John Szabo’s Evergreen Sparkling Wine Primer: How to make Wines Sparkle
By John Szabo MS
The Traditional/Champagne Method/Méthode Traditionelle/Method Cap Classique
The traditional method, also known as the méthode champenoise, requires the secondary fermentation to take place in bottle rather than a large tank. A slurry of yeast and sugar called the liqueur de tirage is added to each bottle of dry, still base wine before it’s closed up, usually with a crown cap, or more rarely cork. Fermentation restarts and finishes through to complete dryness (hopefully). The wine is then left for a long ageing period after fermentation on the lees (dead yeast cells).
Over time, during the period known as “en tirage” or “sur lattes,” a process called yeast autolysis causes the spent yeast cells to break down, releasing those marvelous toasty, biscuity, brioche-like flavours for which traditional method sparkling wines are appreciated. I often refer to this as “autolytic” character in my reviews, an unnecessarily technical way of saying toasty or biscuity.
Vintage Champagne, for example, spends a minimum of three years ageing “sur lie” by law — though many wines are kept much longer. It’s a time- and space-consuming process, and the removal the dead yeast cells before the wine is sold, in a process called disgorging (dégorgement), adds considerable cost.
Finally, after disgorging, bottles must be topped up. This is done with wine from the same vintage (to make vintage-dated wine) or reserve wines (older vintage wines to make non- or multi-vintage wines). Red wine is added to make rosé (wines are only rarely pink from the start). Sugar, called the “dosage,” can also be mixed in the top-up wine to balance the finished product. On the label, the words Brut Nature, Brut Zero or Zero Dosage all mean that no sugar was added. Extra Brut indicates a small amount of sugar, up to six grams per liter, while Brut can have up to 12 grams. Dry and Extra Dry are, confusingly, quite sweet, a nomenclature hangover from the days when all champagne was very sweet; 19th-century Cristal reportedly had up to 300 grams/liter of sugar. The cuvées with a little less sugar, say only 50 or 100 grams, while still sweet to modern palates, were actually considered quite dry, or even extra dry, back then.
The Charmat/Cuve Close/Tank/Martinotti Method
The Charmat method, or any of its synonyms above, like for the traditional method, calls for a secondary fermentation of a base wine through the additional of sugar and yeast, but in this case in a large stainless-steel tank with the lid closed to retain the bubbles rather than a small bottle. Carbon dioxide is a natural by-product of fermentation, and under pressure, the gas remains dissolved in the wine. Frenchman Eugène Charmat takes credit for devising the technique in 1907, though his method was simply an improvement on Italian Federico Martinotti’s innovation in sparkling wine production in 1895.
This method is used most often for fresh wines from aromatic varieties like moscato or glera (aka, Prosecco), as the large volume of wine relative to the small amount of lees left over after the second fermentation adds virtually no toasty/yeasty (autolytic) flavour and allows the character of the grape variety to shine. It’s also faster and cheaper than the traditional method, and the wines, too, are invariably less expensive.
Méthode Ancestrale/Rurale/Gaillacoise/Artisanale/Pétillant Naturel/Pét-nat
The ancestral method, more popularly “pét-nat” these days, is the most ancient way of making (purposely) sparkling wines, traced back to monks in Limoux in the Languedoc, southern France, who recorded success with the technique in 1531 long before bubbles were common in Champagne.
The method involves simply bottling wine while it’s still fermenting. The wine continues to ferment in the closed bottle, reaching dryness (or close to), while trapping the CO2 produced. The wine is then sold as is, unfiltered, with the lees floating about, with no added sulfites (there are minor variations). So, expect a frothy, cloudy, usually dry wine with lower pressure than traditional method sparkling, and flavours on the more oxidative side of the spectrum, sometimes downright funky. These generally won’t have the complexity of a traditional method sparkling, nor the bright fruit of a Charmat method, but you could say they have a charm of their own. Pét-nats are very popular in natural-wine drinking circles.
No/Low Alcohol & Aromatic Sparkling
What is No/Low?
No/low (alcohol) is one of the fastest-growing categories of wine, as consumers, especially young consumers (Millennials, Gen Z) seek to reduce or eliminate alcohol from their diets (or choose to not start drinking in the first place). Many traditional types of sparkling wine have always been low in alcohol, such as moscato d’Asti with about 5.5 per cent alcohol, though such wines logically come with unfermented sugars and therefore are invariably sweet.
But technically, there is no such thing a low- or no-alcohol wine. To be legally considered wine, fermented grape juice needs to have a minimum alcohol level of eight percent (seven percent in the United States), unless a specific exemption exists, such as the one noted above, or, say, Tokaji Esszencia, which may have as little as one or two percent alcohol.
According to the labelling requirements for alcoholic beverages on the Government of Canada website, “low alcohol” is an acceptable claim for a product with less than 1.1 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).
But, a list of “low-alcohol” wines at the LCBO shows products between six and seven percent ABV.
“Dealcoholized” may be used to describe a product whose alcohol level has been reduced to a level less than 1.1 percent, while “non-alcoholic” or “alcohol-free” may be used to describe a product whose alcohol level has been reduced to less than 0.05 percent.
There are several ways to remove alcohol from a finished wine, such as reverse osmosis, vacuum distillation or a technique called spinning cone. All of these are violent, de-constituting then reconstituting wine, and the equipment is expensive. Seems silly to go to all the trouble of growing grapes, making wine, then ripping it apart, losing much of what makes wine pleasurable in the first place (not just alcohol, but flavour and texture, too). And the products tend to be even more expensive than the equivalents with alcohol, given the extra processing.
My advice for those looking to enjoy a sophisticated, non-alcoholic sparkling drink over the holidays: Buy some fancy tonic syrup, charge up your Soda Stream, and have at it.
Have any questions? Leave your comments online.
That’s all for this piece, see you ’round the next bottle.
John Szabo, MS