Champagne Making Process

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm going to tell you about the Champagne Process. Now the French term in the International term for the champagne process is Methode Champenoise. And we can use the term Methode Champenoise for other sparkling wines. And other countries have different ways of saying Methode Champenoise, maybe Methode Cape Classique or the traditional method, Methode Traditionale, that are all refers to the way that you make the high quality, serious sparkling wine. Of course it originated in Champagne, France and it's been imitated the world over. So the Methode Champenoise starts with a base wine. We pick the grapes of our region, we ferment them till they're very dry, kind of acidic and tart, then we add some sugar, and we add some yeast, mix it up, and put it into a bottle. Now this wine, once it's in the bottle, its going to stay in this bottle until somebody buys it, opens it up and pours it. So in this bottle, when we're making wine according to the Methode Champenoise, we've got some base wine, we've got some yeast, we've got some sugar. We lay it down somewhere, in a dark cave, or a closet or a wine making chive, and for about thirty days, we allow mother nature to do her thing, and the new yeast eats the new sugar in the bottle, converts it to alcohol, seal to in heat, which is of course fermentation, and the heat is anticipated, the alcohol stays in there and the bubbles are trap within this bottle. So very sturdy bottle for that very reason. Now after that second fermentation, the yeast cells would die out and settle into the bottom of the bottle. And another very important part of the Methode Champenoise is to let the wine rest on those dead yeast cells for several years, at least a year and a half, maybe up to five or even ten years. And then what we do using the process called Remuage, we take the bottle and we kind of lay it down, we pop it on the bottom a few times, we twist the bottle, but what we do is we try to force the yeast cells into the neck of the bottle. That takes about three months. Then, somebody with a great deal of skill, takes the cork out of the bottle real fast, the dead yeast cells will shoot out, cleaning the wine, we top it off, we put in a new cork, a wire cage, we ship it off to market and voila, we have a wine made using Methode Champenoise. That yeast cell in the bottle that the wine has rested on for a few years will release all the wonderful aromas that will give us the champagne bouquet and the tart attack in a smooth finish that are very unique to quality sparkling wine. And the way you make that is called the Methode Champenoise."