Bubblies: Champagne and other
Sparkling Wines
Champagne glasses
Three forms:
•The “tulip” (tall and slender,
slightly enclosed at the top)
•The “flute” (tall and slender, but
straight or arcing outward at the top)
•The “coupe” (the story goes that
it was modelled on the shape of the breast of
Marie Antoinette, Madame de Pompadour, or
another French beauty, but was in fact designed in
England well before their time…)
Dennis Swaney
Karin Limburg
http://www.oenophileblog.com/html/flute__tulip__or_coupe_.html
http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/champagne.asp
Champagne-guide.net
Champagne glasses
Which is best?
•Probably the tulip – it shares good
features of the flute, but better captures
wine aroma
•The length of the flute shows off the bubbles
and doesn’t allow them to dissipate as fast as the
coupe…some have a rough “nucleation point”
at the base to promote bubble formation (as
with fancy beer glasses)
•The surface area and shallowness of the coupe
dissipate bubbles relatively quickly…
http://www.oenophileblog.com/html/flute__tulip__or_coupe_.html
http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/champagne.asp
Production
Two main methods:
•Methode champenoise (called
“methode traditionelle” when
referring to wine outside of
Champagne region)
•Charmat process
www.epicurious.blogs
Methode Traditionelle
Consists of two fermentations:
First, (primary fermentation) as usual in a stainless steel tank or wooden
vat
Second, (secondary fermentation) in the bottle with a few grams each of
additional yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and sugar, usually
dissolved in the wine (liqueur de tirage), and capped with a metal cap.
• The sugar is responsible for forming the CO2 in the bottle through
fermentation.
• Amount of sugar added determines the amount of CO2 produced.
Pressures are required to reach about 6 atmospheres (6 bars) in
champagne.
Aging:
Methode Traditionelle (continued)
Riddling (remuage):
After aging, stored for 6-8 weeks at a 45° angle, neck
down, periodically turning to trap the lees (sediment) in
the neck of the bottle
Disgorgement (dégorgement):
After a period of riddling, the wine is chilled, the neck of
the bottle is frozen (dipped in a cold saline or glycol
solution), the cap removed, and the pressure in bottle
forces the ice plug containing the lees out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:
Champagne-Remuer.jpg
Dosage:
To replace the liquid lost during disgorgement, the bottle is topped off with
liqueur de expedition (mix of sucrose and base wine) to adjust the wine for
the desired level of sweetness (doux, demi-sec, sec, extra-sec, brut…)
Minimum of 15 months, sometimes up to 3 years
Charmat Process
Other Processes
• Invented in 1910 by Eugene Charmat in Bordeaux
• AKA “bulk process” (USA), “cuvé close” (France); “ metodo charmat” or
“autoclave” (Italy) , “granvas” (Spain), “método continuo” (Portugal)
• Wine is contained in closed tanks throughout the entire secondary
fermentation process, retaining the pressure (and bubbles) generated by
fermentation
• CO2 injection – Direct injection of CO2 as in other carbonated
beverages
(“fizz” dissipates quickly compared to other methods)
• Transfer method – like the “method traditionnelle”, except no riddling or
disgorgement; after secondary fermentation, the wine is transferred to
bulk tanks for clarification, dosage, and bottling.
Two fermentations:
First, (primary fermentation) as in methode traditionelle
Second, (secondary fermentation) in a pressurized, stainless steel tank
until pressure reaches about 5 atmospheres;
Finishing:
The wine is typically chilled to stop fermentation, filtered, a dosage is added
to adjust to desired sweetness level, and the wine is bottled.
• Methode ancestrale (rare) – “young” wine is bottled before fermentation
is complete (i.e., not all sugar has been converted to alcohol).
Fermentation continues in the bottle, creating some CO2. Wine tends to
be sweeter and less fizzy than methode champenoise wine. (How
sparkling wine was originally made…)
The word champagne derived from the Latin campania = countryside
A brief history of Champagne
Came to be associated with
this crossroads between Paris
and lands to the east and south
Encarta
Attila the Hun was repulsed in 455 AD battle at Châlons-surMarne…despite many wars, vineyards developed and prospered
www.winetour-france.com/champagne-region.asp
Champagne wasn’t always sparkly!
Cathedral at Reims
Originally, light, pinkish, still wines made
from Pinot Noir grape
Cold winters caused wines to stop
fermentation, then re-start again, often in
bottles.
True Champagne
Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier
Wine-making greatly improved by the leading
clerical vintner, Dom Pérignon
Bottles often broke, so early on, much of the
“bubbly” stuff was very rare because half or so
would explode en bouteille
Stronger glass bottles developed in 17th
century – helped the industry
Wasn’t until 19th century that the winery of
Veuve Clicquot developed method to add just
enough sugar to induce sparkle, without
bursting the bottles.
Wikipedia
imagecache.allposters.com
German/Austrian Sparklers
Sekt: German term for sparkling wine
…and many
others
• Most (95% made with the Charmat process)
• Grapes: Riesling, Pinot noir, Pinot blanc
• Most sekt made with at least some grapes
imported from Italy, Spain or France
Austria: most made with the methode
traditionelle
LifeEpicurean.com
Italian Sparklers
Prosecco: medium dry to dry sparkling
wines made from the Prosecco grape
Moscato: sweeter sparkling wines
made from the Moscato grape
Virtually all Italian sparkling wines are
made using the Charmat process
imagecache.allposters.com
Two levels of “fizz”: frizzante
“lightly sparkling” and spumante
“fully sparkling”
Spanish Sparklers: “Cavas”
• Made in the Catalonia region of
northeast Spain, primarily in the
Penedes DOC
• Several levels of sweetness: brut
nature, brut (extra dry), seco (dry),
semiseco (medium) and dulce
(sweet)
• Grapes: Xarel-lo,Macabeo,
Parellada, Chardonnay, Pinot
Noir, Subirat
California Sparkling Wine
Grapes: Pinot Noir (blanc de noir), Chardonnay
1st California sparkler:
Beginning in 1970s with Moët & Chandon, French
champagne houses began “colonizing”
California…Carneros region in Napa was considered
prime
Domaine Chandon is the
biggest producer today, with
350,000 cases/year of sparkling
wines and 20,000 cases/year of
still wine. Restaurant and
vineyard are major tourist
draws
Schramsberg, produced
by the Davies family in the
late 1960s on a historic, if
run-down, vineyard from
Jacob Schram – served by
Nixon at the historic 1972
“Toast to Peace” in Beijing
w/ Chou En-lai.
Schramsberg.com
Other French-California
houses:
 Domaine Carneros (Taittinger)
And
more !
imagecache.allposters.com
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkling_wine_production
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/winedictionary/entry?id=5851
http://www.winepros.com.au/jsp/cda/reference/oxford_entry.jsp?entry_id=3031
Review of Methode Champenoise, Bruce Zoecklein, 2002:
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/viticulture/463-017/463-017.html
Discussion of French houses “colonizing” California:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/01/WIGIMMJKNP1.DTL