Classic Method Sparkling Wine (or Champenoise)

The method was born in France towards the end of the 1600s and legend has it credited to a Benedictine monk who will go down in history, Dom Pierre Perignon . The method is very complex, lengthy and therefore expensive, but it allows the creation of sparkling wines of a high level in terms of finesse, elegance, persistence and complexity. The process begins with the base wine which is bottled by adding the "liqueur de tirage" which is used to start the second alcoholic fermentation; in this phase, with the production of carbon dioxide (as well as alcohol) we have the creation of bubbles in the bottle. After that, the bottle is closed with a temporary stopper, called bidule, it is placed in piles to rest and to be enriched with aromas and perfumes (in contact with the yeasts of the refermentation) for several months or even years (up to 5 years and more). . Subsequently the bottles are placed upside down on the pupitre, wooden trestles in the shape of an inverted "V" with special holes, and periodically rotated by hand (or with machines, in the more industrialized cellars), a practice called remuage. The following phase concerns the elimination of yeast lees, inside the bottle, through the direct expulsion of the cork; this phase is called degorgement, or disgorgement. The sparkling wine is then topped up, an operation called dosage, with a liquid called liqueur d'expedition, whose recipe represents the secret of every producer, the gustatory trademark of the cellar. This phase also determines, depending on the sugar dosed, the type of sparkling wine just made: extra brut, brut, dry, etc. This method is used in all the wine nations of the world with excellent results; certainly in Italy the most famous sparkling wines produced with this method are Franciacorta docg and Trentodoc, while abroad Champagne certainly stands out above all others.