What puts the sparkle in sparkling wine?

We all associate sparkling wine and champagne with joyous celebrations. However, recently, many people have recognized that sparkling wine can provide a bargain accompaniment even for an everyday meal. Making Sparkling Wine and Champagne If you see the words 'traditional method' or 'methode traditionelle' on a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine, then it has been made using the methods originally developed in the Champagne region of France. The first step in making sparkling wine is to create a base wine that is very acidic. Secondly, the base wine is put in a bottle with some extra yeast and sugar and sealed. A word of warning, if you are planning to make your own, the seal must be VERY strong as the build-up of carbon dioxide can be extremely powerful! Finally, the bottle needs to be tipped forwards so that the sediment sinks into the neck of the bottle. In traditional champagne houses, the bottles are turned daily and tapped for a period of up to three months to remove the sediment. However, the more modern approach is to freeze the neck, release the sediment and then re-cork the bottle. Champagne Uncovered Only wines produced in the French region of Champagne are allowed to carry the label 'champagne'. Therefore, we are seeing a lot of sparkling wine on our shelves that is of excellent quality. Not only must champagne be produced in the Champagne region, but it must also be made from the chardonnay, pinot noir or pinot meunier grape varieties. Even the bottling method is unique to the Champagne region. A champagne label will tell you about the sweetness of the particular champagne. For example, rich or doux champagne is very sweet with over 50g of sugar per liter, demi sec has between 17 and 35g of sugar per liter, extra dry is a label used for champagne containing between 12 and 20g of sugar per liter, brut is dry champagne with less than 15g of sugar per liter and extra brut is very dry champagne with under 6g of sugar per liter. If you want a very special bottle of champagne look for the words "t