When someone says Champagne, it drives popping corks, celebrations, and bubbles into your mind. If someone said Cava, Prosecco, or Asti would it have the same effect?
Sparkling wines represent hundreds of different styles made from many different grapes, from all corners of the world, the most famous of which hail from Champagne, France. These wines are made of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; two red grapes, one white grape. Blanc de Blanc wines come purely from Chardonnay while Blanc de Noir wines come from the Pinots. All wines in Champagne are made through the Méthode Champenoise (Champagne method). This is the most labor intensive and involved way to make sparkling wines. Wines from Champagne tend to be fairly expensive because of the high demand and difficulty in producing, so if you are looking for sparkling wines on a budget, there are many other alternatives: Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy, Sparkling wines from California. Many of these sparkling wines are made in the same way as Champagne but don’t cost nearly as much.
Now, onto how sparkling wines are produced. There are 3 main methods of producing sparkling wines.
Méthode Champenoise is the most labor-intensive and expensive method of producing sparkling wine. After harvesting the fruit, the juice is pressed and put into containers for the first fermentation. These containers are either stainless steel vats or oak barrels. When the first fermentation is complete, various lots of wine are blended together to produce an assemblage (the final blend of varieties for the finished wine). Then a mixture of yeast and sugar, called a triage, is added to the base wine. The wine is bottled with a small plastic cup that fits in the neck of the bottle and collects any sediment.
The second fermentation takes place in the bottle and due to the sugar and yeast being added, which causes alcohol and carbon dioxide to be produced. Due to carbon dioxide formation and pressures up to 90 pounds per square inch, bottles for Champagne and sparkling wine must be thicker than regular wine bottles. During the second fermentation, temperature plays an important role. Cooler temperatures produce finer bubbles.
Once the second fermentation is complete, dead yeast cells begin to break down and form sediment in the wine. This process is called autolysis. The winemaker decides how long to allow for the autolysis process and this in turn has an impact on the final taste of the wine. The sediment must then be removed without losing the carbon dioxide and sparkle. This is done by riddling, or lightly shaking, each bottle and then storing it at an increasing angle so the sediment eventually settles into the neck of each bottle. Next the sediment is removed by freezing it and then the pressure in the bottle causes it to be expelled. Finally, a “dosage”, a small amount of wine mixed with sugar and sometimes brandy, is added and it determines the sweetness or dryness of the sparkling wine. The bottle is then corked and secured with a wire hood.
The Transfer Method of making sparkling wine is similar to the Méthode Champenoise except that instead of riddling to remove the sediment, the wine is transferred to a pressurized tank where the sediment is filtered. It is then bottled, corked and secured with a wire hood in preparation for sale to the public.
The Charmât Bulk Process is the quickest and least expensive method of making sparkling wine. With this process, instead of the wine going through the second fermentation in the bottle, the base wine is placed in a temperature-controlled, pressurized tank to which sugar and yeast is added. The secondary fermentation takes place in this tank without the release of any carbon dioxide. This tank acts like a very large bottle. Once the fermenting is complete, the wine is filtered under counter pressure and bottled using a counter-pressure filler. Because the wine has not spent the same amount of time in contact with the carbon dioxide, the bubbles produced through this method tend to be larger and dissipate more quickly.
One of my favorite “Bargain Sparklers” is Juvé y Camps Vintage Cava from Spain. If this wine were in a line up with Champagnes, and I were tasting them blind, I would have a hard time telling them apart. I will be reviewing this wine later in the month, so stay tuned!
Jon Link, Sommelier
