Extra Brut and Brut Nature: Champagne with almost no sugar
Extra Brut is a Champagne with 0 to 6 grams of sugar per litre, at least 50% less sugar than the limit for ordinary Brut. Brut Nature is drier still: under 3 g/l and not a gram of sugar added after the second fermentation. Both categories are wines for those who want to taste the wine itself in Champagne, without a sweet frame.
What does Extra Brut mean on the label?
Extra Brut means a Champagne with 0-6 g of sugar per litre, “ekstra wytrawny” in the Polish version of the EU rules.
The sugar levels for sparkling wines are listed in Annex III to EU Regulation 2019/33. Brut may have less than 12 g/l, Extra Brut no more than 6 g/l. In a 125 ml glass that is the difference between one and a half grams and three quarters of a gram of sugar. Not much, but noticeable in a wine as high in acidity as Champagne: Extra Brut seems drier and more taut.
The sugar in Champagne comes from a liqueur added at the end of production, after disgorgement, the removal of the sediment from the bottle. The Comité Champagne, the organisation of Champagne growers and houses, calls this measure the dosage. In Extra Brut there is very little of it or none at all.
What are Brut Nature, pas dosé and dosage zéro?
They are three names for the same, driest category: under 3 g of sugar per litre and no sugar added after the second fermentation.
Regulation 2019/33 subjects Brut Nature (pronounced broot na-TEWR) to two conditions. The first concerns the figure: less than 3 g/l. The second concerns the method: after the second fermentation, the one in the bottle, no sugar may be added to the wine. A Champagne with 2 g/l that received a drop of liqueur therefore cannot be called Brut Nature, even if it has as much sugar as a wine without dosage. The Comité Champagne lists three equivalent names for the label: Brut Nature, pas dosé and dosage (pronounced doh-sahzh) zéro. You will also see trade names such as Ultra Brut or Brut Zéro.
| Category | Sugar per litre | Can a sugar liqueur be added | In a 125 ml glass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brut Nature (pas dosé, dosage zéro) | under 3 g | no | under 0.4 g |
| Extra Brut | 0-6 g | yes | up to 0.75 g |
| Brut | under 12 g | yes | under 1.5 g |
Why do the ranges for Brut, Extra Brut and Brut Nature overlap?
Because the rules let the producer choose one of two names when the wine meets the conditions of both.
The ranges in the regulation are not mutually exclusive. A Champagne with 5 g/l fits both Extra Brut (0-6 g) and Brut (under 12 g). Article 47 resolves this simply: if the sugar content justifies two terms, the producer chooses one. The same article also allows a difference of up to 3 g/l between the label and the actual sugar content. In practice some low-dosage Champagnes carry the ordinary word Brut. If you want to know exactly, look for the number of grams on the back label or in the producer's data.
What does Champagne without sugar taste like?
Dry and acidic, which is why producers look for balance in the wine itself: in ripe grapes or in older reserve wines.
Laurent-Perrier (pronounced lor-ahn pe-ree-ay), which launched Ultra Brut in 1981 and calls it the pioneer of the Brut Nature category, writes that for this wine it chooses grapes with high potential alcohol and low acidity, so that the wine itself gives balance, without dosage. Ultra Brut is 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir from a single, carefully chosen year. Veuve Clicquot takes another route (pronounced vuhv klee-KOH) with Extra Brut Extra Old: according to Tom Cannavan of wine-pages.com, the first edition consisted entirely of reserve wines from six vintages (the oldest from 1988), each at least six years old, and the dosage was 3 g/l instead of the 9 g/l of the Yellow Label at the time. Older wines bring a roundness that replaces sugar.
Who makes Extra Brut and Brut Nature?
Both the large houses and growers who farm their own vines and make their own wine.
Among the houses, besides Laurent-Perrier and Veuve Clicquot, an Extra Brut is in the range of Gosset (pronounced goh-SAY), whose releases in this category include the vintage Celebris. Leclerc Briant (pronounced leh-clair bree-on), a biodynamic house from Épernay (pronounced ay-pair-NAY), keeps dosage low: David Kermode of The Buyer gave 4 g/l for the Réserve Brut. Its Abyss from the 2013 vintage, an equal blend of three grape varieties, spent 15 months in bottle 60 m below the surface of the Atlantic off the island of Ouessant and went on sale as Brut Zéro.
Two examples from growers. Laurent Bénard (pronounced lor-ahn bay-nar) from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ (pronounced ma-RUH-ee sewr ah-EE) makes wine from organic grapes; its Vendange Extra Brut Premier Cru (pronounced broot prem-yay kroo) is a vintage Blanc de Noirs (pronounced blahn duh NWAR), in the 2017 vintage, according to Gault&Millau, from 60% Meunier and 40% Pinot Noir. The biodynamic Augustin (pronounced oh-gew-stan) from Avenay-Val-d'Or releases the Cuvée (pronounced koo-VAY) CXVI, Blanc de Blancs (pronounced blahn duh BLAHN) from Chardonnay, which according to Gault&Millau is a Brut Nature.
Does Extra Brut have fewer calories?
Yes, but not many: the calories in Champagne come mainly from alcohol, and the difference in sugar amounts to a few kilocalories per glass.
EU Regulation 1169/2011 on consumer information counts 4 kcal per gram of carbohydrate and 7 kcal per gram of alcohol. A 125 ml glass of Brut with 10 g/l of sugar contains 1.25 g of sugar, or 5 kcal. A Brut Nature with 2 g/l has 0.25 g, or 1 kcal. The alcohol in the same glass of Champagne at 12% is about 12 g, or over 80 kcal. Choosing Extra Brut therefore makes sense for taste, not for diet. More figures in the article how many calories are in Champagne.
What should you serve with Extra Brut?
Oysters, raw fish, seafood and salty nibbles, where sweetness in the wine would get in the way.
A dry Champagne with a salty impression handles iodine and salt well: oysters, sashimi, ceviche, Parmesan. An Extra Brut with longer ageing, such as the wines of the Celebris or Extra Old lines, will also cope with poultry and fish in butter sauce. It does not go with desserts at all; there, reach instead for a Demi-Sec Champagne (pronounced duh-MEE SEK). We have placed all the Extra Bruts and Brut Natures in our shop, from fresh to vintage, in the ranking Extra Brut and Brut Nature.
