical reasons, as they are rare in current usage. The 2010 version of the appellation regulations lists seven varieties as allowed, Arbane, Chardonnay, Petit Meslier, Pinot blanc, Pinot gris, Pinot meunier, and Pinot noir. The sparsely cultivated varieties (0.02% of the total vines planted in Champagne) of Arbanne, Petit Meslier, and Pinot blanc can still be found in modern cuvées from a few producers. Previous directives of INAO make conditional allowances according to the complex laws of 1927 and 1929, and plantings made before 1938. Before the 2010 regulations, the complete list of the actual and theoretical varieties also included Pinot de Juillet and Pinot Rosé. The Gamay vines of the region were scheduled to be uprooted by 1942, but due to World War II, this was postponed until 1962, and this variety is no longer allowed in Champagne.

The dark-skinned Pinot noir and Pinot meunier give the wine its length and backbone. They are predominantly grown in two areas – the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne. The Montagne de Reims run east–west to the south of Reims, in northern Champagne. They are notable for north-facing chalky slopes that derive heat from the warm winds rising from the valleys below. The River Marne runs west–east through Champagne, south of the Montagne de Reims. The Vallée de la Marne contains south-facing chalky slopes. Chardonnay gives the wine its acidity and biscuit flavour. Most Chardonnay is grown in a north–south-running strip to the south of Épernay, called the Côte des Blancs, including the villages of Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. These are east-facing vineyards, with terroir similar to the Côte de Beaune. The various terroirs account for the differences in grape characteristics and explain the appropriateness of blending juice from different grape varieties and geographical areas within Champagne, to get the desired style for each Champagne house.

Types of Champagne
Most of the Champagne produced today is "Non-vintage", meaning that it is a blended product of grapes from multiple vintages. Most of the base will be from a single year vintage with producers blending anywhere from 10 to 15% (even as high as 40%) of wine from older vintages. If the conditions of a particular vintage are favourable, some producers will make a vintage wine that must be composed of 100% of the grapes from that vintage year. Under Champagne wine regulations, houses that make both vintage and non-vintage wines are allowed to use no more than 80% of the total vintage's harvest for the production of vintage Champagne. This allows at least 20% of the harvest from each vintage to be reserved for use in non-vintage Champagne. This ensures a consistent style that consumers can expect from non-vintage Champagne that does not alter too radically depending on the quality of the vintage. In less than ideal vintages, some producers will produce a wine from only that single vintage and still label it as non-vintage rather than as "vintage" since the wine will be of lesser quality and the producers have little desire to reserve the wine for future blending.

Prestige cuvée
A cuvée de prestige is a proprietary blended wine (usually a Champagne) that is considered to be the top of a producer's range. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, Duval-Leroy's Cuvée Femme, Armand de Brignac Gold Brut, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill. Perhaps the first publicly available prestige cuvée was Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, launched in 1936 with the 1921 vintage. Until then, Champagne houses produced different cuvées of varying quality, but a top-of-the-range wine produced to the highest standards (and priced accordingly) was a new idea. In fact, Louis Roederer had been producing Cristal since 1876, but this was strictly for the private consumption of the Russian tsar. Cristal was made publicly available with the 1945 vintage. Then came Taittinger's Comtes de Champagne (first vintage 1952), and Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle 'La Cuvée' in 1960, a blend of three vintages (1952, 1953, and 1955) and Perrier Jouët's La Belle Époque. In the last three decades of the 20th century, most Champagne houses followed these with their own prestige cuvées, often named after notable people with a link to that producer and presented in non-standard bottle shapes (following Dom Pérignon's lead with its 18th-century revival design).

Blanc de noirs
A French term (literally "white from blacks" or "white of blacks") for a white wine produced entirely from black grapes. The flesh of grapes described as black or red is white; grape juice obtained after minimal possible contact with the skins produces essentially white wine, with a slightly yellower colour than wine from white grapes. The colour, due to the small amount of red skin pigments present, is often described as white-yellow, white-grey, or silvery. Blanc de noirs is often encountered in Champagne, where a number of houses have followed the lead of Bollinger's prestige cuvée Vieilles Vignes Françaises in introducing a cuvée made from either pinot noir, pinot meunier or a blend of the two (these being the only two black grapes permitted within the Champagne AOC appellation).

Blanc de blancs

A French term that means "white from whites", and is used to designate Champagnes made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes or in rare occasions from Pinot blanc (such as La Bolorée from Cedric Bouchard). The term is occasionally used in other sparkling wine-producing regions, usually to denote Chardonnay-only wines rather than any sparkling wine made from other white grape varieties.

