Part six: Sparkling wine – The continuous method

What do you do when you want to produce a wine which tastes like a traditional method wine, in just a month? You use the continuous method! This method is not used much outside of Russia, but there are some producers in Portugal and Germany who make use of it.

It does what is says on the tin

The term continuous method comes from the fact that it uses a continuous process. Like other sparkling wines, a base still wine is created. This juice is then cooled and around 50 – 72g/L of sugar added. The wine then passes through a sequence of pressurised tanks, and yeast is continually added. As we already know, yeast converts sugar to alcohol. It also produces carbon dioxide. Continually adding yeast allows the carbon dioxide levels to increase to the point that the wine becomes sparkling. With the tanks sealed it cannot escape and dissolves into the wine.

Oak flavours are added by the inclusion of oak chips or special rings which the wine circulates in contact with. The yeast cells are absorbed into the oak chips meaning as the wine passes through the tanks, there is little sediment produced. This whole process occurs over four to five weeks. At the end of its time in the tank, the wine is transferred for clarification, filtering and fining. After this is it bottled under pressure and the bottle sealed in the usual method of a sparkling wine.

The wine does take on some characteristics which are similar to those found in the traditional method. Although this is not generally considered a method of making high quality wines. The main advantage of this method is it is inexpensive for the producer.

Who produces wine in this way?

Some mass produced German Sekt is produced using this method. There are also a number of Russian wine producers who still use this method of production. Having travelled quite a bit in Russia in 2009/2010 and again in 2012, I had the experience of trying several Sovetskoye Shampanskoye (Soviet Champagne). This is made using the continuous method. At the time of writing it is rated 3.1/5 on Vivino. It is also used by the Lancers brand in Portugal.

To be honest, its going to be quite difficult for most people to try a sparkling wine made in this way. If you manage to find one, why not drop me a line and let me know what you thought? In the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!