Bubbles 101: Have you noticed? Wines with bubbles is a thing. A big thing. Check out the shelf space devoted to bubble at any good retailer. It’s growing.
by Mary Bailey
Sparkling wine sales in Canada have been on a steady rise since 2012, driven by the popularity of Prosecco.
Yet, Prosecco isn’t the only game in town. There is a world of other sparkling wines to try. And, if you have gotten lost in the sheer variety of types, styles, colours and prices, this primer is for you.
What’s the deal with the bubbles?
Simply put, the bubbles are trapped carbon dioxide. That’s it. It’s how they get there that makes the difference in the quality, the taste and the price.
Bubbles have been in wine for millennia, especially in northern Europe. In some years, the fermentation would not be complete before cold weather set in. Fermentation would stop when the temperatures dipped, then start again in the spring when it warmed up. The choice was to try to capture those bubbles or wait until the fermentation stopped, then bottle the wine. Turns out, people liked the bubbles. The attempt to capture led to innovations in wine making, glass blowing and bottle making which continues today. (The science these days is about creating lighter bottles for less of the environmental impact which are still strong enough to withstand the pressure of the wine.)
Limoux in south west France was actually the first region to make it official. We now call this the ancestral method, or by the super trendy moniker, pét-nat (méthode ancestrale, pétillant naturel).
How the bubbles get in the wine is important. The method chosen affects quality, taste, longevity and price. The most important methods are traditional and tank.
Traditional Method
The region of Champagne in northern France was the first to develop controlled capture of the bubbles. The process, now called the traditional method anywhere outside of Champagne, starts with the fermentation of the base wine to make a dry wine with high acidity. The next step is the tirage, where yeast and sugars are added to the base wine. The wine is bottled, topped with a crown cap and left to sit for a minimum, in Champagne, of 15 months, 36 for vintage. The amount if time in other regions, varies, but, the point is, the wine starts to ferment again. The CO2, a byproduct of fermentation, has nowhere to go, so it stays in the bottle creating tremendous pressure and those highly sought-after bubbles.
While this is happening, the yeast cells die, yet still have contact with the wine affecting the flavour (this is called autolysis and gives the bready, tangy notes to the wine). It’s also called aging on lees.
The next step is a clarification process called riddling. The bottles are inverted to move the lees to the neck so they can be removed efficiently. On my very first trip to Champagne I encountered a large and surly man with huge Popeye forearms and a cigarette hanging out one side of his mouth, turning bottles in a rack. He was a riddler. You probably wouldn’t see that now, the cigarette for sure, and most, but not all, riddling is done by machines called gyropalettes, invented by a Cava house.
Once the wine is riddled, the sediment can be removed. This is called disgorgement. Bottles were plunged into brine, the crown cap popped off and the nasty-looking grey sludge of dead yeast cells, now frozen, popped out. The modern process is, essentially, the same. The dosage (a mixture of wine and sugar called the liqueur d’expédition) is added, the bottle is recorked and the wine is aged a bit longer to assimilate the dosage. The elements of the dosage are usually kept under wraps. There is a trend to lower or no dosage in some wines. This dosage is a big part of the style of any sparkling wine house and helps create consistency in NV wines (more on this later).
This method, used all over the world in quality sparkling wine production, helped capture a Unesco World Heritage designation for the Champagne region in 2015. It’s historic, time-consuming, labour-intensive and expensive. And, it makes some of the most unforgettable wines in the world. It’s what every sparkling wine around the world strives to be. The process builds complexity, texture, finish and creates elegance and refinement. The best Champagne and sparkling wines made this way have tiny bubbles and a creamy mousse, both important indicators of quality.
Tank Method (also called Charmat method, cuvee close, autoclave)
The tank method is a quicker, and less expensive method. The base wine and tirage are put in the tank together. The wine has the second fermentation in the tank, rather than in a bottle. Then it’s filtered, has the dosage added (if using) and is bottled. Generally, wines produced in this method are fresh and fruity with few if any autolysis flavours. It’s popular in Italy for Prosecco, Moscato d’Asti and Lambrusco and internationally for other sparkling wines.
