Yuletide sparkle

Part of Christmas, for some, is sharing a glass or two with family at the festive table. What better way to celebrate than with a glass of locally produced sparkling wine?

There are four distinct methods for making sparkling wine.

The first is to simply inject carbon dioxide into the wine, the same method as a soda fountain.

The second allows secondary fermentation in tanks, so the wine can be later bottled under pressure. This is the Charmat method, used in Italy to produce Asti, and in Spain to make Cava. Germany employs the Charmat process in the production of Sekt. Russia developed a very similar method in their production of sparkling wines.

The third—and perhaps most commonly known—creates the bubbles by secondary fermentation in the bottle. In the Méthode Champenoise, a small amount of yeast and sugar is placed in the bottle before sealing with a crown cap. Only producers from the Champagne region of France are permitted to use this term—everywhere else it must be called Méthode Traditionnelle.

The final method is similar to the third. The dosage of yeast and sugar, however, is only added after secondary fermentation when the wine is emptied back into a tank to be filtered. This eliminates any slight variance that might occur from bottle to bottle, and allows the winemaker greater freedom to tweak the wine and create more complex nuances.

Non-vintage Champagne is required to rest on the lees for no less than 15 months, whereas vintage Champagne rests for a minimum of three years. At the end of this time, it has to undergo a process called riddling, where the lees, by movement and positioning, are persuaded to drop to the neck of the bottle. This used to be a very labour intensive process, done by hand. Today, the removal of the plug of lees is mechanized. As a final step, any wine lost in the bottle is replaced with a dosage of wine, sucrose and a very small amount of sulphur dioxide, which acts as a preservative. Every winemaker has his or her own special recipe for dosage, which will define a champagne ranging from doux (sweet) to brut nature (bone dry). A cork is then inserted and secured by the wire cage. All of this detail means champagne has great aging potential.

We are fortunate to have local winemakers who produce a range of sparkling wine to suit every budget. County wines make wonderful, thoughtful gifts. Wherever possible, we should support the efforts and skills of all the wonderful enterprises available in the County.