Ever wonder where the bright sparkly bubbles in Champagne come from? Or what’s the difference between “Champagne” and the “Traditional Method”? (Hint, Champagne can only be made in a specific region… but the way it’s made is the traditional method). Dive into a bubbly glass with us as we explore just how these wines are made, and where you might be able to find some unique variations on the theme from Italy!
🍷 Click here to buy a tasting set of two Champagne Method wines: https://verovino.com/veroshop/p/champagne-style-italian-sparkling-wine-gift-box
🍷 Click here to browse Vero’s sparkling wines: https://verovino.com/veroshop/sparkling
🍷 Click here to learn about how to make sparkling wines: https://verovino.com/vero-blog/what-is-sparkling-wine-charmat-traditional-method
🍷 Watch our video about a unique grape to make traditional method champagne style wines: https://youtu.be/bRko9pOMpj8
About Vero:
Did you know that less than 1% of wines make it to US retailers’ shelves? At Vero, which means “real” in Italian, we are constantly looking for small production, sustainably made, authentic wines from farmer-artisans not yet present in the US market. Our mission is to create a community of wine and food lovers, small producers and businesses where passion is the common denominator.
hi there I’m jacqulyn for Vero and today
we’re going to learn all about the
traditional or champagne method of
making sparkling wines we’ll start from
the basics identifying the types of
grapes that can be used moving on to the
techniques and stick around to the end
where we give some examples of sparkling
wines to try we’ve got a lot to cover so
let’s get started first of all what
characterizes a sparkling wine made from
the traditional method their main trait
like a lot of sparkling wines is
freshness and acidity then comes these
yeasty flavors of bread and Brios but
first let’s talk about how to get that
freshness and that acidity that
complement the sparkly bubbles so well
the grapes used to make these wines
often come from cooler Vineyards this is
because they are situated in more
Northern regions like in champagne or
they are located at higher altitudes
some places even reaching over 25 200 ft
or because they benefit from some kind
of a moderating cooling Factor like the
cool breezes off the sandp Bay in somoma
California with cool factors like these
The Grapes might struggle to ripen and
thus they have a lot more fresh acidity
left to give the finished wine product
the grape variety also plays a large
part too not all grapes are well suited
for this wine making style the grape
needs to retain their acidity and the
freshness but also still create
appealing fruity characters and flavors
the varieties most commonly used to make
sparkling wines with the method
champenois are chardonay and Pon Noir
these are the king and queen of sparkles
as they are used all over the world to
make sparkling wines but in many wine
growing regions more indigenous unless
International grape varieties are now
used more often to make sparkling wines
in the traditional method these need to
be again varieties that can maintain
high levels of acidity and fresh and
fruity Aromas and flavors a great
example of this trend is from the winery
Sandro de Bruno located near Verona the
volcanic soils of the Suave region where
it located gives the local great variety
Della the perfect balance of acidity and
structure to make a great sparkling wine
here the acidity and the fruity notes of
the durella grapes are complemented by
yeasty flavors that Sandro crafts in his
Cellar and that brings us back to these
Brey yeasty flavors that make you think
of bread Brios croissants and freshly
baked cookies that are common Aromas
amongst traditional method sparkling
wines but where do these peculiar
characteristics come from well first we
must understand how the traditional or
champagne method Works to create
sparkling wines first you must start
with a so-called base wine the process
to obtain a base wine is pretty much the
same used to get a regular still white
wine the grapes are pressed as quickly
and gently as possible to extract the
juice and then the first fermentation
occurs to start obtaining a light low
alcohol high acidity white wine this
wine is now bottled along with the
so-called leur de a mix of sugar mostly
unfermented grape juice and ex extra
yeasts these bottles are then sealed
using a bottle cap like you see on a
beer bottle and stored horizontally at a
low constant temperature the extra
yeasts start eating the sugar and a
second fermentation begins except this
time the bottles are sealed tightly and
the CO2 generated by the fermentation
can’t go anywhere the highly soluble gas
gets absorbed into the liquid and that’s
what creates the carbonation and Bubbles
that we love so much in sparkling wines
when this second fermentation is
finished usually after 4 to 6 weeks the
wine is usually left to rest in the
cellers still with the dead yeasts
called the leaves in the bottle these
are what will give a wine the typical
