Sparkling
Sparkling wine beyond Champagne — Crémant, Prosecco, Franciacorta, Cava and the techniques that produce them.
Concept
Style
Blanc de Blancs
Champagne made from white grapes only, which in practice almost always means one hundred percent Chardonnay.
Blanc de Noirs
White Champagne made entirely from black grapes, typically Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or a blend of both.
Brut
Dosage category for sparkling wine: up to 12 g/l residual sugar. The de-facto standard for non-vintage Champagne, around 95 percent of production.
Brut Nature
Strictest dosage category: 0 to 3 g/l residual sugar, no added sugar. Also Pas Dosé or Zéro Dosage. Shows the base wine without mercy.
Cava
Spanish sparkling DO, mostly from Penedès, segmented since 2020 into four ageing tiers running from 9 to 36+ months.
Col fondo
Cloudy Prosecco with second fermentation in bottle, undisgorged, formally permitted inside the DOC since 2019.
Crémant
French sparkling AOCs outside Champagne made by traditional method with hand-harvested whole-cluster fruit and nine months minimum on the lees.
Demi-Sec
Off-dry dosage category for sparkling wine: 32 to 50 g/l residual sugar. Classic with dessert. Has become rarer in modern Champagne offerings.
Extra Brut
Dosage category between Brut Nature and Brut: 0 to 6 g/l residual sugar. Increasingly popular with grower and quality-focused Champagne producers.
Franciacorta
Italian premium sparkling DOCG from Lombardy, made by the traditional method with a minimum of 18 months on the lees.
Prosecco
Italian sparkling wine from Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, made from a minimum 85% Glera grape via the Charmat method.
Technique
Autolysis
Breakdown of dead yeast cells during extended lees ageing in the bottle. Source of brioche, hazelnut and creamy texture in Champagne and other traditional-method sparkling wines.
Charmat method
Second fermentation of sparkling wine in a sealed pressurised stainless steel autoclave rather than inside the bottle.
Dégorgement
Removing the yeast lees from the Champagne bottle after ageing. Freeze the neck, pop off the crown cap, the deposit shoots out under internal pressure.
Liqueur d'Expédition
Wine-and-sugar mixture added to the Champagne bottle after dégorgement. Determines the final dosage category (brut nature through doux).
Liqueur de Tirage
The mixture of wine, sugar and yeast added to a base wine to trigger the second fermentation inside the bottle.
Méthode ancestrale
The oldest sparkling wine technique: a single fermentation finishes inside the bottle without added yeast or sugar.
Méthode Traditionnelle
Second fermentation in bottle outside the Champagne AOC. Technically identical to méthode champenoise, without the origin guarantee.
Prise de Mousse
The second fermentation in the bottle for Champagne and other méthode traditionnelle wines. Yeast eats added sugar, produces alcohol and CO₂. Takes 6 to 8 weeks at 10-12°C.
Remuage
Gradual rotation and tilting of the Champagne bottle to collect the yeast lees in the neck before dégorgement. Invented at Veuve Clicquot in 1816.
Tirage
Bottling of the base wine with liqueur de tirage (sugar + yeast) to start the second fermentation in the bottle. The opening of the méthode champenoise.