Rosé Champagne
Rosé Champagnes are characterized by their distinctive blush color, fruity aroma, and earthy flavor. Rosé Champagne has been produced since the late 18th century; storied French Champagne houses Rinault and Veuve Clicquot have each claimed to have shipped and sold the first bottles. The wine is produced by one of two methods. Using the saignée method, winemakers will leave the clear juice of dark grapes to macerate with the skins for a brief time, resulting in wine lightly colored and flavored by the skins. In the more common d'assemblage method, producers will blend a small amount of still red wine to a sparkling wine cuvée. Champagne is light in color even when it is produced with red grapes, because the juice is extracted from the grapes using a gentle process that minimizes contact with the skins. By contrast, Rosé Champagne, especially that created by d'assemblage, results in the production of rosé with a predictable and reproducible color, allowing winemakers to achieve a consistent rosé appearance from year to year.

The character of rosé Champagne has varied greatly since its production began. Thought to be a sign of extravagance when originally introduced, by the early 20th century these wines were colloquially known as "Pink Champagne," and had gained a reputation of frivolousness or even dissipation. The 1939 Hollywood film Love Affair was reportedly approached to promote it by featuring the main characters bonding over enjoying the unpopular drink, and caused a sales boost after the film's release. It is also cited by The Eagles as a beverage of choice in the titular "Hotel California." Rosé Champagnes, particularly brut varieties, began regaining popularity in the late 20th century in many countries. Because of the complex variety of flavors it presents, rosé Champagne is often served in fine dining restaurants, as a complementary element in food and wine pairing.

Sweetness
Just after disgorgement a "liqueur de dosage" or liqueur d’expédition – a blend of, typically, cane sugar and wine (sugar amounts up to 750 g/litre) – is added to adjust the levels of sugar in the Champagne when bottled for sale, and hence the sweetness of the finished wine. Today sweetness is generally not looked for per se, and dosage is used to fine tune the perception of acidity in the wine.

For Caroline Latrive, cellar master of Ayala, a Champagne house that pioneered drier champagnes at the end of the 19th century, dosage represents the final touch in champagne making and must be as subtle as possible to bring the right balance.

Additionally, dosage protects champagne from oxidation because it includes a small amount of Sulfur dioxide, and sugar also acts as a preservative. Benoît Gouez, cellar master of Moët & Chandon says that sugar helps champagne recover from the oxidative shock of disgorgement, and contributes to the wine's aging potential.

Wines labeled Brut Zero, more common among smaller producers, have no added sugar and will usually be very dry, with less than 3 grams of residual sugar per litre in the finished wine. The following terms are used to describe the sweetness of the bottled wine:

 * Extra Brut (less than 6 grams of sugar per litre)
 * Brut (less than 12 grams)
 * Extra Dry (between 12 and 17 grams)
 * Sec (between 17 and 32 grams)
 * Demi-sec (between 32 and 50 grams)
 * Doux (50 grams)

The most common style today is Brut. However, throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century Champagne was generally much sweeter than it is today. Moreover, except in Britain, Champagne was drunk as dessert wines (after the meal), rather than as table wines (with the meal). At this time, Champagne sweetness was instead referred to by destination country, roughly as: Of these, only the driest English is close to contemporary tastes.
 * Goût anglais ("English taste", between 22 and 66 grams); note that today goût anglais refers to aged vintage Champagne
 * Goût américain ("American taste", between 110 and 165 grams)
 * Goût français ("French taste", between 165 and 200 grams)
 * Goût russe ("Russian taste", between 200 and 300 grams)

Bottles

Champagne is mostly fermented in two sizes of bottles, standard bottles (750 millilitres) and magnums (1.5 litres). In general, magnums are thought to be higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume-to-surface area ratio favours the creation of appropriately sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. Other bottle sizes, mostly named for Biblical figures, are generally filled with Champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums. Gosset still bottles its Grande Réserve in jeroboam from the beginning of its second fermentation.

Sizes larger than Jeroboam (3 L) are rare. Primat bottles (27 L)—and,, Melchizedek bottles (30 L)—are exclusively offered by the House Drappier. (The same names are used for bottles containing regular wine and port; however, Jeroboam, Rehoboam, and Methuselah refer to different bottle volumes.)

Unique sizes have been made for specific markets, special occasions and people. The most notable example is perhaps the 20 fluid oz. / 56.8 cl (imperial pint) bottle made between 1874 and 1973 for the English market by Pol Roger, often associated with Sir Winston Churchill.

In 2009, a bottle of 1825 Perrier-Jouët Champagne was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world's top wine tasters. This bottle was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest bottle of Champagne in the world. The contents were found to be drinkable, with notes of truffles and caramel in the taste. There are now only two other bottles from the 1825 vintage extant.

In July 2010, 168 bottles were found on board a shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea by Finnish diver Christian Ekström. Initial analyses indicated there were at least two types of bottle from two different houses: Veuve Clicquot in Reims and the long-defunct Champagne house Juglar (absorbed into Jacquesson in 1829.) The shipwreck is dated between 1800 and 1830, and the bottles discovered may well predate the 1825 Perrier-Jouët referenced above. When experts were replacing the old corks with new ones, they discovered there were also bottles from a third house, Heidsieck. The wreck, then, contained 95 bottles of Juglar, 46 bottles of Veuve Clicquot, and four bottles of Heidsieck, in addition to 23 bottles whose manufacture is still to be identified. Champagne experts Richard Juhlin and Essi Avellan, MW described the bottles' contents as being in a very good condition. It is planned that the majority of the bottles will be sold at auction, the price of each estimated to be in the region of £40,000–70,000.

