How is champagne made?
Champagne is much more than wine with bubbles. The refined mousse, crisp acidity, and typical aromas of brioche, toast, and ripe fruit are created through a labor-intensive process that often takes several years. Real champagne is made exclusively in the French Champagne region and according to the méthode traditionnelle, where the second fermentation takes place in the bottle.
1. Gently pressing the grapes
The grapes are usually harvested by hand. This is done relatively early so that they retain sufficient fresh acidity and do not contain too much sugar.
After the harvest, the grapes are pressed quickly and gently. With dark grapes, the juice must have as little contact as possible with the skins to prevent color transfer (unless you want to make a rosé champagne). The flesh of Pinot Noir and Meunier is actually colorless. By pressing gently, you can simply make a white wine from them.
2. The first fermentation
The grape juice first ferments into a still, dry base wine without bubbles. Yeast converts the natural sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. During this first fermentation, the carbon dioxide escapes, just as it does with regular wine.
The base wines are often very dry, fresh, and quite acidic. On their own, they can taste harsh, but that high acidity is important. It ensures that the champagne remains lively and well-balanced after the second fermentation and aging.
Some producers also allow a malolactic conversion to take place, such as A. Robert. In this process, sharp malic acids are converted into softer lactic acids. Other winemakers specifically avoid this to retain as much freshness as possible.
3. Assembling the champagne blend
After the first fermentation, the cellar master's work begins. They combine different base wines, often from multiple years, into an assemblage. In doing so, the winemaker can combine based on grape variety, vineyard, village, and harvest year. For regular still wine in Europe, you are allowed to add a maximum of 15% wine from a previous year; for champagne, that rule does not apply. Those older wines are called vins de réserve.
So, a non-vintage champagne (NV) often contains reserve wines from previous harvests. This allows a champagne house to create a recognizable house style every year, despite differences between harvest years.
If the wine comes exclusively from one particular harvest year, it is a millésimé or vintage champagne, released with the year on the bottle. These are priced higher.
4. The second fermentation in the bottle
After blending, bottling follows. A mixture of wine, sugar, and yeast, called the liqueur de tirage, is added to every bottle. The bottle is then closed with a crown cap.
The added yeast converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide again. Because the carbon dioxide cannot escape from the sealed bottle, it dissolves into the wine. This is how the bubbles are created.
The pressure in a bottle of champagne can reach about six bar. That is roughly three times as much as the pressure in a car tire!
5. Aging on the lees
After the second fermentation, the spent yeast cells remain in the bottle. This sediment is called the lees. During aging on the lees, champagne develops more depth and complexity.
Contact with the yeast cells creates recognizable aromas of brioche, toast, biscuit, and hazelnuts. The longer the aging process lasts, the more pronounced these notes often are.
Non-vintage champagne must legally age for at least fifteen months, of which at least twelve months must be on the lees. Vintage champagne must age for at least three years. Many quality producers consciously choose a much longer aging period.
6. Remuage: bringing the sediment to the neck
After aging, the yeast cells must be removed from the bottle. To do this, the remueur turns the bottles by hand with a small jolt so that they no longer stick to the wall without clouding the wine. They also gradually tilt the bottle further with the neck downward. This process is called remuage.
Traditionally, this is done by hand in wooden racks, called pupitres. Today, many producers use automatic turning tables, or gyropalettes. Eventually, all the sediment collects in the neck of the bottle.
7. Dégorgement: removing the sediment
During dégorgement, the bottle is passed upside down through an ice-cold brine bath so that the neck of the bottle freezes. The yeast thereby forms a frozen plug. If you open the bottle, this plug shoots out of the bottle due to the pressure.
This leaves a clear champagne, without yeast sediment. The champagne does not spray out because the cold keeps the carbon dioxide dissolved.
8. Dosage: determining the final taste
After removing the sediment, the bottle is no longer completely full. Therefore, a small amount of wine is added, often mixed with sugar. This is called the liqueur d’expédition or dosage.
The amount of sugar partly determines the final style:
- Brut Nature: virtually no added sugar
- Extra Brut: very dry
- Brut: dry and the most common style
- Extra Dry: slightly softer and sweeter than Brut
- Demi-Sec: clearly sweet
After that, the bottle gets its final cork, wire cage, and capsule. Often, the champagne rests for some time before it hits the market.
Why are the bubbles of champagne so special?
The second fermentation and long aging in the bottle usually ensure a fine, persistent mousse. But the quality of champagne lies in more than just the bubbles. The cool climate, the chalky soil, the quality of the grapes, the craftsmanship of the blending, and the time in the cellar also determine the final character.
A good champagne combines fresh acidity and refined bubbles with fruit, minerality, and aromas developed during aging. Behind every bottle, therefore, lies a special interplay of origin, precision, and especially a lot of patience.
