All you need to know to Break out the Bubbly! Right now!
Cheers!! Celebrate something wherever you are!
It’s Sparkling Wine Week!!
What?
Yep, it’s time for another made up wine holiday! What fun!!
Not quite sure who makes up these made up wine holidays, but just go with it! Hat’s off to them!
Actually, every week should be sparkling wine week! Find something to celebrate!
But what sparkling wine? Luckily there are a ton of great choices.
Spoiler Alert: Champagne is made in the Champagne region of France. Everything else is NOT Champagne. It is called sparkling wine.
Let’s start!
Let’s keep it simple, so that you can get the party started!!
What is sparkling wine?
Well, all sparkling wines start with a still (as in not bubbly) basic wine. It can be white, red, rosé. It can even be orange. (If you have no idea what I am talking about with orange wine, read my post on it here.) It can be made with almost any type of grape.
It can be sweet or dry.
Dissolved Carbon Dioxide (CO) makes the wine fizzy.
The biggest differences among all sparkling wines is the type of grape used, where it is made, and how it is made!
And now…
Now let’s find what you may like best! At the price you want to pay.
You had to know I would talk about price!
I am all about how much do you like it, and how how much do you want to pay for it. What is it worth to you?
That’s what I do! YES!
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*****
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The absolute basics (if it’s too much just skim):
There are two basic methods of making sparkling wine. Both methods start with a base wine. (Hint: Wine is fermented. This is the first fermentation.)
[Note: I wll deal with Pét-Nats and Asti separately. Ignore these basics for them. I will discuss below. If you don’t care, skip that part.]
Then sugar and yeast is added. The second fermentation begins. Result: Carbon Dioxide! Woo! Bubbles!
One of these methods is called bottle fermented. As in actually inside the sparkling wine bottle. The other method is tank fermented. This can also be called Charmat Method !
Honestly, that may be more than you need to know.
What you probably want to know is that in Champagne, they do bottle fermentation.
So when a sparkling wine uses the term Méthode Champenoise, they mean this. It means Champagne Method, but no one really says that. If you are marketing that you are like Champagne, you want to do it in French. Trust me.
The tank method, simply put, has the base wine placed in a sealed pressurized tank. The yeast and sugar are added to that.
Why does it matter which method is used? Also known as, Who Cares?
For many people, it does not matter at all. But if you are wondering why your prosecco doesn’t taste like Champagne, then it does matter. (Spoiler alert: Prosecco uses the tank method.)
The reason it tastes different is often because of the yeast. Some of the delicious flavors in a sparkling wine come from the lees. Not very sexy, but that means dead yeast cells. Yep, that gives it flavor. (Think bread.) Bottle fermentation has more contact with those lees. (Notice I didn’t use the phrase dead yeast cells again.)
So if you like that bready toasty flavor in your sparkling wine, you will probably want bottle fermentation. If you just want some sparkling wine to drink with your take-out (also known as take away), you may not care at all about how the sparkling wine is made.
I really, really simplified this!
There are pages and pages in my wine text book on this. I will add some terms at the end should you be interested about details of this process. Most people just want to know how to choose more delicious sparkling wine.
So what are the choices?!?!
Here is the list (read the descriptions if you want to know more):
FOR BOTTLE FERMENTATION:
Champagne
Crémant
Cava
Méthode Cap Classique
Sekt (sometimes)
FOR TANK FERMENTATION:
Prosecco
Sekt (sometimes)
STOP THE PRESSES, SO TO SPEAK! I am always learning.
The Charmat Method, tank fermentation, is used in many areas of France. This sparkling wine is made in Burgundy. Delicious!!
So many fantastic exceptions!!
AND…
THE SPARKLING WINES THAT COULD BE EITHER BOTTLE OR TANK FERMENTATION:
All New World (anywhere but Europe) Sparkling Wines
Choices, choices, choices!
Now here’s more info to help you choose!
Champagne:
There is so much to write about with Champagne. If you want to do a deeper dive, read my post that is all about it. I will put some terms you may want to know at the end of this post, though.
Champagne is sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. It will almost always cost more than other sparkling wines. They have a lot of rules in Champagne. Following them costs money. It’s as simple as that.
Champagne is made from a blend of Pinot Noir, Meunier, and Chardonnay. (Yes, 2 of these grapes are red. Remember that it is the skins that give the color to the wine.) Amounts from each grape will vary based on the style chosen.
Champagne comes in 4 different styles:
1. Standard: Unless otherwise noted, assume the style uses a blend of the three grapes listed above. It will look white, but based on percentages can have different flavor profiles.
2. Blanc de Blanc: This is usually 100% Chardonnay. It may be more citrus in its flavors.
3. Blanc de Noir:This is a white style made with 100% Pinot Noir with or without Pinot Meunier. This style may be more fruit forward.
4. Rosé: Rosé champagne is made by either adding a small percentage of red still wine or by keeping the red grapes on the skins a little longer.
Brands of Champagne are very proud of the style they choose for their wines. They differ a lot from each other. If you don’t like one brand, choose another. Unfortunately, that can be an expensive mistake. (Been there, done that.)
WARNING: If you buy a half bottle or smaller of Champagne, it will NOT taste like the larger bottle. I have made that mistake. Whole scientific discussion on Oxygen and wine would explain this. Not going to happen here, though. Take my word on it.