In April 2015, nearly five years after the bottles were first found, researchers led by Philippe Jeandet, a professor of food biochemistry, released the findings of their chemical analyses of the Champagne, and particularly noted the fact that, although the chemical composition of the 170-year-old Champagne was very similar to the composition of modern-day Champagne, there was much more sugar in this Champagne than in modern-day Champagne, and it was also less alcoholic than modern-day Champagne. The high sugar level was characteristic of people's tastes at the time, and Jeandet explained that it was common for people in the 19th century, such as Russians, to add sugar to their wine at dinner. It also contained higher concentrations of minerals such as iron, copper, and table salt than modern-day Champagne does.

Champagne corks
Champagne corks are mostly built from three sections and are referred to as agglomerated corks. The mushroom shape that occurs in the transition is a result of the bottom section's being composed of two stacked discs of pristine cork cemented to the upper portion, which is a conglomerate of ground cork and glue. The bottom section is in contact with the wine. Before insertion, a sparkling wine cork is almost 50% larger than the opening of the bottle. Originally, the cork starts as a cylinder and is compressed before insertion into the bottle. Over time, their compressed shape becomes more permanent and the distinctive "mushroom" shape becomes more apparent.

The aging of the Champagne post-disgorgement can to some degree be told by the cork, as, the longer it has been in the bottle, the less it returns to its original cylinder shape.

Serving
Champagne is usually served in a Champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl, thin sides and an etched bottom. The intended purpose of the shape of the flute is to reduce surface area, therefore preserving carbonation, as well as maximizing nucleation (the visible bubbles and lines of bubbles). Legend has it that the Victorian coupe 's shape was modelled on the breast of Madame de Pompadour, chief-mistress of Louis XV of France, or perhaps Marie Antoinette, but the glass was designed in England over a century earlier especially for sparkling wine and champagne in 1663. Champagne is always served cold; its ideal drinking temperature is 7 to 9 C. Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water, half an hour before opening, which also ensures the Champagne is less gassy and can be opened without spillage. Champagne buckets are made specifically for this purpose and often have a larger volume than standard wine-cooling buckets to accommodate the larger bottle, and more water and ice.

When it comes to the etiquette behind holding a glass of Champagne, it is important to consider the type of Champagne glass used and the four main parts of any wine glass: the rim, the bowl, the stem and the base. In the case of a flute glass or tulip glass, etiquette dictates holding by the long, narrow stem in order to avoid smudging the glass and warming up the contents with the heat of one’s hand. Flute and tulip glasses can be temporarily held by the rim, although this glass hold blocks the area where the taster would take a sip. This hold can also smudge the top section of the glass. These two types of glass can also be held by the disk-shaped base without smudging or warming the liquid inside. When it comes to the coupe glass, with its short stem and shallow, wide-brimmed bowl, the only possible glass hold is by the bowl. The top-heavy nature of the glass makes holding by the base or stem impossible, while the large diameter of the top makes grabbing the glass by the rim difficult.

Opening Champagne bottles
To reduce the risk of spilling or spraying any Champagne, the bottle is opened by holding the cork and rotating the bottle at an angle in order to ease out the stopper. This method, as opposed to pulling the cork out, prevents the cork from flying out of the bottle at speed (the expanding gases are supersonic). Also, holding the bottle at an angle allows air in and helps prevent the champagne from geysering out of the bottle.

A sabre can be used to open a Champagne bottle with great ceremony. This technique is called sabrage (the term is also used for simply breaking the head of the bottle).

Pouring Champagne
Pouring sparkling wine while tilting the glass at an angle and gently sliding in the liquid along the side will preserve the most bubbles, as opposed to pouring directly down to create a head of "mousse", according to a study, On the Losses of Dissolved CO2 during Champagne serving, by scientists from the University of Reims. Colder bottle temperatures also result in reduced loss of gas. Additionally, the industry is developing Champagne glasses designed specifically to reduce the amount of gas lost.

Spraying Champagne
Champagne has been an integral part of sports celebration since Moët & Chandon started offering their Champagne to the winners of Formula 1 Grand Prix events. At the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, winner Dan Gurney started the tradition of drivers spraying the crowd and each other. The Muslim-majority nation Bahrain banned Champagne celebrations on F1 podiums in 2004, using a nonalcoholic pomegranate and rose water drink instead.

In 2015, some Australian sports competitors began to celebrate by drinking champagne from their shoe, a practice known as shoey.

Culinary uses
The poulet au champagne ("chicken with Champagne") is an essentially Marnese specialty. Other well-known recipes using Champagne are huîtres au champagne ("oysters with Champagne") and Champagne zabaglione.

Price
There are several general factors influencing the price of Champagne: the limited land of the region, the prestige that Champagne has developed worldwide, and the high cost of the production process, among possible others.