A tweak on the traditional method involving tanks is the transfer method (transversage). It’s how sparkling wine is put into splits or the poetically named large formats, such as methuselah (six litres) or salmanazar (12 bottles).
The Champagne Influence
The Champagne style is emulated everywhere, through the choice of grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, Champagne’s holy trinity), the French vocabulary used (as homage, but also because people who make sparkling wine usually spend some time in Champagne learning how) and the elegant and refined style of the wines.
Equally important is the idea of vintage or non-vintage. The Champenois invented the idea of using several years’ wines to blend into a non-vintage product (NV). Vintage (wine made from the harvest of only one year) is the exception not the rule. Smart that; in the iffy climate of northern France, winemakers were able to build some insurance against a failed harvest. Champagne houses pride themselves on their reserve wines. Veuve Clicquot, for instance, feels that the reserve wines are the essence of the house. Grower Champagnes (small houses making wines from their own estates only; the large houses may make wine from both bought and estate fruit) often don’t have the resources or the longevity to have several years wines in reserve.
The Champenois, being the unbelievably good marketers that they are (and understanding the power of the brand before the word was invented) turned the idea of not so many good harvests into an asset. The vintage wines are lavished with care and attention, called luxury cuvée and demand a high price. The NV became, not second best, but the trusted house style and the face of the brand.
It’s less likely to find the NV style in other sparkling wine regions. New world houses are more likely to make vintage wine every year or only in very good years, particularly if they produce still wines as well.
When is Champagne not Champagne? When it’s not from Champagne. If it has bubbles it’s a sparkling wine, only if it’s from Champagne is it called Champagne. Insignificant? Perhaps, but what about all those “Champagne” brunches that serve you a glass of Hungarian Grande Cuvee? False advertising!
European wines are named for their region. Crémant de (such as Crémant de Bourgogne, Crémant de Loire) is the name for traditional method sparkling wines made in Burgundy, outside of Champagne, and have their own set of rules to contend with. There is even Bourgogne Mousseux, an appellation for sparkling red wines made in Burgundy.
Sparkling wine in Germany is called Sekt, traditional method wines in Spain are called Cava and Espumante in Portugal. Italy, the home of so many interesting bubble leaves the nomenclature up to the region. Franciacorta in Lombardy has to be metodo classico (aka traditional method). Prosecco on the other hand, can be traditional, or tank and we are seeing several col fondo wines now, which is the Italian version of pét-nat. The wines are not disgorged, leaving sediment in the bottle.
Do you need to learn them all? Only if you want to become a 100 per cent, certified bubblehead. If not, just say sparkling wine and let the wine shop staff guide you. Price is key but more important is what you like and the occasion. We are even seeing sparkling wine in cans which ups the portability factor.
Most high-quality sparkling wines in Canada are made by the traditional method and are proud to tell you so (the key is the quality of the base wines and the amount of aging on the lees.)
I hope Canucky sparklers are having a moment. Our climate and latitude creates ideal growing conditions for grapes to be made into sparkling wines (dry base wines with high acidity). Some notable wines to try are Benjamin Bridge from Nova Scotia and Henry of Pelham’s Cuvée Catherine. From British Columbia there is Blue Mountain, Maverick’s Ella (available at the winery), the beautiful sparkling wines made by Sperling, Tantalus’ Blanc de Noir and Fitz Brut. Okanagan Crush Pad is up to some interesting things (both traditional method and pét-nat) and Bella, made in Naramata, is a fun drink.
I love a glass of Blanc de Blanc in the winter, its crystalline taste like the sun sparkling on the white blanket of snow, its purity like drinking it. I love a rich and generous Blanc de Noir, especially with food. I like a glass of Lambrusco with Prosciutto. Madame Bollinger said it best:
“I drink Champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it—unless I’m thirsty.”
– Lily Bollinger