Dosage

What dosage does

After the second fermentation Champagne sits on its lees for months or years. Just before shipping, the lees plug is frozen and ejected through disgorgement. That leaves a small gap in the bottle, which gets topped up with a mixture of wine and sugar called liqueur de dosage or liqueur d’expédition.

The sugar concentration drives the label term. Brut Nature stays under three grams per litre, Extra Brut runs zero to six, Brut tops out at twelve, Extra Dry sits between twelve and seventeen, Sec to thirty-two, Demi-Sec to fifty, and Doux above that. The Comité Champagne enforces these bands across the region.

Why the addition exists

Champagne has so much natural acidity that the balance risk always tilts toward sharpness. A few grams of sugar round those acids off without making the wine taste sweet. At nine grams of brut, the average drinker registers no sugar at all, only more fruit and openness.

Climate change has shifted the maths. In vintages where the fruit already ripens generously, plenty of houses have lowered their house dosage. What sat at twelve grams in 1990 often sits at six or seven in 2024. UK-focused critics like Essi Avellan MW have tracked this shift across the major brands for a decade.

What dosage is not

The standard line says lower dosage equals higher quality. That is wrong. Brut Nature is unforgiving. Every fault in the base wine, every underripe grape, every gap in lees ageing shows up without a screen. The current UK fashion for zero-dosage releases sometimes ships wines that needed two more grams to stay coherent.

A properly dosed Brut at eight grams can drink with more elegance than a clumsy Brut Nature from the same house. Dosage is a tool, not an ideology. The right question is whether the wine reads better with or without the sugar, not which number belongs on the label.

In practice

If you want to learn the variable, buy the same cuvée from a producer who releases both an Extra Brut and a Brut version. The gap is often four or five grams, and that is enough to shift acidity perception in a visible way.

At the table, higher dosage handles spicier dishes. Lower dosage suits raw shellfish and sashimi, where every extra gram of sugar would stick out against the food.