Taille is the juice of the second pressing, drawn after the cuvée. From every 4,000 kg of grapes it amounts to 500 litres, and it is higher in tannin and cheaper than the cuvée.
The juice produced by the first pressing is called the cuvée. The juice extracted from the grapes after that first pressing is called the taille.
4,000 kg of grapes (one marc) fill a traditional Champagne press. Of the juice this quantity yields, 2,550 litres are used to make champagne. Roughly 100 litres of juice run off as soon as the press is filled, under the lightest pressure. This juice is called the bourbes. It contains dust and other impurities that clung to the vines, and it is unusable.
Next comes the first pressing, which delivers the best grape juice (la cuvée). This pressing yields 2,050 litres of juice. In detail, the first pressing is made up of three stages, with the grapes gently turned over twice in between (retrousses). Tête de cuvée refers to the best juice, drawn from the first stages of pressing (it is also the general term for the very finest cuvée quality). A second pressing follows, yielding a further 500 litres of juice. This is the juice known as the taille, or première taille. Some growers sell the taille on to other growers and use only the juice of the first pressing (the cuvée) in making their own champagnes.
Of the juice this quantity yields, 2,550 litres are used to make champagne.
In the past, the juice of a third pressing (deuxième taille) could also be used for champagne. More recently, however, the total volume of juice permitted for champagne was officially reduced from 2,666 litres to just 2,550 litres, and at the same time the use of third-pressing juice for making champagne was banned.
A final pressing yields only coarse residual juice (rebêche). It is used to make a grape brandy (Marc de Champagne).
As the grapes are pressed ever harder, the taille picks up more natural substances.
For example, the breaking grape skins add tannin, which can work both for and against the wine (see Tannin). The taille also gains colour from the increased pressure on the grapes, which is of course not wanted in a white champagne. Yet this 'taille juice' from the second pressing is by no means to be written off as 'bad'. Quite the opposite: in the hands of a capable cellar master, it can contribute to very good champagne. It is also considerably cheaper than the juice of the first pressing (cuvée), and in the end this shows in the comparatively low price of a bottle of champagne on the supermarket shelf.
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