Producers
A list of major Champagne producers and their respective Cuvée de prestige

Shipments
The Champagne industry is expected to ship 314 million bottles in 2023, down 3.7% from the previous year, according to the Comité Champagne industry trade group. Nightclub markets remain strong, but consumption of Champagne in the home is losing ground.

title: Champagne


text:
Champagne wine region

The wine region within the historical province of Champagne in the northeast of France is best known for the production of champagne, the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name. EU law and the laws of most countries reserve the term "champagne" exclusively for wines that come from this region located about 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Paris. The viticultural boundaries of Champagne are legally defined and split into five wine-producing districts within the historical province: Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. The city of Reims and the town of Épernay are the commercial centers of the area. Reims is famous for its cathedral, the venue of the coronation of the French kings and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Located at the northern edges of France, the history of the Champagne wine region has had a significant role in the development of this unique terroir. The area's proximity to Paris promoted the region's economic success in its wine trade but also put the villages and vineyards in the path of marching armies on their way to the French capital. Despite the frequency of these military conflicts, the region developed a reputation for quality wine production in the early Middle Ages and was able to continue that reputation as the region's producers began making sparkling wine with the advent of the great champagne houses in the 17th and 18th centuries. The principal grapes grown in the region include Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and Pinot Meunier. Pinot noir is the most widely planted grape in the Aube region and grows very well in Montagne de Reims. Pinot Meunier is the dominant grape in the Vallée de la Marne region. The Côte des Blancs is dedicated almost exclusively to Chardonnay.

The unique, chalky landscape of the Champagne wine region and the resulting agro-industrial system led to the development of sparkling wines like champagne in the 17th century. As a result, many of the production sites and wine houses in the region were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015 as part the Champagne hillsides, houses and cellars site.

Geography and climate
The Champagne province is located near the northern limits of the wine world along the 49th parallel. The high latitude and mean annual temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) creates a difficult environment for wine grapes to fully ripen. Ripening is aided by the presence of forests which helps to stabilize temperatures and maintain moisture in the soil. The cool temperatures serve to produce high levels of acidity in the resulting grape which is ideal for sparkling wine.

During the growing season, the mean July temperature is 18 °C (66 °F). The average annual rainfall is 630 mm (25 inches), with 45 mm (1.8 inches) falling during the harvest month of September. Throughout the year, growers must be mindful of the hazards of fungal disease and early spring frost.

Ancient oceans left behind chalk subsoil deposits when they receded 70 million years ago. Earthquakes that rocked the region over 10 million years ago pushed the marine sediments of belemnite fossils up to the surface to create the belemnite chalk terrain. The belemnite in the soil allows it to absorb heat from the sun and gradually release it during the night as well as providing good drainage. This soil contributes to the lightness and finesse that is characteristic of Champagne wine. The Aube area is an exception with predominately clay based soil. The chalk is also used in the construction of underground cellars that can keep the wines cool through the bottle maturation process.

History
The Carolingian reign saw periods of prosperity for the Champagne region beginning with Charlemagne's encouragement for the area to start planting vines and continuing with the coronation of his son Louis the Pious at Reims. The tradition of crowning kings at Reims contributed to the reputation of the wines that came from this area. The Counts of Champagne ruled the area as an independent county from 950 to 1316. In 1314, the last Count of Champagne assumed the throne as King Louis X of France and the region became part of the Crown territories.

Military conflicts
The location of Champagne played a large role in its historical prominence as it served as a "crossroads" for both military and trade routes. This also made the area open to devastation and destruction during military conflicts that were frequently waged in the area. In 451 A.D. near Châlons-en-Champagne, Attila and the Huns were defeated by an alliance of Roman legions, Franks and Visigoths. This defeat was a turning point in the Huns' invasion of Europe.

During the Hundred Years' War, the land was repeatedly ravaged and devastated by battles. The Abbey of Hautvillers, including its vineyards, was destroyed in 1560 during the War of Religion between the Huguenots and Catholics. This was followed by conflicts during the Thirty Year War and the Fronde Civil War where soldiers and mercenaries held the area in occupation. It was not until the 1660s, during the reign of Louis XIV, that the region saw enough peace to allow advances in sparkling wine production to take place.

History of wine production
The region's reputation for wine production dates back to the Middle Ages when Pope Urban II ( ruled 1088-1099 AD/CE ), a native Champenois, declared that the wine of Aÿ in the Marne département was the best wine produced in the world. For a time Aÿ was used as a shorthand designation for wines from the entire Champagne region, similar to the use of Beaune for the wines of Burgundy. The poet Henry d'Andeli's work La Bataille des Vins rated wines from the towns of Épernay, Hautvillers and Reims as some of the best in Europe. As the region's reputation grew, popes and royalty sought to own pieces of the land with Pope Leo X, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain, and Henry VIII of England all owning vineyard land in the region. A batch of wine from Aÿ received in 1518 by Henry VIII's chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, is the first recorded export of wine from the Champagne region to England.

