Every precaution is taken to ensure the grapes remain intact until pressing. After pressing, the juice is put into fermentation vats. The first fermentation takes place for eight days. Then comes the art of blending. Still white wines are combined with reserve wines. When the finished blend is ready, selected yeasts and sugar are added to increase the final alcohol content. This is the second fermentation. The bottles are placed in a cool cellar to ferment slowly to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, which produces the bubbles. This usually takes four to six weeks. Veuve Clicquot champagnes are aged longer than required by law. They are cellared for at least 30 months, with the brand's vintage champagnes being aged for five to ten years. During the riddling process, lees deposit in the neck of the bottle. They are removed during the step of disgorgement. The neck of the bottle is plunged into a refrigerating solution. The sediment is then ejected under pressure when the bottle is opened, with minimum loss of wine and pressure. A mixture of wine, brandy and sugar is added to adjust the sweetness of the wine, making it dry, sweet, etc. The bottles are finally corked, labelled, packed and shipped. The company was awarded sustainability certification in 2014. Two hundred years after its creation, the house launched its "La Grande Dame" cuvée in 1972. It is produced from the company's finest Grand Cru vineyards, using two varieties of pinot noir and chardonnay. In 2008, cellar master Dominique Demarville decided to switch from a blend of 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay to nearly 100% pinot noir. Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is a blend of between 50 and 60 different crus, made of pinot noir (50%), meunier (20%) and chardonnay (30%). This champagne is aged for 36 months. "Rich" champagne was released in June 2015. At the end of its three years of aging, 60g of sugar are added to give it a very sweet taste. In 2017, Veuve Clicquot released its first ultra-dry champagne, the non-vintage "Extra Brut Extra Old" cuvée. This champagne has a low-sugar dosage, is double-aged and blended exclusively from the house's reserve wines of six different vintages. Management Chairman: Jean-Marc Gallot Cellar Master: Dominique Demarville Communication Logo When Philippe Clicquot began producing champagne, he simply sold "champagne wine". There were no labels on the bottles. The earliest brand he used dates from