How many Grapes does it take to make a Bottle of Champagne?

I am assuming that you know it takes grapes to make a bottle of Champagne?! In fact, all wines (unless stated otherwise) are made from grapes of which there are over 10,000 varieties across the world that are used in the production of reds, whites, rosé and fizzy ones.

Popular grape varieties include:

• Chardonnay
• Pinot Noir
• Merlot
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Riesling

We can also find some memorable and stand out names for grape varieties including:

• Moon Drops
• Campbell Early
• Chancellor
• Mission

Mostly, grape varieties are named locally so will be foreign to us here in England and most times we will adopt that foreign name into our wine vocabulary. Grape varieties will be either black (red) or white and each produces white grape juice with rosé / red wines taking their colouring from either prolonged skin contact (within the must (grape juice)) or adding still red wine.

Grapes, for wine production, are nearly all contained within the north and southern hemispheres (30 and 50 degrees latitudes).

Before we answer the question of how many grapes make up a bottle of Champagne we must realise that any single answer will be a general one as much will depend on what grape, wine type and production method is being used. The amount of grapes per bottle will depend on:

• The grape variety: Not all grapes are the same size so will contain differing amounts of juice
• Quality of harvest: Not every year produces the same quality of grape so varying levels of juice will be extracted
• How much juice is required: Sometimes a winemaker will only press the grapes to extract a small amount (of the best) juice

Many wine experts including winemakers will say around 1.2kg of grapes are used to make a bottle of wine or 10 to 20 clusters or approximately 600 grapes.

• 1.2kg of grape
• 10/20 clusters of grapes
• 600 grapes
• Half the grapes from one vine