The still wines of the area were highly prized in Paris under the designation of vins de la rivière and vins de la montagne- wines of the river and wines of the mountain in reference to the wooded terrain and the river Marne which carried the wines down to the Seine and into Paris. The region was in competition with Burgundy for the Flemish wine trade and tried to capitalize on Reims' location along the trade route from Beaune. In the 15th century, Pinot noir became heavily planted in the area. The resulting red wine had difficulty comparing well to the richness and coloring of Burgundy wines, despite the addition of elderberries to deepen the color. This led to a greater focus on white wines.

The Champagne house of Gosset was founded as a still wine producer in 1584 and is the oldest Champagne house still in operation today. Ruinart was founded in 1729 and was soon followed by Chanoine Frères (1730), Taittinger (1734), Moët et Chandon (1743) and Veuve Clicquot (1772).

The nineteenth century saw an explosive growth in Champagne production going from a regional production of 300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850.

Rivalry with Burgundy
A strong influence on Champagne wine production was the centuries-old rivalry between the region and Burgundy. From the key market of Paris to the palace of Louis XIV of France at Versailles, proponents of Champagne and Burgundy would compete for dominance. For most of his life, Louis XIV would drink only Champagne wine with the support of his doctor Antoine d'Aquin who advocated the King drink Champagne with every meal for the benefit of his health. As the King aged and his ailments increased, competing doctors would propose alternative treatments with alternative wines, to soothe the King's ills. One of these doctors, Guy-Crescent Fagon conspired with the King's mistress to oust d'Aquin and have himself appointed as Royal Doctor. Fagon quickly attributed the King's continuing ailments to Champagne and ordered that only Burgundy wine must be served at the royal table.

This development had a ripple effect throughout both regions and in the Paris markets. Both Champagne and Burgundy were deeply concerned with the "healthiness" reputation of their wines, even to the extent of paying medical students to write theses touting the health benefit of their wines. These theses were then used as advertising pamphlets that were sent to merchants and customers. The Faculty of Medicine in Reims published several papers to refute Fagon's claim that Burgundy wine was healthier than Champagne. In response, Burgundian winemakers hired physician Jean-Baptiste de Salins, dean of the medical school in Beaune, to speak to a packed auditorium at the Paris Faculty of Medicine. Salins spoke favorably of Burgundy wine's deep color and robust nature and compared it to the pale red color of Champagne and the "instability" of the wine to travel long distances and the flaws of the bubbles from when secondary fermentation would take place. The text of his speech was published in newspapers and pamphlets throughout France and had a damaging effect on Champagne sales.

The war of words would continue for another 130 years with endless commentary from doctors, poets, playwrights and authors all arguing for their favorite region and their polemics being reproduced in advertisements for Burgundy and Champagne. On a few occasions, the two regions were on the brink of civil war. A turning point occurred when several Champagne wine makers abandoned efforts to produce red wine in favor of focusing on harnessing the effervescent nature of sparkling Champagne. As the bubbles became more popular, doctors throughout France and Europe commented on the health benefits of the sparkling bubbles which were said to cure malaria. As more Champenois winemakers embarked on this new and completely different wine style, the rivalry with Burgundy mellowed and eventually waned.

Classifications and vineyard regulations

In 1927, viticultural boundaries of Champagne were legally defined and split into five wine-producing districts: The Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. This area covered in 2008 33,500 hectares (76,000 acres) of vineyards around 319 villages that were home to 5,000 growers who made their own wine and 14,000 growers who only sold grapes.

The different districts produce grapes of varying characteristics that are blended by the Champagne houses to create their distinct house styles. The Pinots of the Montagne de Reims that are planted on northern facing slopes are known for their high levels of acid and the delicacy they add to the blend. The grapes on the southern facing slope add more power and character. Grapes across the district contribute to the bouquet and headiness. The abundance of southern facing slopes in the Vallée de la Marne produces the ripest wines with full aroma. The Côte des Blancs grapes are known for their finesse and the freshness they add to blends with the extension of the nearby Côte de Sézanne offering similar though slightly less distinguished traits.

In 1941, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) was formed with the purpose of protecting Champagne's reputation and marketing forces as well as setting up and monitoring regulations for vineyard production and vinification methods. Champagne is the only region that is permitted to exclude AOC or Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée from their labels.

For each vintage, the CIVC rated the villages of the area based on the quality of their grapes and vineyards. The rating was then used to determine the price and the percentage of the price that growers get. The Grand Cru rated vineyards received 100 percent rating which entitled the grower to 100% of the price. Premier Crus were vineyards with 90–99% ratings while Deuxième Crus received 80–89% ratings. Under appellation rules, around 4,000 kilograms (8,800 pounds) of grapes can be pressed to create up to 673 gallons (either 2,550 L or 3,060 L) of juice. The first 541 gallons (either 2,050 L or 2,460 L) are the cuvée and the next 132 gallons (either 500 L or 600 L) are the taille. Prior to 1992, a second taille of 44 gallons (either 167 L or 200 L) was previously allowed. For vintage Champagne, 100% of the grapes must come from that vintage year while non-vintage wine is a blend of vintages. Vintage champagne must spend a minimum of three years of aging. There are no regulations about how long it must spend on its lees, but some of the premier Champagne houses keep their wines on lees for upwards of five to ten years. Non-vintage Champagne must spend a minimum of 15 months of aging but only a minimum of 12 months on the lees. Most of the Champagne houses keep their wines on the lees throughout the entire aging period because it is more expensive to bottle the wine before aging it, as opposed to bottling and shipping the product in a single step at the end of the fermentation-and-aging process.

