Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom
Pérignon did not
invent sparkling wine, but he did make important contributions to the
production and quality of Champagne wine.The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette
de Limoux, which was
apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey
of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne in 1531. They achieved this by bottling the
wine before the initial fermentation had ended, The Champagne winemaking
community, under the auspices of the Comité
Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for
all wine produced in the region to protect its economic interests. They include
codification of the most suitable growing places; the most suitable grape types
(most Champagne is a blend of up to three grape varieties, though other varieties
are allowed); and a
lengthy set of requirements specifying most aspects of viticulture. This includes pruning, vineyard yield, the
degree of pressing, and the time that wine must remain on its lees before bottling. It can also limit the
release of Champagne to market to maintain prices. Only when a wine meets these
requirements may it be labeled Champagne. The rules agreed upon by the CIVC are
submitted for the final approval of the Institut
national de l'origine et de la qualité (formerly the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine,
INAO).
In the United States name protection of wine-growing
place names is becoming more important. Several key U.S. wine regions, such as
those in California (Napa, Sonoma Valley, Paso Robles), Oregon, and Walla
Walla, Washington, came to
consider the remaining semi-generic labels as harmful to their reputations (Napa
Declaration on Place).
Even the terms méthode champenoise and Champagne method
were forbidden by an EU court decision in 1994.As of 2005 the description most
often used for sparkling wines using the second fermentation in the bottle
process, but not from the Champagne region, is méthode traditionnelle. Sparkling
wines are produced worldwide, and many producers use special terms to define
them: Spain uses Cava, Italy designates it spumante, and South Africa uses cap classique.
An Italian sparkling wine made from the Muscat grape uses the DOCG Asti and from the Glerá grape the DOCG Prosecco. In Germany, Sekt is a common sparkling wine. Other French
wine regions cannot use the name Champagne: e.g., Burgundy and Alsace produce Crémant. In 2008, more than 3,000 bottles of
sparkling wine produced in California labelled with the term
"Champagne" were destroyed by Belgian government authorities.
Champagne production
• The second is the Metodo Martinotti created
and patented by Italian Federico Martinotti (1860-1924) in 1895[1] and adapted
by Eugène Charmat in 1907,
• a French vine grower in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, in which the wine undergoes a secondary
fermentation in bulk
tanks, and is bottled under pressure. This method is used for Prosecco and Asti in particular.
• The third method is the traditional method or
méthode champenoise.With this method the effervescence is produced by
secondary fermentation in the bottle. As the name suggests, this is used for
the production of Champagne, but is slightly more expensive than the Charmat
process.
• The fourth method is the "transfer
method". This method will take the cuvée to bottle for secondary fermentation, which
allows for the additional complexity, but then will transfer the wine out of
the individual bottles into a larger tank after it has spent the desired amount
of time on yeast.
Harvest and primary fermentation
Grapes used for Champagne are generally picked earlier, when sugar levels are lower and
acid levels higher. Except for pink or rosé Champagnes, the juice of harvested grapes is
pressed off quickly, to keep the wine white. The
first fermentation begins in the same way as any wine, converting the natural
sugar in the grapes into alcohol while the resultant carbon dioxide is allowed
to escape. This produces the base wine. This wine is not very pleasant by
itself, being too acidic. At this point the blend, known as the cuvée, is assembled, using wines from various
vineyards, and, in the case of non-vintage Champagne, various years.
Traditional method.
The traditional method is the process used in the Champagne
region of France to
produce the sparkling wine known as Champagne. It is also the method used in
various French regions to produce Crémant or other traditional method sparkling
wines, in Spain to produce Cava and in Italy to produce Franciacorta. The
method is known as the méthode champenoise, but the Champagne producers
have successfully lobbied the European Union to restrict the use of that term within the
EU to wines produced from their region. Thus, wines from elsewhere cannot use
the term "méthode champenoise" on products sold in the EU, and
instead the term "traditional method" (méthode traditionnelle)
or the local language equivalent may be seen; for instance, in Germany the term
used is "klassische flaschengärung". South African wines from the
Western Cape are labelled with the term "Methode Cap Classique".
