Pinot meunier

Pinot meunier is the third Champagne grape and the most planted of the three, though the label almost never mentions it. It is a mutation of pinot noir whose leaves are covered in fine white down, which is where the name comes from: meunier means miller, and the leaves look dusted with flour.

It buds later and ripens earlier than pinot noir, which is its practical value in Champagne. The region's vineyards are vulnerable to spring frost, and a later bud break means the young shoots are more often spared. So meunier is planted in the frost-prone Vallée de la Marne, where it delivers a crop in years the other two grapes lose.

In the blend it contributes soft red-apple fruit, roundness and early approachability, and it matures faster than pinot noir. That made it traditionally the grape for non-vintage wine meant to be drunk young, and grower-producers have since shown that it can carry a wine on its own. A small quantity of still red pinot meunier is made in Germany, where it is called schwarzriesling, and in the Loire.