Part seven: Sparking wine – Carbonation

In the previous six posts we have explored seven methods of making sparkling wine. To varying degrees all of they are quite complex, and essentially they are all just about trapping carbon dioxide. So you may well be wondering, couldn’t we save ourselves a huge pile of energy by just simply injecting carbon dioxide into a still wine? And the simple answer is yes!

While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend grabbing your soda stream and a bottle of chardonnay, you might be surprised how many sparkling wines are actually made by injecting CO2. Obviously, we aren’t talking Champagnes here, but some lighter styles of wines are produced using this method. This technique is likely going to be used only for lower quality or inexpensive wines. That does not mean that they are bad wines, but just they are not at the top end.

Adding or retaining CO2

So as we come to the end of this mini-series on sparkling wine, I thought I would add something else. Some wines are not sparkling, but do have some fizz. Anyone who has tried Vihno Verde from Portugal will be familiar with the light mousse (fizz) that they have. Historically, this was created by allowing some residual sugar to remain in the bottle, but is actually more often than not recreated now by adding CO2. Adding CO2 can add freshness and make the wine seem a little lighter.

Rather than adding CO2 to create this effect it is also possible to simply stop the fermentation using Sulphur Dioxide while some of the CO2 is still naturally present in it. Again, the style of this wine is not sparkling, the bubbles are detectable but not prominent. It is not uncommon for natural wines to develop some pétillant qualities as they are not as heavily filtered. So not everything that fizzes sparkles!

Sparkling wine facts

So I thought I’d finish with a few fun facts about sparkling wine.

1. It is estimated that there are around 49M bubbles in a single bottle of Champagne.
2. A Champagne cork can reach up to 24.8 mph when released from a bottle.
3. The longest recorded distance a Champagne cork has travelled on opening a bottle is a staggering 54M!
4. The most expensive bottle of Champagne ever sold cost $2.07M!
5. You can revive the sparkle in your glass by adding a little bit of sugar or a raisin to it.
6. Drinking Champagne every week has been shown to prevent memory loss!
7. One bottle of Champagne contains around 1.2Kg of grapes.
8. The largest Champagne bottle, the Melchizedek holds 40 litres!
9. 64% of all English wine is sparkling wine.
10. The original Bellini used Prosecco not Champagne!
11. Cava is the most exported wine from Spain.
12. Cava grapes are harvested at night to keep them cool.
13. There are no specified grape varieties for Cap Classique.
14. In 2024, sparkling wine is expecting to overtake beer as the USAs most consumed beverage.
15. Not all Prosecco’s are sparkling, there are some still versions.

So I hope you have enjoyed exploring this mini-series on sparkling wine with me. Whatever you favourite method of producing it, I hope in the words of Dom Perignon, it brings you a taste of the stars! In the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!