Buy Alaya Champage
ALAYA CHAMPAGNE
The "pressurage" (pressing)
Coming in straight from the harvest, the grapes are poured into the presses to yield their juice, also known as "must". They will be slowly pressed over about a three and a half hour period.

The first pressing, known as the "cuvée" yields 2,050 litres of a very hight quality must. The second pressing, known as the "taille" yields an additional 500 litres. AYALA does not use the "taille".
The old "pressoir" (wine press) Buy Alaya Champage

AYALA owns three presses of the classic type (vertical pressure). They are kept in a presshouse adjoining the Château de Mareuil. Here the pressing of the house's own grapes from its vineyards in Mareuil s/Aÿ, as well as those of several local growers, are carried out.

The "vinification" (winemaking) Buy Alaya Champage

The old mixing barrel. The alcoholic fermentation - the transformation of sugar into alcohol - takes place first and is immediately followed by the malolactic fermentation which reduces any possible excessive acidity in the wine. While this is a perfectly natural process, that does not mean it is not perfectly controlled. Thus what the wines lose in acidity, they gain in suppleness. The total tank capacity of AYALA is about 11,000 hl. The blending of the still wines is performed several months later, once the wine has become clear enough.


The "cuvée" (blending) Buy Alaya Champage

For Jean-Michel DUCELLIER, the blend is primarily a matter of buying grapes from different vineyards, each chosen for their own specific features, and which, when brought together, will fully express the character and style of the House.

Blending consists of creating the different "cuvées" that make up the House's range of champagnes. Here lies the fundamental role of the négociant, for the product line will bear his name.

A characteristic and consistent style is achieved by blending wines from different harvests. The House's range of champagne goes from the "demi-sec" (semi-dry) to the "prestige cuvée" by way of the "non-vintage brut".

The making of a "millésimé" or vintage champagne is decided here, if the year has been especially good. In the case of a vintage champagne, only wines from the same harvest, and only from the finest vineyards, will be blended.

The "tirage" (bottling) Buy Alaya Champage
This is the essential factor in the "champagne method" a second fermentation in the definitve bottle. After bottling at the end of Winter, the still wine slowly becomes sparkling due to the combined action of a mixture of sugar and yeast added to the wine just before bottling.

The bottles are then stacked "sur lattes" (on slats) on their sides in the 18 metre deep cool cellars of Champagne with a constant natural temperature of 11°. A second and much slower fermentation will then take place within the sealed bottles. The longer this fermentation is allowed to take, the finer and more persistent will be the bubbles, the very bubbles that are champagne's charm.
The "entreillage" (stacking) of the bottles is still done by hand at AYALA, as it has always been.

The "remuage" (riddling) Buy Alaya Champage

During the second fermentation in the bottle, as the yeast cells die, they will form a sediment, known as "lies" (lees). They cloud the wine, and are often so fine that they only precipitate with difficulty. These sediments must be eliminated. Special bottle racks (pupitres) were thus created to solve this problem, but workers were needed to manipulate the bottles : it takes time and practice to learn the effective "coup de poignet" (twist of the wrist).

The sediments are loosened and released from the inner surface of the bottle with a double rotation first to the left and then to the right. The bottle is tilted increasingly (neck down) over the course of the riddling thanks to the "pupitre", thus the lees are brought to the neck of the bottle.

The "riddlers" are kept busy for three months and each of them may manipulate up to 60,000 bottles per day. Machines now exist to do the worker's job... but AYALA carries on by hand.

The "dégorgement" (disgorgement) Buy Alaya Champage

Riddling on "pupitres" is done in the traditional
way at AYALA. It takes place only several weeks before delivery. After the necks have been frozen, trapping the sediments in a chunk of ice, the bottles are opened and the sediments are expelled with the ice by the pressure in the bottle. A small amount of still Champagne wine and cane sugar is then added to top up. At AYALA this "dosage" is 0.75% for the "bruts" - vintage and non-vintage, and 5% for the "demi-sec". The tendency nowadays is for lighter and lighter dosages.


The "stockage" (Aging) Buy Alaya Champage

The "stockage" of champagne always takes place in its definitive bottle. The law obliges the Houses to age their non-vintage champagnes for one year in bottle, in contact with the lees, prior to disgorgement. This period is extended to three years in the case of vintage champagnes.

The House of AYALA doesn't content itself with these minimums. Indeed, its non-vintage brut spends 2 and a half years in bottle prior to disgorgement, and its vintages about 5 years. Because of these lengthy aging periods, at any one time there is a stock of some three million bottles in AYALA's cellars. Buy Alaya Champage