Sparkling
Sparkling wine beyond Champagne — Crémant, Prosecco, Franciacorta, Cava and the techniques that produce them.
Concept
Style
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Blanc de Blancs
Champagne made from white grapes only, which in practice almost always means one hundred percent Chardonnay.
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Blanc de Noirs
White Champagne made entirely from black grapes, typically Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a blend of both.
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Brut
Dosage category for sparkling wine: up to 12 g/l residual sugar. The de-facto standard for non-vintage Champagne, around 95 percent of production.
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Brut Nature
Strictest dosage category: 0 to 3 g/l residual sugar, no added sugar. Also Pas Dosé or Zéro Dosage. Shows the base wine without mercy.
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Cava
Spanish sparkling DO, mostly from Penedès, segmented since 2020 into four ageing tiers running from 9 to 36+ months.
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Col fondo
Cloudy Prosecco with second fermentation in bottle, undisgorged, formally permitted inside the DOC since 2019.
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Crémant
French sparkling AOCs outside Champagne made by traditional method with hand-harvested whole-cluster fruit and nine months minimum on the lees.
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Demi-Sec
Off-dry dosage category for sparkling wine: 32 to 50 g/l residual sugar. Classic with dessert. Has become rarer in modern Champagne offerings.
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Extra Brut
Dosage category between Brut Nature and Brut: 0 to 6 g/l residual sugar. Increasingly popular with grower and quality-focused Champagne producers.
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Franciacorta
Italian premium sparkling DOCG from Lombardy, made by the traditional method with a minimum of 18 months on the lees.
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Prosecco
Italian sparkling wine from Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, made from a minimum 85% Glera grape via the Charmat method.
Technique
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Autolysis
Breakdown of dead yeast cells during extended lees ageing in the bottle. Source of brioche, hazelnut and creamy texture in Champagne and other traditional-method sparkling wines.
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Charmat method
Second fermentation of sparkling wine in a sealed pressurised stainless steel autoclave rather than inside the bottle.
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Dégorgement
Removing the yeast lees from the Champagne bottle after ageing. Freeze the neck, pop off the crown cap, the deposit shoots out under internal pressure.
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Liqueur d'Expédition
Wine-and-sugar mixture added to the Champagne bottle after dégorgement. Determines the final dosage category (brut nature through doux).
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Liqueur de Tirage
The mixture of wine, sugar and yeast added to a base wine to trigger the second fermentation inside the bottle.
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Méthode ancestrale
The oldest sparkling wine technique: a single fermentation finishes inside the bottle without added yeast or sugar.
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Méthode Traditionnelle
Second fermentation in bottle outside the Champagne AOC. Technically identical to méthode champenoise, without the origin guarantee.
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Prise de Mousse
The second fermentation in the bottle for Champagne and other méthode traditionnelle wines. Yeast eats added sugar, produces alcohol and CO₂. Takes 6 to 8 weeks at 10-12°C.
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Remuage
Gradual rotation and tilting of the Champagne bottle to collect the yeast lees in the neck before dégorgement. Invented at Veuve Clicquot in 1816.
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Tirage
Bottling of the base wine with liqueur de tirage (sugar + yeast) to start the second fermentation in the bottle. The opening of the méthode champenoise.