However, consumers outside the EU may see méthode champenoise used on
labels for products made outside of France.
After primary fermentation, blending (assemblage in Champagne)
and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle.
Although known as the Champagne method and associated
with the name of Dom Perignon in the late seventeenth century, this method of
bottle fermentation was already used in Limoux, southwestern France, since 1531 for the
production of Blanquette
de Limoux.
Second
fermentation
The blended wine is put in bottles along with yeast and a
small amount of sugar, called the liqueur de tirage, stopped with a crown cap or another temporary plug, and stored in a wine cellar horizontally for a second fermentation.
Under the Appellation
d'origine contrôlée, NV
(non-vintage) Champagne is required to age for 15 months to develop completely.
In years where the harvest is exceptional, a vintage (millesime) is
declared and the wine must mature for at least three years.
During the secondary fermentation, the carbon dioxide is
trapped in the wine in solution. The amount of added sugar determines the
pressure of the bottle. To reach the standard value of 6 bars (600 kPa) inside the bottle, it is necessary to have
18 grams of sugar; the amount of yeast (Saccharomyces
cerevisiae) is regulated
by the European Commission (Regulation 1622/2000, 24 July 2000) to be 0.3 gram
per bottle. The liqueur de tirage is then a mixture of sugar, yeast and
still Champagne wine.
Aging on lees
Non-vintage wine from Champagne cannot legally be sold
until it has aged on the lees in the bottle for at least 15 months.
Champagne's AOC regulations further require that vintage Champagnes be aged in
cellars for three years or more before disgorgement, but most top producers exceed the
requirement, holding bottles on the lees for 6 to 8 years.
Riddling
After aging, the lees must be consolidated for removal.
The bottles undergo process known as riddling (remuage in French). In
this stage, the bottles are placed on special racks called pupitres that
hold them at a 45° angle, with the crown cap pointed down. Once a day (every
two days for Champagne), the bottles are given a slight shake and turn,
alternatively on right then left, and dropped back into the pupitres, with the
angle gradually increased. The drop back into the rack causes a slight tap,
pushing sediments toward the neck of the bottle. In 10 to 14 days (8 to 10
weeks for Champagne), the position of the bottle is straight down, with the
lees settled in the neck. (This time can be shortened by moving the bottle more
than once a day,[ and by using modern, less sticky strains of yeast.)
Manual riddling is still done for Prestige Cuvées in Champagne, but has otherwise
been largely abandoned because of the high labour costs. Mechanised riddling
equipment (a gyropalette) is used instead.
Disgorging
The lees removal process is called disgorging (dégorgement
in French), traditionally a skilled manual process where the crown cap and lees
are removed without losing much of the liquid, and a varying amount of sugar
added. Before the invention of this process by Madame Clicquot in 1816, Champagne was cloudy. Freezing a
small amount of the liquid in the neck and removing this plug of ice containing
the lees do modern automated disgorgement.
Dosage
Immediately after disgorging but before final corking,
the liquid level is topped up with liqueur d'expédition, commonly a
little sugar, a practice known as dosage. The liqueur d'expédition
is a mixture of the base wine and sucrose, plus 0.02 to 0.03 grams of sulfur dioxide as a preservative. Some maisons de
Champagne (Champagne brands) claim to have secret recipes for this, adding
ingredients such as old Champagne wine and candi sugar. In the Traité théorique et pratique du
travail des vins (1873), Maumené lists the additional ingredients
"usually present in the liqueur d'expédition": port wine, cognac, elderberry wine, kirsch, framboise wine, alum solutions, tartaric acid, and tannins.
The amount of sugar in the liqueur d'expédition
determines the sweetness of the Champagne, the sugar previously in the wine
having been consumed in the second fermentation. Generally, sugar is added to
balance the high acidity of the Champagne, rather than to produce a sweet
taste. Brut Champagne will only have a little sugar added, and Champagne called
nature or zéro dosage will have no sugar added at all. A cork is
then inserted, with a capsule and wire cage (muselet) securing it in place.
