Cheers To You

“Come quickly brothers, I’m drinking stars.” – Monk Dom Perignon after first drinking Champagne.

Bubbly. Sparkling. Effervescent.

These descriptors conjure up a perception of delectable bottles of wine. But have you ever wondered how they get those tiny bubbles to sparkle just right?

It’s all tied to carbon dioxide. And when it comes to sparkling wine, the tinier the bubbles the better the taste. That’s because tiny bubbles come from aging, and everyone knows “wine gets better with age.”

This prolonged aging is also why you’ll often find sparkling wines priced higher than their still wine (wine sans bubbles) counterparts. And, if you look at the price of Champagne — produced only in France’s Champagne region under strict guidelines — you can easily find bottles in the $100-plus range. (You can also find bottles in the $1,000-plus range).

These delightful little bubbles can tickle your tongue, but be wary of the big bubbles — they can feel like they’re erupting at the back of your throat.

So how do winemakers get those wines to sparkle? They have two options: do it naturally or artificially.

The natural way is to put wine through two fermentation processes. The first is the same as any wine — yeast is added to crushed grapes. Yeast eats sugars; the release of carbon dioxide makes alcohol.

It’s the second fermentation that separates the sparkling wines from still wines. During this process a “dosage” is added to still wine. The dosage can consist of a small dose of sugar and sometimes wine. This is added to the wine mixture that still contains yeast.

A sturdy cap, not cork, is placed on the bottle, which is stored in a riddling rack. This rack keeps the neck of the bottle titled below its base. Each day the bottle is turned, or riddled, slightly to shake the dead yeast cells into the neck of the bottle.

During this process, the active yeast is eating the added sugar and again producing carbon dioxide. But without the possibility of release, instead of creating a higher alcohol content, the carbon dioxide is instead creating bubbles.

For extremely large batches of wine, the artificial process is used, where gas is pumped into vats to create the bubbles. This process, called the Charmat method, does not make for tiny bubbles.

Unless a wine was made in Champagne, France, it cannot be labeled Champagne. However, that doesn’t mean that other wine-producing regions of the world don’t produce great sparkling wines — but they must be clear that what they’re making is just that: sparkling wine.

Often you’ll see a label from a wine made in the United States that indicates a sparkling wine has been made using the Champagne method, or “Méthode Champenoise.”

In other parts of the world sparkling wine goes by different names. The more commonly known include Spain’s cava, Italy’s spumante, Germany’s Sekt, and in France’s wine regions of Burgundy and Alsace it’s Cremant.

Now that we’ve given a brief explainer of how sparkling wine is made, the only logical question to be asked next is: What sparklers do we recommend?

Well, if you’ve got money burning a hole in a pocket we’d recommend purchasing a “Tête de Cuvée”, which is Champagne from the best vineyards and best years only.

These would be Moet & Chandon’s Dom Perignon, Roederer’s Cristal, Perrier-Jouet Fleur and Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame. And the older the vintage, the more you’ll shell out — we’ve seen some listed at over $2,000.

Now that we’re done dreaming, on to the wines most of us can afford.

While tied to the above-mentioned Roederer Cristal, Roderer Estate is an affordable sparkling wine that comes from a champagne house in California. Consider it the cousin of France’s Louis Roederer Champagne house.

This estate is located in one of the most-northern California vineyards, much like Champagne is one of the most-northern wine regions of France. Because it’s associated with Champagne’s Roderer, the wine must live up to its reputation.

Other affordable California sparklers include Domaine Carneros by Taittinger (located in Carneros, Calif., but also a cousin to a French Champagne house); and Gloria Ferrer, also of Carneros, Calif. They have a Sonoma Brut and Blanc des Noirs that both run about $20, and are a great price for the quality.

Moving up the coast to Oregon, notable bubbles from this state include Argyle Winery’s sparkling wine. This winery makes more than just sparkling wine, but their sparklers are considered some of the finest in the Northwest. They currently have six different sparkling wines available on their website, including different blends of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, stand alone Pinot Noir and standalone Dijon clone Chardonnay. These should be easy to find in Washington.

In Washington State, well-known winery Chateau Ste. Michelle produces a wonderful sparkling wine that is delicious, and relatively inexpensive. This would be the kind of sparkling wine that could be used to make cocktails — think pomegranate juice or mimosas — because of its good quality.

Across the state, just outside of Spokane, sits Mountain Dome Winery, which focuses primarily on high-quality sparking wines. They produce three styles, all from Washington grapes.

Once you find the perfect sparkling wine to enjoy this holiday season, you’ll want to make sure you serve it to guests — or yourself — at its peak.

Sparkling wine should never be served at room temperature. Instead it should be served cool, preferably around 43 to 48 degrees. (Once opened keep in ice and water to maintain cool temperature).

While you may throw other bottles of still wine in the freezer to speed up the chilling process, we would strongly recommend against doing this with sparkling wines, unless of course you want a science experiment-sized explosion going off in your freezer.

When it comes time to open the sparkling wine, while you may be tempted to pop the cork in all its glory, it’s actually better to hold in the pop. While we’ve been conditioned to think the louder the pop, the more fun the night, in reality the louder the pop the less bubbles there will be to enjoy.

Instead, hold the cork and twist the bottle to produce the quietest pop possible.

If you want to look like a professional while pouring the wine, follow these tips: Hold the bottle with your thumb in the punt (the depression in the bottom of the bottle) and spread your fingers across the barrel, tipping your wrist away from your body as you pour.

Start by pouring only a small amount, about a tablespoon, into each Champagne flute. Return to the glasses, filling each about three-quarters full. This technique keeps the wine from overflowing — leaving more for you to savor.

Now, raise your glass and repeat after us:

A votre santé! (French translation: To your health!)
Prosit! (German translation: Cheers!)
L’Chaim! (Hebrew translation: To life!)
Cin-Cin! (Italian translation: Cheers!)
Kampai! (Japanese translation: To an empty glass!)
Na zdrowie! (Polish translation: To your health!)

And last but not least:

Cheers to You!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Mary and Brynn

Share on Facebook

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 at 2:49 pm by brynn grimley and is filed under California Wines, French Wine, Northwest Wines, Washington Wines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.