- Ageing on lees
- The period when bottles rest horizontally in the cellar during the prise de mousse and autolysis (a minimum of 15 months, 3 years for a vintage).
- Autolysis
- The breakdown of dead yeast during ageing on the lees, which gives champagne its notes of brioche and toasted bread.
- Blanc de blancs
- Champagne made exclusively from white grapes, almost always Chardonnay.
- Blanc de noirs
- White champagne made solely from black grapes (Pinot noir and/or Pinot Meunier) vinified without maceration.
- Blending (Assemblage)
- The art of marrying different wines (grape varieties, crus, years) to compose a cuvée with a consistent style unique to each house.
- Brut
- The common dosage level: fewer than 12 grams of sugar per litre. The most widespread style.
- Brut nature
- Champagne with no added sugar (0 to 3 g/L), also called "zero dosage" or "non-dosé".
- Chalk cellars (crayères)
- Former chalk quarries dug from Gallo-Roman times onward, used as ageing cellars in Reims.
- Coteaux Champenois
- The appellation for the still (non-sparkling) wines of the Champagne region — red, white or rosé.
- Cru
- A wine-growing village classified according to the cru scale. A distinction is made between Grands Crus and Premiers Crus.
- Cru scale
- A former classification of Champagne villages by percentage, used to set the price of grapes. The basis for the Grand Cru and Premier Cru designations.
- Disgorgement
- The expulsion of the yeast deposit that has collected in the neck of the bottle, now carried out after freezing the neck.
- Dosage
- The addition of the dosage liqueur after disgorgement, which sets the final sugar level (from brut nature to doux).
- Dosage liqueur
- A mixture of wine and sugar added at dosage, after disgorgement, to adjust the final style.
- Effervescence
- The fine bubbles of carbon dioxide born of the second fermentation in bottle — champagne's signature.
- Grand Cru
- A designation reserved for grapes from the 17 villages classified at the top of the cru scale.
- Grower-producer (RM)
- A winegrower who makes champagne from their own grapes, from pressing through to marketing.
- Merchant-producer (NM)
- A producer (often a major house) permitted to buy grapes or musts to make its champagne.
- Non-vintage
- A champagne blended from several years (labelled "brut sans année" / NV), ensuring a house's consistent style.
- Premier Cru
- A designation for grapes from the 42 villages classified just below the Grands Crus.
- Prestige cuvée
- A house's top-tier champagne, made from the finest grapes (e.g. Dom Pérignon, Cristal, La Grande Dame).
- Prise de mousse
- The second fermentation in bottle that produces the carbon dioxide, and therefore the bubbles, of champagne.
- Reserve wine
- Wine from earlier years kept to be blended into future cuvées and maintain a house's style.
- Riddling
- The operation — manual on a rack or automated by gyropalette — that gathers the deposit in the neck of the bottle.
- Riddling rack
- A slanted wooden rack used to slide the deposit toward the neck of the bottle before disgorgement.
- Rosé
- Champagne obtained by adding red wine (blended rosé) or by a short maceration of the skins (saignée rosé).
- Sabrage
- The spectacular opening of a bottle with a sabre, severing the neck with a stroke along the seam of the glass.
- Tirage liqueur
- A mixture of wine, sugar and yeast added at bottling to trigger the second fermentation (prise de mousse).
- Traditional method
- The production process using a second fermentation in bottle. In Champagne it is called the "méthode champenoise", a term reserved for the appellation.
- Vintage
- Champagne from a single harvest year, produced only in the best years and aged for longer.