Sparkling wine: Traditional / Champagne Method
Its almost impossible to have any serious conversation about sparkling wines without at some point champagne being mentioned. To many Champagne represents the gold standard of the sparkling wine world, and not without good reason. After all, over €6Bn worth of champagne is sold every year. Undoubtedly, part of the popularity of champagne is linked to the unique way in which it is made. But, champagne is not the only sparkling wine made using the traditional method.
Other sparkling wines made with the traditional / champagne method include Cava, Crémant, Sekt, Cap Classique and others throughout the world. In this post we’re going to explore what makes this method unique.
Creating a base wine
Traditional method wines start with a base wine known as a Cuvée. To create a Cuvée, grapes are usually harvested slightly earlier before they have ripened and the sugars fully developed. This leads to a wine which has a slightly higher level of acidity. The grapes go through an initial fermentation to dryness (all the sugar is allowed to convert to alcohol). This can take place in a barrel, but often takes place in stainless steel tanks to give greater temperature control. A Cuvée is often then made from blending different grapes together. This is known as Assemblage.
In Champagne frequently Chardonnay is blended with Pinot Noir and Meunier (one white variety and 2 red). It can also include Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Parellada, Macabeo and Xarel-lo are the Spanish varieties used to make Cava. It can also include Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Garnacha, Monastrell and Subirat.
Why have one fermentation, when you can have two?!
Part of the luxury of traditional method wines comes from the fact that they undergo not one, but two fermentations. Following the Assemblage, the wines are put into a sparkling wine bottle (i.e. one which can withstand the pressure) and a liquid called a liqueur de tirage is added. The liqueur de tirage contains yeast, some nutrients and some sugar.
As we know yeast convert sugar to alcohol. But in this case, we are less interested in the alcohol which is being produced, than we are in the carbon dioxide which is being created as a biproduct. Because the bottles are sealed with a cap (like those on a beer bottle), the carbon dioxide cannot escape and dissolves into the base wine, causing it to become sparkling.
Nicely Matured
Eventually the yeast will have converted all the sugar to alcohol and the yeast cells will die. However, these dead yeast cells still have a role to play. Even though they have finished their job of creating carbon dioxide, they still have lots of flavour compounds to add to the wine. This secondary fermentation is where the wine picks up the yeasty, bready, brioche, biscuit flavours which champagne is so famous for.
Non-vintage champagnes (i.e. those which are a blend of wines from different years, rather than a single year) have to be aged for a minimum of 15 months with 12 months on their lees (dead yeast cells). Maturation will also allow flavours other than the yeast flavours to develop and for the harsh malic acids to be converted by bacteria into softer lactic acids (malolactic conversion). Aging takes place in the bottle, so any oak flavours will have come from the primary fermentation not the secondary one in the bottle.
During the maturation, sediment will develop in the bottle and, given that most people don’t want a mouthful of sediment, there needs to be a process to remove it. To do this, wine bottles are gradually turned to a 75° angle, so they are nearly upside down. They are placed in a rack which holds them here.
Each day, the bottles are turned 1/8th of a turn, to gradually encourage all the sediment to fall to the neck of the bottle. Madame Veuve Cliquot invented the racks, but nowadays the method is usually completed by machines, rather than by cellar hands turning each bottle individually.
Once the sediment has reached the neck, the neck is dipped into an ice-salt bath to freeze the top part of the wine which contains the sediment. The cap is then removed from the bottle and the pressure forces out the frozen wine with the sediment in it. This process is known as disgorging.
How sweet it is
Removing the sediment also means that some of the wine has been lost from the bottle. The bottle therefore needs topping up with liquid. In order to do this, a combination of wine and sugar is added to the bottle (this is known as Liqueur d’expédition). It is at this stage that the level of residual sugar in the wine is determined. The finished product can be anything from Brut Nature (it has no added sugar) to Doux (sweet). Usually, champagnes are Brut which has anything from 0 – 12g/L of residual sugar.
Once the Liquer d’expédition has been added the cork is put in, the wire cage added. The foil is then placed over it sealing the wine in the bottle and containing the pressure. At this point most sparkling wines are ready for market and for drinking. In reality, most sparkling wine is probably best drunk within 1 – 4 years. Unless they are particular vintage champagnes in which case up to 10 years may be possible. In most cases, with age bubbles will become more soft, and more yeasty flavours will develop.
So there you have it, the traditional method! Having made it to the end of this post maybe you feel like opening a bottle to celebrate!. And why not, sparkling wine is the ideal celebration wine! In the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!