“In victory, you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Champagne became popular not only because of such grand dates, but also because of celebrity endorsements or excesses. It’s no secret that 007 agent James Bond always had a strong predilection for Bollinger champagne (and vodka). And it has been reported that Marilyn Monroe once filled her bathtub with 350 bottles of champagne and took a long, luxurious bath in it.
Champagne, the dry sparkling wine from the region of northeastern France (east of Paris) that bears the same name, has long been considered the drink of choice for toasting or celebrating a special occasion. Its image as a celebratory drink and the high price of champagne, coupled with Americans’ preference for sweeter beverages, have caused image and sales to plummet over the years. Fortunately, with the proliferation of inexpensive dry and non-dry sparkling wines from nearly every wine-producing region in the world, bubbly is slowly regaining some of its lost popularity.
Gone are the days when sparkling wine was only drunk to mark a special occasion or to accompany luxurious delicacies like caviar. Sparkling wine makes a great aperitif on its own or with simple hors d’oeuvres, seafood entrees, or sushi, or can be enjoyed with dessert if the wine is not dry or sweet. It doesn’t have to be a Moët & Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon, Bollinger Grande Année, or other expensive bubbly. Some of the best bubbles in the world are now produced cheaply in the wine regions of the New World and other regions of the Old World, such as Italy, Spain, and Eastern European countries.
And as wineries try to demystify table wines by simplifying labels — primarily identifying grape varieties rather than strict provenance — sparkling wine marketers are also hard at work making sparkling wines more user-friendly. consumer and food, which can be enjoyed any day.
Not everything bubbly is champagne
The popularity of champagne has made the name synonymous with sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wines are champagne. Only sparkling wine produced in specific regions of Champagne, for example Reims and Épernay, produced by the traditional method using only Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier can be labeled as Champagne. (There are other production criteria, however, these are the most important). Other sparkling wines in France, but outside of Champagne, produced using the traditional method are called Crémant, while in Spain they are known as Cava.
The traditional method, more often known as champagne method Prayed traditional methodrequires bubbles to be produced naturally inside each bottle through a second fermentation, known as sparklingwhich starts by adding a barrel liquor, a mixture of sugar and yeast, to a still wine. Still wine is called base wine, or ancientand consists of a mixture of many different wines carefully blended by the cellar master, or cellar master. The cuvée can often be a blend of hundreds of different wines. If all the component wines are from a single vintage, the final sparkling wine has a vintage date. Wineries that choose to do a consistent style year after year will blend wines from two or more vintages to produce a single or multi-vintage sparkling wine.
During fermentation in the bottle, the yeast consumes sugar to convert it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, as in any alcoholic fermentation; however, the gas remains trapped inside the bottle, dissolved in the wine. The pressure inside the bottle can reach up to 6 bar, approximately 90 pounds per square inch or psi, the equivalent of three times the pressure of car tires.
The wine is left to ferment for several weeks and mature very slowly at cool temperatures, between 50° and 54° F (10° and 12° C), with the bottles horizontal, or in ribbon. This prolonged contact with spent yeast cells from fermentation, a process known as yeast autolysis, is what gives sparkling wine its yeasty, nutty aromas and complex flavors. It can last anywhere from a few weeks to several years, depending on the desired flavor profile and the patience of the cellar master. After the long stay in the bottle, the dead yeast cells are dropped and accumulate in a special crown cap closure, known as the contraptionthrough a labor-intensive method known as a puzzle.
riddle gold riddlesis the process of twisting, turning, and tilting bottles from a horizontal position to a nearly vertical position on a screening grid, or desk, to allow used yeast cells to accumulate in the widget, a process that takes about three weeks. The winemaker can choose to further age the sparkling wine by moving the bottles in their upright position, or on pointto a storage container.
When the wine has reached its optimal and desired flavor profile, the winemaker removes the spent yeast deposit from each bottle through a process known as disgorgement, or disgorge. The bottle is held vertically, pointing downwards, and with a disgorgement wrench the crown cap and bidulus are removed while the bottle is brought to a horizontal position. This allows the sediment to fly out the neck of the bottle leaving the wine crystal clear, if done correctly. Often the process is made more effective by first freezing the neck of the bottle in a brine solution to freeze the sediment.
The last critical step, the Dose, consists of adding a small volume of cuvée to which a little sugar is added to balance the acidity of the wine and achieve the desired style, from dry to sweet. The English refer to this cuvée solution as the expedition liquorand often contains a distilled spirit such as cognac.
