POPPING THE CORK ON CONFUSING SPARKLING WINEMAKING TERMINOLOGY
Most of us have enjoyed sparkling wine at one point or another. For some of us, it’s enjoyed at New Year’s or some other celebratory event, while for others it’s something we drink on the regular. Despite being a growing market (6.6% rise in sparkling wine consumption in the US in 2017, Beverage Information Group data), there is a lot of confusion about how sparkling wines are actually made. Two of the most confusing stages of sparkling winemaking are disgorgement and dosage.
SPARKLING WINE PRODUCTION, IN THE TINIEST OF NUTSHELLS
While there are several techniques for producing a sparkling wine, all of them have one common feature, and that the secondary fermentation. Some techniques, like the traditional method (a.k.a. Méthode Champenoise), complete this second fermentation within the bottle, while other techniques, such as the Charmat method (a.k.a. Tank method), complete the secondary fermentation inside of a tank and later transferred to the final packaging.
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