Revision of the Champagne region
The worldwide demand for Champagne has been continuously increasing throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. A record in worldwide shipping of Champagne (including domestic French consumption) of 327 million bottles was set in 1999 in anticipation of end of millennium celebrations, and a new record was set in 2007 at 338.7 million bottles. Since the entire vineyard area authorized by the 1927 AOC regulations is now under cultivation, various ways of expanding the production have been considered. The allowed yield was increased (to a maximum of 15,500 kg per hectare during an experimental period from 2007 to 2011 ) and the possibility of revising the production region was examined.

After an extensive review of vineyard conditions in and around the existing Champagne region, INAO presented a proposal to revise the region on March 14, 2008. The proposal was prepared by a group of five experts in the subjects of history, geography, geology, phytosociology and agronomy, working from 2005. The proposal means expanding the region to cover vineyards in 357 rather than 319 villages. This is to be achieved by adding vineyards in forty villages while simultaneously removing two villages in the Marne department that were included in the 1927 regulations, Germaine and Orbais-l'Abbaye.

The proposed 40 new Champagne villages are located in four départements:

 * 22 in Marne: Baslieux-les-Fismes, Blacy, Boissy-le-Repos, Bouvancourt, Breuil-sur-Vesle, Bussy-le-Repos, Champfleury, Courlandon, Courcy, Courdemanges, Fismes, Huiron, La Ville-sous-Orbais, Le Thoult-Trosnay, Loivre, Montmirail, Mont-sur-Courville, Peas, Romain, Saint-Loup, Soulanges, and Ventelay.
 * 15 in Aube: Arrelles, Balnot-la-Grange, Bossancourt, Bouilly, Étourvy, Fontvannes, Javernant, Laines-aux-Bois, Macey, Messon, Prugny, Saint-Germain-l'Épine, Souligny, Torvilliers and Villery.
 * Two in Haute-Marne: Champcourt and Harricourt.
 * One, Marchais-en-Brie, in Aisne.

The INAO proposal was to be subject to review before being made into law and was immediately questioned in numerous public comments. The mayor of one of the villages to be delisted, Germaine, immediately appealed against INAO's proposal, with the possibility of additional appeals by vineyard owners. The initial review process is expected to be finished by early 2009. This will be followed by another review of the specific parcels that will be added or deleted from the appellation. The earliest vineyard plantings are expected around 2015, with their product being marketed from around 2021. However, the price of land that are allowed to be used for Champagne production is expected to immediately rise from 5,000 to one million euro per hectare.

While some critics have feared the revision of the Champagne region is about expanding production irrespective of quality, British wine writer and Champagne expert Tom Stevenson has pointed out that the proposed additions constitute a consolidation rather than expansion. The villages under discussion are situated in gaps inside the perimeter of the existing Champagne regions rather than outside it.

As of 2019, the expansion had not happened, with a final decision expected in 2023 or 2024.

Production other than sparkling wine
While totally dominating the region's production, sparkling Champagne is not the only product that is made from the region's grapes. Non-sparkling still wines, like those made around the village Bouzy, are sold under the appellation label Coteaux Champenois. There is also a rosé appellation in the region, Rosé des Riceys. The regional vin de liqueur is called Ratafia de Champagne. Since the profit of making sparkling Champagne from the region's grape is now much higher, production of these non-sparkling wines and fortified wines is very small.

The pomace from the grape pressing is used to make Marc de Champagne, and in this case the production does not compete with that of Champagne, since the pomace is a by-product of wine production.

Traditions
The end of harvest in Champagne is marked by a celebration known as la Fête du Cochelet. At Reims, "St Jean is the patron of the cellar staff and those engaged in work connected with Champagne."

title: Champagne wine region


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Aborigine

Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:

 * Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
 * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
 * One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see List of indigenous peoples, including:
 * Aboriginal Australians (Aborigine is an archaic term that is often considered offensive)
 * Indigenous peoples in Canada, also known as Aboriginal Canadians
 * Orang Asli or Malayan aborigines
 * Taiwanese indigenous peoples, formerly known as Taiwanese aborigines

title: Aborigine


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Category (mathematics)

In mathematics, a category (sometimes called an abstract category to distinguish it from a concrete category) is a collection of "objects" that are linked by "arrows". A category has two basic properties: the ability to compose the arrows associatively and the existence of an identity arrow for each object. A simple example is the category of sets, whose objects are sets and whose arrows are functions.