bre notes that we talked about earlier
the process is referred to as aging on
the leaves and how long a wine can spend
in this step varies greatly from product
to product the more time that a wine
spends on the leaves the more bready
notes that we will find in the glass
when tasting the final product most
premium wines are required to spend many
months aging on the leaves starting from
9 months for some cavas and there’s even
some champagne vintages that require
over 36 months obviously the longer time
spent aging on the leaves the more
premium the wine becomes as this aging
time is a considerable investment for
the winery and some will even let
bottles sit for a 100 months which is 8
years once the wine maker decides to
stop aging the bottles on the leaves the
next step is called the riddling or
remage bottles are placed with the neck
facing downward and then are
meticulously turned by hand on riddling
racks also called pitra in large
wineries things have also become more
mechanical with the Advent of Gyro
pallets which are automated riddling
machines the bottles are loaded into
cages and then the machine moves and
tilts the bottles in the necessary
directions in both methods the bottles
are gradually tilted and rotated
eventually ending nearly upside down and
why all this hollow blue well remember
that we still have all of those dead
yeasts and leaves in the wine and in the
bottle this can make the final product
cloudy or it can change with time think
like petnat wines so the wine maker they
need to get rid of it to make a
traditional method wine and with the
riddling these gentle movements loosen
the leaves and coaxes them down all
together into the neck of the bottle
it’s a slow process and handle riddling
can sometimes take up to 8 weeks weeks
to be fully completed once all the
leaves are collected in the neck and
bottle cap sparkling wines go through
the Goron where the leaves are removed
in the past it was a very difficult
manual operation that needed lots of
skill and perfect timing to be
efficiently accomplished but nowadays
technology helps a lot first we chill
the bottles to roughly 45° fhe or 7° C
to prevent excessive foaming and loss of
the CO2 bubbles next the necks are
plunged into a cold brine bath of -6° f
or – 27° C this rapidly freezes the
yeast sediment into a solid plug without
freezing all of the wine this bottle is
then opened and the builtup pressure
ejects the plug the goal here is to
minimize the sediment remaining in the
bottle and to minimize wasting the wine
expelled with the violent exit of the
plug after the doron it’s inevitable
that some wine gets expelled to
replenish it and keep a healthy level of
wine in the bottle the wine maker will
add directly to the bottles the
so-called
LED this French term refers to a mixture
of wine and sometimes sugar that is used
to top up the bottle and more
importantly this also determines the
final sweetness and sugar content of the
product the amount of sugar added in
this lur can vary and it’s more or less
the choice of the wine maker with
certain regulations you will often find
stated on the label terms that refer to
the residual sugar expressed in Gams per
liter that tells you a little bit about
the sweetness that you can expect inside
traditionally sparkling wines once
leaned towards sweeter Styles like dry
or extra dry however there has been a
growing trend for brute nure no added
sugar and extra brute very low sugar
sparkling wines after the Lor has been
added the bottles are then sealed with
the recognizable mushroom cork which is
significantly thicker than regular corks
after all
remember that within the bottle there’s
normally about six atmospheres of
pressure this loaded pressure is also
why the wire cage is added to help keep
the cork lodged in the neck and not
shooting out like a missile lastly of
course this last phase is traumatizing
for a wine so normally the bottles are
left to rest and snooze for a moment
before heading off to our wine
cabinets wow what a process it’s amazing
to think about all the work and crafting
that go goes into just one bottle of
traditional method sparkling wine and
just as a note these wines are often
referred to as traditional method or
metad Classico and not
champagne even if they’re made in the
same way as champagne this is because as
many of you probably already know only
wines made within the boundaries of the
champagne area in France can actually be
called champagne on the label so if
you’re looking for some method Classico
or traditional method wine to taste
check out the Vero shop linked down
below you can find the wines of Sandro
de Bruno that we mentioned earlier and
also eval alal langa which is a ped
Monon sparkling wine both of these are
from Northern Italy and they have 30
months or more of aging on the lease
thank you for joining me today if you
learned something new about how to make
traditional method wines leave a like
and let us know in the comments below
your favorite traditional method
sparkling wine I’ll see you with the
next video bye oh