Your Guide to a Sparkling (Wine) New Year

Few thing say Happy New Year like a glass of bubbly but not all bubbles are made the same, literally.

While bubbly is made all over the world there are a couple of different ways of actually producing it. The first, the original, is Methode Champenoise. This is the way Champagne is made as well as other sparkling Brut (only sparkling wine made in Champagne, France can actually be called Champagne). Wines made in this method might say on the label that they are made Methode Champenoise or Methode Traditionnelle or simply Traditional Method depending on where it’s made.

This traditional method is done in two stages, the first, is a typical wine fermentation process where yeast is added to grape juice and the bi-products result in alcohol, heat, and CO2 which is released from the wine through spigots at the top of the tanks where the wine is being fermented. The second stage is what turns that wine into Champagne (or, if not made in Champagne France, then sparkling wine). The wine is poured into bottles and additional yeast and sugar are added to the bottle. The yeast eats away at the sugar and once again produces alcohol, heat, and CO2 but this time there is nowhere for that CO2 to vent out so it goes into the wine, creating those tiny bubbles we love so much. (The best bottles of bubbly will smell faintly of toast because of the yeast.) The wine will then be set at an angle and slowly turned in a process called riddling that helps collect all the yeast at the neck of the bottle so it gets out of the wine. The necks of the bottles are then frozen and uncapped so the yeast turns into a little plug that is shot out of the bottle by the force of the CO2 before the bottles are then corked and delivered to stores for us to enjoy.

The second way to make a sparkling wine is what’s called forced fermentation where after the wine is made CO2 is pumped into the tanks where the wines are made and the wines are carbonated that way. These bubbles tend to be larger in size than their traditional counterpart., though, there are some very nice tiny bubbles that can be made this way as well. Wines made with this method are Prosecco (from Italy) and Cava (from Spain) among others.

If there is one thing you learn from me, let it me this: the smaller the bubble the smaller the headache the next morning. Let this rule guide you as you treat yourself to a nicer bottle knowing it will pay off later.