Category theory is a branch of mathematics that seeks to generalize all of mathematics in terms of categories, independent of what their objects and arrows represent. Virtually every branch of modern mathematics can be described in terms of categories, and doing so often reveals deep insights and similarities between seemingly different areas of mathematics. As such, category theory provides an alternative foundation for mathematics to set theory and other proposed axiomatic foundations. In general, the objects and arrows may be abstract entities of any kind, and the notion of category provides a fundamental and abstract way to describe mathematical entities and their relationships.

In addition to formalizing mathematics, category theory is also used to formalize many other systems in computer science, such as the semantics of programming languages.

Two categories are the same if they have the same collection of objects, the same collection of arrows, and the same associative method of composing any pair of arrows. Two different categories may also be considered "equivalent" for purposes of category theory, even if they do not have precisely the same structure.

Well-known categories are denoted by a short capitalized word or abbreviation in bold or italics: examples include Set, the category of sets and set functions; Ring, the category of rings and ring homomorphisms; and Top, the category of topological spaces and continuous maps. All of the preceding categories have the identity map as identity arrows and composition as the associative operation on arrows.

The classic and still much used text on category theory is Categories for the Working Mathematician by Saunders Mac Lane. Other references are given in the References below. The basic definitions in this article are contained within the first few chapters of any of these books.

Any monoid can be understood as a special sort of category (with a single object whose self-morphisms are represented by the elements of the monoid), and so can any preorder.

Definition
There are many equivalent definitions of a category. One commonly used definition is as follows. A category C consists of such that the following axioms hold:
 * a class ob(C) of objects,
 * a class mor(C) of morphisms or arrows,
 * a domain or source class function dom: mor(C) → ob(C),
 * a codomain or target class function cod: mor(C) → ob(C),
 * for every three objects a, b and c, a binary operation hom(a, b) × hom(b, c) → hom(a, c) called composition of morphisms. Here hom(a, b) denotes the subclass of morphisms f in mor(C) such that dom(f) = a and cod(f) = b.  Morphisms in this subclass are written f : a → b, and the composite of f : a → b and g : b → c is often written as g ∘ f or gf.
 * the associative law: if f : a → b, g : b → c and h : c → d then h ∘ (g ∘ f) = (h ∘ g) ∘ f, and
 * the (left and right unit laws): for every object x, there exists a morphism 1x : x → x (some authors write idx) called the identity morphism for x, such that every morphism f : a → x satisfies 1x ∘ f = f, and every morphism g : x → b satisfies g ∘ 1x = g.

We write f: a → b, and we say "f is a morphism from a to b". We write hom(a, b) (or homC(a, b) when there may be confusion about to which category hom(a, b) refers) to denote the hom-class of all morphisms from a to b.

Some authors write the composite of morphisms in "diagrammatic order", writing f;g or fg instead of g ∘ f.

From these axioms, one can prove that there is exactly one identity morphism for every object. Often the map assigning each object its identity morphism is treated as an extra part of the structure of a category, namely a class function i: ob(C) → mor(C). Some authors use a slight variant of the definition in which each object is identified with the corresponding identity morphism. This stems from the idea that the fundamental data of categories are morphisms and not objects. In fact, categories can be defined without reference to objects at all using a partial binary operation with additional properties.

Small and large categories
A category C is called small if both obj(C) and hom(C) are actually sets and not proper classes, and large otherwise. A locally small category is a category such that for all objects a and b, the hom-class hom(a, b) is a set, called a homset. Many important categories in mathematics (such as the category of sets), although not small, are at least locally small. Since, in small categories, the objects form a set, a small category can be viewed as an algebraic structure similar to a monoid but without requiring closure properties. Large categories on the other hand can be used to create "structures" of algebraic structures.

Examples
The class of all sets (as objects) together with all functions between them (as morphisms), where the composition of morphisms is the usual function composition, forms a large category, Set. It is the most basic and the most commonly used category in mathematics. The category Rel consists of all sets (as objects) with binary relations between them (as morphisms). Abstracting from relations instead of functions yields allegories, a special class of categories.

Any class can be viewed as a category whose only morphisms are the identity morphisms. Such categories are called discrete. For any given set I, the discrete category on I is the small category that has the elements of I as objects and only the identity morphisms as morphisms. Discrete categories are the simplest kind of category.

Any preordered set (P, ≤) forms a small category, where the objects are the members of P, the morphisms are arrows pointing from x to y when x ≤ y. Furthermore, if ≤ is antisymmetric, there can be at most one morphism between any two objects. The existence of identity morphisms and the composability of the morphisms are guaranteed by the reflexivity and the transitivity of the preorder. By the same argument, any partially ordered set and any equivalence relation can be seen as a small category. Any ordinal number can be seen as a category when viewed as an ordered set.

Any monoid (any algebraic structure with a single associative binary operation and an identity element) forms a small category with a single object x. (Here, x is any fixed set.) The morphisms from x to x are precisely the elements of the monoid, the identity morphism of x is the identity of the monoid, and the categorical composition of morphisms is given by the monoid operation. Several definitions and theorems about monoids may be generalized for categories.