Champagne is a cool climate grape growing area and as such the grapes do not reach high sugar levels as in warmer climates and have a higher acidity hence the need for sugar balance. The lower sugar level produces a base wine with typically 10.0% to 11.0% alc./vol. Bottle fermentation adds another 1.5% for a total of 11.5% to 12.5% alc./vol. for the finished wine.
The final step involves inserting a cork halfway (that’s what gives the cork its distinctive mushroom shape once it’s removed) into the bottle and securing it with a wire cage.
Most sparkling wines are ready to drink once finished and can last up to two or three years in the bottle; however, the best sparkling wines in the world, that is, those produced with the traditional method, can live for many more years with a suitable cellar.
This laborious process and the long aging explain the high price of sparkling wines made using the traditional method.
Other bubbles in the world
The quality of sparkling wine is judged by the complexity of the aroma and flavor and the size of the bubbles; the smaller the bubbles, the higher the quality. Bottle fermentation, as in the traditional method, produces the smallest bubbles; however, such sparkling wine is labor intensive and expensive to produce.
The most common and cost effective alternative to the traditional method is the Charmat or Cuve Close (sealed tank) method, which is used to produce many of the world’s low cost but good quality bubbles. The bubbles produced with patience and care using this method can rival some of the great champagnes, although the method is commonly used for quick-market cheaper sparkling wines. The bubbles in these are noticeably larger and the aromas and flavors are not as intense, but they do provide excellent value. The intensity and complexity of the flavor, and the quality in general, can be improved by a longer aging of the wine on the lees. Asti Spumante, the famous low-alcohol sweet sparkling wine (approximately 8% alc./vol.) from Piedmont, Italy, Sekt from Germany, and Icewine sparkling from Ontario are examples of sparkling wines produced using the Charmat method or a variant.
The Charmat method consists of carrying out the second fermentation in bulk in sealed and pressurized stainless steel tanks, and avoids the need for bottle fermentation, stirring and disgorging. The wine is then refrigerated to stop fermentation, filtered, dosed, and then bottled under pressure so as not to lose precious carbon dioxide gas.
A less common method of making sparkling wine has gained wide popularity in Russia and Ukraine for the mass production of good-quality, inexpensive bubbly. A variant of the Charmat process, the Russian or continuous method uses a series (eg 5) of sequentially connected pressurized tanks. The first tank contains the cuvée and the draw (sugar and yeast solution). As fermentation begins, the wine is funneled through the second and third tanks, each containing wood chips to collect dead yeast cells (lees) and allow autolysis to occur. The wine is then funneled through the fourth and fifth tanks where it is clarified before being bottled. Although the wine is in contact with the lees for a longer time than in the Charmat method, the continuous method usually takes less than a month and therefore produces inferior quality wines.
Another less common method is the transfer or racking method whereby the fermented wine in the bottle is transferred under refrigeration to a bulk transfer tank. Dosage is added and the wine is bottled under pressure.
The advantage of all the above methods is that they eliminate the laborious steps of screening and disgorging.
bubbly styles
The most popular choices of grape varieties in France for sparkling wine are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Pinot Meunier, or a blend of any of these. Other popular varieties include Chenin Blanc, Muscat and Riesling for whites, and Syrah (Shiraz) for reds, but there are no hard and fast rules. Rosé sparkling wine is usually made from red grapes with a very short maceration period to extract some of the red color, although a small percentage of red wine can be added to a white sparkling wine to achieve the desired colour, although with a very different flavor profile. .
A sparkling white wine made strictly from a white grape variety, such as Chardonnay, is known as white of whites Whereas a sparkling white wine made from a red grape variety, such as Pinot Noir, is known as in black and white.
In addition to color, sparkling wines are most often classified based on the amount of residual sugar or relative dryness. For example, a Brut sparkling wine can have up to 15 g/L of residual sugar, while an Extra Brut usually has less than 6 g/L. Countries have different designations and requirements regarding residual sugar content; and different countries use different terminology which can be quite confusing.
appreciating bubbly
The sparkling wine production methods outlined above should help you better appreciate the difference between a sparkling wine priced at $12 and $50 or even $200 or more.
Discover the pleasures of sparkling wine enjoying it any day of the week, and experimenting with different pairings until you discover what most pleases your palate. So start enjoying it now, unlike John Maynard Keynes, one of the greatest figures in the entire history of economics, who once said, “My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink more champagne.”