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Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles….I love me some bubbles. Sparkling wine just “speaks” to me, literally. If you listen carefully after the POP of the cork and the whoosh of the pour, sparkling wine will babble as bubbles burst and fizz in your glass….LOVELY! In fact, producing sparkling wines, for the most part, is a labor of love! 

There are some key factors in the production of sparkling wines of the world that are played out for this wonderful wine. Although, sparkling wines are produced worldwide, when it comes to prestigious Sparkling wine, Champagne has a reputation that has become the benchmark against which all sparkling wines are set against.  Many regions have adapted the methods of creating sparkling wine to create their own special effervescent:  Spain uses Cava, Italy calls it spumante/frizzante, South Africa names it Cap Classique. Then there are specific grapes for specific regions: Moscato di’ Asti uses the Muscat Grape meanwhile Prosecco region uses the Glera Grape. Germany and Austria call it Sekt and use various grapes but mostly . Even France calls it Cremant or Mousseux when not made in the Champagne region. Then there is new world sparklings from US, Australia, Chile, South Africa and almost every other wine region of the world yet these sparkling producers are not limited to the aforementioned grapes.

Then there is the style of sparkling….although most sparklings are made with white grapes and meant to be white, there are also Rose and Red (the Italians love Lambrusco) Sparkling wines. 

The two ways to create the effervescence (the bubble) in Champagne/sparkling wine méthode champenoise/traditionnelle and tank/Charmat method fermentation. 

FUN FACTS ABOUT SPARKLING CHAMPAGNE WINES

* Dom Perignon’s famous quote after his first taste of Champagne…. “Come quickly, I am tasting stars!”

*  The bubbles of sparkling wines are formed during a second fermentation process. For the second fermentation, the winemaker takes still wine and adds a few grams of sugar and a few grams of yeast. 

*  The best sparkling wines will have the finest bubbles. They will also form intricate uniform paths from the bottom up through the opening. 

*  The yeasty, bread like scents are the result of autolysis (the consequence of aging on dead yeast cells after the secondary fermentation has taken place in the bottle. 

*  No need to swirl a sparkling wine like you would a still wine. Swirling will cause the bubble (CO2) to dissipate too quickly. Be patient because it is The bubbles that release the aroma  bouquet of the wine and will carry the scents to your nose.