Champagne's sugar content varies. The sweetest level is
'doux' (meaning sweet) and then, in increasing dryness, 'demi-sec' (half-dry),
'sec' (dry), 'extra sec' (extra dry), 'brut' (very dry-dry), 'extra brut' (very
dry), 'brut nature/brut zero/ultra brut' (no additional sugar, bone dry).
Other method
While the traditional, or "Champagne method",
is the most widely known style of production, there are several ways to produce
sparkling wine that are less costly in labor.[3]
Metodo
Italiano (Charmat process)
The Charmat process is known as Metodo
Charmat-Martinotti (or Metodo Martinotti) in Italy, where it was
invented and is most used. In France, the process is referred to as Méthode
Charmat. The wine undergoes secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks
or steel vessels covered with vitreous enamel rather than in individual
bottles, and are bottled under pressure in a continuous process. Many grape
varieties, including Prosecco, are best suited for fermentation in tanks.
Charmat method sparkling wines can be produced at a slightly lower cost than méthode
champenoise wines.
Sovetskoye
Shampanskoye or 'Soviet
champagne' was produced using a similar method. In 1975 Moët & Chandon
bought licence of production of sparkling wine by Soviet method.
Transfer
method
This follows the first steps of "méthode
champenoise" in that after primary fermentation the cuvée is transferred
to bottles to complete secondary fermentation. When the secondary fermentation
is complete and the wine has spent the desired amount of time in bottle on
yeast lees (six months is the requirement to label a wine 'bottle fermented')
then the individual bottles are transferred (hence the name) into a larger
tank. The wine is then filtered, the liqueur de dosage added, and then
filled back into new bottles for sale. This method allows for complexity to be
built into the wine, but also gives scope for blending options after the wine
has gone into bottle and reduces the bottle-to-bottle variations that can be
hard to control in the "méthode champenoise".
Gas injection
Comparatively inexpensive sparkling wine is made by
simple injection of CO2 from a carbonator. This way of manufacturing is allowed in the
European Union. Sparkling wines made via this method must use terms ‘aerated
sparkling wine’ and ‘aerated semi-sparkling wine’ must be supplemented, where
necessary, by the words ‘obtained by adding carbon dioxide’ or ‘obtained by
adding carbon anhydride.'
Bottle aging
Even experts disagree about the effects of aging on
Champagne after disgorgement. Some prefer the freshness and vitality of young,
recently disgorged Champagne, and others prefer the baked apple and caramel
flavors that develop from a year or more of bottle aging. In 2009, a
184-year-old bottle of Perrier-Jouët was opened and tasted, still drinkable, with
notes of "truffles and caramel", according to the experts.[9]
Vintage vs. non-vintage
The majority of the Champagne produced is non-vintage
(also known as mixed vintage or multivintage), a blend of wines from several
years. This means that no declared year will be displayed on the bottle label. Typically, however, the majority of the
wine is from the current year but a percentage is made of reserve wine from
previous years. This serves to smooth out some of the vintage variations caused
by the marginal growing climate of Champagne, which is the most northerly
winegrowing region in France. Most Champagne houses strive for a consistent
house style from year to year (largely for reasons related to price-setting and
successful marketing), and this is arguably one of the hardest tasks of the house
winemaker.
The grapes to produce vintage Champagne must be 100% from
the year indicated (some other wines in the EU need only be 85% to be called
vintage, depending on their type and appellation). To maintain the quality of
non-vintage Champagne a maximum of half the grapes harvested in one year can be
used in the production of vintage Champagne ensuring at least 50%, though
usually more, is reserved for non-vintage wines. Vintage Champagnes are the
product of a single high-quality year, and bottles from prestigious makers can
be rare and expensive.
Wine fault
Several wine faults can occur in sparkling wine production. Some
that were present in early production methods include yeux de crapauds (toad's eyes) which was a condition of big,
viscous bubbles that resulted from the wine spending too much time in wooden
casks. Another fault could occur when the wine is exposed to bacteria or direct
sunlight, leaving the wine with murky coloring and an oily
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