Sparkling Wine Production

Series Summary

Sparkling wine has been enjoyed for thousands of years; created first by the English, and perfected by the French in the 18th century. Though Pierre Perignon, or Dom Perignon, the French monk did not invent champagne, he did significantly refine the champagne making process. Since then people all over the world have tasted this amazing sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. But champagne is not the only sparkling wine worthy of purchase. In this free wine video series, a sommelier discusses different types of sparkling wine from around the world. Learn about traditional champagne from the Champagne region of France, as well as cava from Spain and prosecco from Italy. Find out how sparkling wine is produced and what foods pair well with each type. Sparkling wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be delicious.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mark Middlebrook and I'm here in the Paul Marcus Wines cellar and in this segment I'm going to talk about sparkling wine production methods but, specifically the two main methods that are used to make most of the sparkling wines in the world, whether they come from Champagne in France, or Italy or Spain or the U.S. or anywhere else. This generally simpler and less expensive method is called the bulk process or the Charmat method, named after a French guy who developed it many years ago. And the idea is you take the wine and you put it into a large vessel, usually stainless steel these days, and then you essentially inject carbon dioxide into it and that's how the bubbles get there. It's very efficient, you know, once you have the steel tank there. As a result you can make a sparkling wine that's, you know, relatively modest in cost you know, ten to fifteen to twenty dollars for generally a Charmat bulk method wine. The wines tend to be fruity, a little bit simpler, larger bubbles, but perfectly satisfying, great brunch wines, great for starting off an everyday dinner. Nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with this style of sparkling wine. The more involved and certainly more expensive process in terms of effort is called, is typically called the Methode Champenoise, the Champagne method. Because it was perhaps not invented in Champagne, there's a lot of argument about that but it certainly has reached its acme there and it's where it's best known. It's also called, you'll see on labels, Methode Traditionnel, traditional method, or Methode Classique, the classic method. All synonyms for the same basic process. So again, they start by making wine, making pretty much ordinary wine, and then instead of putting it into a big vessel after the fermentation is complete, they add a little bit of yeast and a little bit of sugar and that activates what is called a secondary fermentation in the bottle. They cap it off and do this all in the bottle. So it's the secondary fermentation in the bottle that creates the bubbles because there's nowhere for the bubbling stuff that the yeast creates by eating the sugar. There's nowhere that, there's nowhere for that to go, so it dissolves into the wine and creates the bubbles that you see when you drink it. Champagne is the most famous Methode Champenoise, Methode Traditionnel wine, but many, there are many other good examples, Cava from Spain, certain, many sparkling wines from the United States. I've had a few good ones from Tasmania and even in Italy in Franciacorta, for example, they make nice Methode Traditionnel wines. So this tend be a little more expensive because, again there's a lot more effort involved to make the wine this way, but you get a bit more elegant wine. These are going - great everyday sparklers that you can use to enjoy sparkling wine more often."