MAKING CHAMPAGNE, STEP-BY-STEP
Pressing, first fermentation, blending, second fermentation, lees aging, riddling, disgorgement, dosage ...: the making of Champagne is a somewhat occult art that we reveal here in a few steps.
1. Harvest
In Champagne, harvest is manual, No harvesting machine is allowed.
2. Pressing
Once harvested by plots and grape varieties, the grapes are taken to the presses to extract the juices. For Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes, which are grapes with white juice and black skin, pressing is carried out in such a way as to quickly extract the juice so that the skin of the grapes does not colour it.
3. Primary fermentation
This is the transformation of the sugars in the grapes into alcohol thanks to the action of yeasts and this lasts about 15 days: it is carried out by plots and by grape varieties and we then obtain still white wines, i.e. non-sparkling wines called "clear wines" in Champagne.
4. Reserving
Each year, a more or less important part of the wines is reserved, i.e. set aside. These wines are called "reserve wines".
5. Blending (Assemblage)
The art of blending, or Assemblage, consists in "mixing" different Champagne wines, clear wines of the year and reserve wines of previous years, to obtain a very specific type of Champagne. The contribution of reserve wines makes it possible to create, year after year, homogeneous blends and therefore champagnes whose personality, style and taste remain the same over time.
6. Bottling and secondary fermentation
The Champagne method or traditional method ("méthode traditionnelle” in French) is used to produce sparkling wine, with secondary fermentation occurring in the bottle. by adding a "liqueur de tirage", composed of wine, sugar and yeast, at the time of bottling (the tirage) of the still wines, at the earliest from the month of January following the harvest in Champagne.
The bottle is then corked with a metal capsule and this liquor will trigger a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The wine then becomes sparkling with the formation of a deposit.
7. Ageing
The bottles are placed on slats for a minimum of 15 months, including 12 months on lees, for non-vintage Champagne, and a minimum of 36 months for vintage Champagne.
8. Riddling
The aim here is to remove the natural deposit, the yeast cells and sediment, which has formed during ageing. Bottles are placed on special racks at a 45º angle, then turned and stirred every few days to move the deposit down toward the neck of the bottle.
9. Disgorgement
Disgorgement consists in removing the deposit. The neck of the bottle is immersed in a brine bath at -17°C to freeze the deposit, then the bottle is lifted and uncapped. It is then that the pressure of the sparkling wine expels the block of ice containing the deposit and then the vacuum created in the bottle is replaced by a liqueur called "liqueur d'expédition" composed of wine and sugar.
10. Dosage
The type and sugar content of this liqueur dconstitute the dosage of a Champagne. Here are the different dosages according to the amount of sugar per litre of wine:
- Nature: 0 to 3 grams of sugar per litre (also called "Not dosed" or "Zero").
- Extra-Brut: 3 to 6 grams of sugar per litre.
- Brut: 6 to 12 grams of sugar per litre.
- Extra-Dry: 12 to 17 grams of sugar per litre.
- Dry: 17 to 32 grams of sugar per litre.
- Demi-Sec: 32 to 50 grams of sugar per litre.
- Sweet: Over 50 grams of sugar per litre.
11. Corking
This is the operation that consists in closing the bottle with the famous cork held in place by a twisted wire hood.
12. Labelling
Labelling only takes place after a new rest in the cellar, from a few weeks to several months, to make the wine perfectly homogeneous.
To learn more about Champagne, check out our guide to Champagne grape varieties.