Similarly any group can be seen as a category with a single object in which every morphism is invertible, that is, for every morphism f there is a morphism g that is both left and right inverse to f under composition. A morphism that is invertible in this sense is called an isomorphism.

A groupoid is a category in which every morphism is an isomorphism. Groupoids are generalizations of groups, group actions and equivalence relations. Actually, in the view of category the only difference between groupoid and group is that a groupoid may have more than one object but the group must have only one. Consider a topological space X and fix a base point $$x_0$$ of X, then $$\pi_1(X,x_0)$$ is the fundamental group of the topological space X and the base point $$x_0$$, and as a set it has the structure of group; if then let the base point $$x_0$$ runs over all points of X, and take the union of all $$\pi_1(X,x_0)$$, then the set we get has only the structure of groupoid (which is called as the fundamental groupoid of X): two loops (under equivalence relation of homotopy) may not have the same base point so they cannot multiply with each other. In the language of category, this means here two morphisms may not have the same source object (or target object, because in this case for any morphism the source object and the target object are same: the base point) so they can not compose with each other.

Any directed graph generates a small category: the objects are the vertices of the graph, and the morphisms are the paths in the graph (augmented with loops as needed) where composition of morphisms is concatenation of paths. Such a category is called the free category generated by the graph.

The class of all preordered sets with order-preserving functions (i.e., monotone-increasing functions) as morphisms forms a category, Ord. It is a concrete category, i.e. a category obtained by adding some type of structure onto Set, and requiring that morphisms are functions that respect this added structure.

The class of all groups with group homomorphisms as morphisms and function composition as the composition operation forms a large category, Grp. Like Ord, Grp is a concrete category. The category Ab, consisting of all abelian groups and their group homomorphisms, is a full subcategory of Grp, and the prototype of an abelian category.

The class of all graphs forms another concrete category, where morphisms are graph homomorphisms (i.e., mappings between graphs which send vertices to vertices and edges to edges in a way that preserves all adjacency and incidence relations).

Other examples of concrete categories are given by the following table.

Fiber bundles with bundle maps between them form a concrete category.

The category Cat consists of all small categories, with functors between them as morphisms.

Dual category
Any category C can itself be considered as a new category in a different way: the objects are the same as those in the original category but the arrows are those of the original category reversed. This is called the dual or opposite category and is denoted Cop.

Product categories
If C and D are categories, one can form the product category C × D: the objects are pairs consisting of one object from C and one from D, and the morphisms are also pairs, consisting of one morphism in C and one in D. Such pairs can be composed componentwise.

Types of morphisms
A morphism f : a → b is called
 * a monomorphism (or monic) if it is left-cancellable, i.e. fg1 = fg2 implies g1 = g2 for all morphisms g1, g2 : x → a.
 * an epimorphism (or epic) if it is right-cancellable, i.e. g1f = g2f implies g1 = g2 for all morphisms g1, g2 : b → x.
 * a bimorphism if it is both a monomorphism and an epimorphism.
 * a retraction if it has a right inverse, i.e. if there exists a morphism g : b → a with fg = 1b.
 * a section if it has a left inverse, i.e. if there exists a morphism g : b → a with gf = 1a.
 * an isomorphism if it has an inverse, i.e. if there exists a morphism g : b → a with fg = 1b and gf = 1a.
 * an endomorphism if a = b. The class of endomorphisms of a is denoted end(a). For locally small categories, end(a) is a set and forms a monoid under morphism composition.
 * an automorphism if f is both an endomorphism and an isomorphism. The class of automorphisms of a is denoted aut(a). For locally small categories, it forms a group under morphism composition called the automorphism group of a.

Every retraction is an epimorphism. Every section is a monomorphism. The following three statements are equivalent:
 * f is a monomorphism and a retraction;
 * f is an epimorphism and a section;
 * f is an isomorphism.

Relations among morphisms (such as fg = h) can most conveniently be represented with commutative diagrams, where the objects are represented as points and the morphisms as arrows.

Types of categories

 * In many categories, e.g. Ab or VectK, the hom-sets hom(a, b) are not just sets but actually abelian groups, and the composition of morphisms is compatible with these group structures; i.e. is bilinear. Such a category is called preadditive. If, furthermore, the category has all finite products and coproducts, it is called an additive category. If all morphisms have a kernel and a cokernel, and all epimorphisms are cokernels and all monomorphisms are kernels, then we speak of an abelian category. A typical example of an abelian category is the category of abelian groups.
 * A category is called complete if all small limits exist in it. The categories of sets, abelian groups and topological spaces are complete.
 * A category is called cartesian closed if it has finite direct products and a morphism defined on a finite product can always be represented by a morphism defined on just one of the factors. Examples include Set and CPO, the category of complete partial orders with Scott-continuous functions.
 * A topos is a certain type of cartesian closed category in which all of mathematics can be formulated (just like classically all of mathematics is formulated in the category of sets). A topos can also be used to represent a logical theory.

title: Category (mathematics)