Part four: Sparkling wine – the transfer method
So you pick up two bottles of sparkling wine off the shelf and one of them says, “fermented in the bottle” on the label, the other one says “bottle fermented”, what is the difference? You would think the two are the same, right? Wrong! The second one was likely made using the traditional method which we have previously discovered (or possibly and much less likely the ancestral method). The first bottle was in fact produced using the transfer method. But what is the transfer method and how is it different to the other ways sparkling wine is made? In this post, that’s what we will discover.
A method which combines aspects of the others
Undoubtedly maturing sparkling wine in the bottle adds desirable flavours. The malolactic conversion and lees aging give the wine softer texture and flavours of brioche, biscuit and bread. But it is also true that the process of removing the sediment created is expensive in terms of time, equipment and lost wine. No surprisingly, ingenious winemakers looked for ways to impart the flavours without the hassle of disgorging and dosage at the end of the secondary fermentation.
Growing, harvesting, pressing and first fermentation
In the transfer method then, the harvest, pressing and first fermentation process occur prior to a second fermentation. A base wine is produced in which the desirable slightly acidic qualities which give sparkling wine its characteristic freshness are present. This base wine is usually made in stainless steel tanks, although other vessels (barrels and concrete tanks) can be used. The wine will be fermented to around 10 – 11% ABV, and then it will be removed from the tank and bottled. Blending of different varieties may take place at this stage and a liqueur de tirage is added to encourage a secondary fermentation in the bottle before sealing it with a cap. If this sound like the traditional method, that is not surprising as up to this point the method is pretty much the same.
Tanked it!
The wine stays in the bottles to mature and take on the desirable characteristics of that bottle fermentation. At the end of that maturation, instead of riddling (turning the bottles to get the sediment into the neck of the bottle) the cap is simply taken off and the bottle is emptied into a tank. Once there, it can be filtered to remove sediment, other particles and to ensure clear liquid is produced. This process is clearly much less time consuming than riddling, disgorging and adding dosage to each bottle. Dosage in this case can be achieved at a whole tank level. And from here the wine will be bottled, a cork and cage added, a foil seal put on it and then it is ready to sell.
Where is the method used?
This method has been particularly popular in Australia to produce their sparkling wines. Most sparkling wines produced in Australia are likely to have used this method unless the bottle tells you otherwise. This has the typical Australian no nonsense approach written all over it. Why faff about with elaborate bottling process when you can just put the wine in a tank and filter the rubbish out? And the wines made this way are in fact usually quite high quality. In recent years there haven’t been so many Australian sparkling wines on the shelves in Europe / the UK, possibly due to the rise of prosecco, but there are some great examples, including red sparkling wines. All of the Champagne grapes are used in Australia, but due to the climate they take on slightly different characteristics than in Northern Europe.
So if you haven’t tried a transfer method wine, especially one from Australia, I’d really encourage you to pick one up and give it a go. A lot of people find champagne a bit bitter / sour, and the slightly warmer climate does soften the palette of these Australian wines, so some people may find them more accessible. And if you haven’t had a sparkling Shiraz, you have really missed a treat. For some reason sparkling red wine seems to be much smoother and easier drinking. If you pick up a bottle, be sure to let me know what it was and what thought. In the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!