Do not buy cheap Champagne. For less money, you can do better elsewhere. Always look for Brut if you want dry.
Sometimes, you just want the GOOD STUFF. Buy Champagne then! Just try not to make an expensive mistake, if you can. Vintage Champagnes can totally break the bank. Same goes for aged Champagnes. You do you, but really think before you do!
Crémant:
This is sparkling wine made in 8 areas of France that are not Champagne.
These are the wines: Crémant d’Alsace, Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Limoux, Crémant de Loire, Crémant de Bordeaux, Crémant du Jura, Crémant de Savoie, and Crémant de Die.
While they all use the bottle fermentation method of Champagne, they all use different grape varieties. I could tell you which grape types in each, but that would be overkill for this post. Experiment and see what you can find. At this price point, it is easier to do than in Champagne. You should be able to find a Crémant you love for much less than you would spend for Champagne..
Cava
Cava is sparkling wine from Spain. It is made the same way as Champagne.
Cava is the sweet spot for me with sparkling wines. While there are some yuck ones, there are also a tremendous number of delicious ones for not that much money.
This is my absolute go-to for mixing a sparkling wine with anything. Check out my post on Best wine to use for a mimosa instead of Champagne. (Actually, if you look up Cava in the archive, you will see I mention it a lot.
Méthode Cap Classique
This is the term used in South Africa when making Sparkling Wine using the traditional method.
Sekt
This is the German word for sparkling wine. Some of the high quality wines made in Germany and Austria are made using the the bottle fermented method. The lower level wines are made using the Tank method. Doesn’t mean they are bad, but they may not compare postiively with the more expensive ones.
Prosecco
Prosecco is wildly popular and widely available. It is made from Glera grapes (should you care.)They are light and refreshing. That is all they are meant to be. The tank method is used most of the time, so there will not be much of the yeasty fresh bread taste you get in Champagne. You are not paying as much either. Hopefully!
Prosecco will vary greatly with price and taste. The amount of carbonation will vary too. I think they are great in a Bellini. If you find a brand you love, enjoy! Have fun with it.
New World Sparkling Wines
I write a lot about Old World and New World wines. A lot! If you’ve missed it, Old World is Europe (even if South Africa and other places started earlier.) They have a ton of rules.
New World wines, which is everywhere but Europe, have far fewer rules. Sparkling wine can be made anywhere however they want. If it is made like Champagne they will absolutely brag about it. Doesn’t mean it will be better than tank method, but it will probably be more expensive.
Confusing stuff: There are some sparkling wines in California that are allowed to be called Champagne. Whole grandfather clause going on there. Check out my post on Champagne if you are intrigued.
I really enjoy a lot of New World sparkling wines. They are fun, and hopefully not taken as seriously as Champagne. They are just delicious and add sparkle and fun to drinking wine.
Generally New World wines will tell you a lot more on the label about how it is made. It is easier to make informed decisions that way. Old World wine labels are “need to know,” as they say. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, please check out some of my New World versus Old world posts.)
Now to the Single fermented sparkling wines:
Asti
Asti is an Italian sparkling wine. It is only fermented once. It is made with the Muscat grape and is fruity and sweet. Moscato d’Asti are in this family.
Pét-Nats (pétillant naturel)
Pét Nat is a style that is so old it is new again. It pre-dates the making of Champagne. Basically, the base wine is bottled before the first fermentation has finished, capturing the Carbon Dioxide.
It has become popular lately because of a taste for natural wines. Natural wines is a term used to describe low-intervention wines. Some of them are almost no intervention, and the results vary widely. Some people like the unpredictability. If that’s you, woo! If not, there may be better choices.
More terms you may want to know (or not)
Dosage
This is not dosage like an amount of medicine. It is French and think massage for the pronunciation, with doe instead of ma. Dosage is the amount of sweetness added to the base wine in sparkling wine.
Brut (and other levels of sweetness)
Weirdly enough you do not want sparkling wine to say extra dry. It isn’t. You want it to say Brut if it is dry. If you really want low sugar, look for Brut Nature or Extra Brut.
If you want some sweetness, the levels are extra sec, sec, demi-sec, (semiseco) and doux. The last two are SWEET.
Traditional Method versus Transfer Method
These are both methods of removing the yeast (disgorgement) from bottle fermented sparkling wine. I’m only mentioning these, in case you hear the term and want to know what they are. I doubt this will make any difference to someone choosing a sparkling wine.
Yeast autolysis
This is way way more than most people want to know. This is the process of self digesting the yeast. This is actually what gives that bready taste to good Champagne. The flavors are autolytic.
Lees
Again, this is dead yeast cells. Again, not attractive sounding, but accurate. Remember that yeast does give flavor. If you are having a pét-nat, the sediment in the bottle is often the lees. There are other wines that you will hear about that say “sur lie.” That is resting on the dead yeast, which gives flavor. Using the word “lees” instead of dead yeast
Force-carbonation
This is when carbon dioxide is directly added to wines. Some of these are more successful than others. It is another method of making a sparkling wine.
Well we are now done with this exciting vocabulary lesson!
Now you are in the know!!!
Thirsty yet?
Want to celebrate something or nothing?
Go forth and drink some great sparkling wine!
Any time!!
CHEERS!! Too much?
