Common Options in Sparkling Winemaking Flashcards
Common options for sparkling wine
The Growing enviroment
Climates at the cool marginal edges for ripening are ideal:
- “just-ripe” flavours (leave room for lees flavours)
- retain high acidity
- sugar accumulates very slowly = low alcohol, of around 9 to 11% abv (Low alcohol base wine is necessary for the many styles
of sparkling wines that undergo a second fermentation, which produces the sparkle, produces an additional 1–2% abv)
Regions at higher latitudes: Champagne, England, Tasmania
Locations that have sufficient cooling influences: Sonoma (near the coast), Trentodoc (high altitude)
Common options for sparkling wine
Grape Growing: Grape varieties
Chardonnay:
- well suited to autolytic styles
- just-ripe apple and citrus aromas and flavours compliment autolytic stykles (brioche, biscuit)
- early ripening variety
- ripenseven in cool climates, with low sugar accumulation
- tipically retain high acidity in cool climates
- early budding vsriety = vulnerasble to spring frost
- prone to coulure and millerandage
- susceptible to powdery mildew, grapevine yellows and grey rot (more resistance than PN)
- yeald can be high without loss of quality (makes it an attractive option for growers)
Pinot Noir:
- early budding (prone to spring frost)
- early ripening variety (suited to a cool climate)
- prone to coloure
- more moderate yealds than chardonnay
- quality drops if the yeald lovel is too high
- thin skinned = prone to downy and powdery mildew
- prone to botrytis bunch rot, fan leaf and leaf roll
- Adds body to the blend
Other varieties:
- Cava: Macabeo, Xarel-lo, Parellada
- Prosecco: Glera
Grape variety influece the style of the wine:
- intensity of aromas (aromatic or neutral grape variety)
- ability to retain acidity while ripening
- how the base wine responds to autolysis (chardonnay becomes creamy / Xarel-lo becomes toasty and smoky)
Common options for sparkling wine
Vineyard management:
- Grapes for sparkling wine often grown at higher yealds: high acid level + low potential alcohol + delicste flavours are better achieved
- output in the vineyard can be maximised (reasonable sized crop can be achieved even if some dmaged fruit is removed due to rainy climate
- no specific treining/trellising system = depends according to region,climate,varities,nutritional status of the soils, appellation regulations (in EU)
- Key priority is to harvest clean healthy grapes = effervescence in wine exaggerate the off-flavours
- Laccase (grey rot enzyme) can cause significant oxydation
Common options for sparkling wine
Harvest
- Tipically early to achieve high acid and low potential alcohol
- Before any rainy autumn weather starts = avoid fungal disease
- important to avoid unripe flavours (become more prominent as the wine matures)
- both hand or machine harvesting are used (according to location and wine regulations)
**Hand harvesting: **
- allows sorting at the point of picking + post-harvest selectio tom exclude disease-infected grapes
- transportation in small crates = avoid grape splitting to minimise the risk of juice oxydation
- slow, labour-intensive and expensive (price of wine as to justify the cost)
Machine harvesting:
- faster (in large estates all the grapes are picked at the disired point of ripeness)
- cheaper
- only selection allowed by hand prior harvest (increse costs)
- can be done by night delivering cooler grapes (oxidation is slowed down = fresher wines)
- destem the grapes = expose juice to oxidation
- can also break grape skin resulting in both phenolic extraction and oxidation (unless protective measures are immediately put in place)
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: pressing
Whole-bunch pressing often practiced for premium traditional method wines
- provides a delicaste juice (low in solids and phenolics, including tannins and anthocyanins)
- stems create a network of channels through which the juice can flow easily, reducing the opressure required
- ideally as quickly and gently as possible (especially for black grape variety to minimise extraction of unwanted colour and tannin from skin maceration)
- pnmeumatic and basket presses are commonly used (can be programmed with gentle press cycles)
- press fraction are separated making useful blending options: early pressing = higher in sugar, acids and aromas
later press fraction = higher in phenolics and PH (tend to be faster maturing) - Juice is clarified before fermentaion
- Fining applicable if there is excessive tannin or colour
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: primary fermentation
- Primary fermentation temperatures = 14-20C (retain fruit flavours + ensure temperature is not too cold for yeast (low pH already makes the enviroment relatively stressfull for yeast))
- Motsly in stainless steel tanks (allow large volumes to be fermented with temp control + easy to clean)
- Cultured yeast typically used (for their ability to ferment reliebly to dryness in high acid and low pH conditions)
- Different strains for different styles:
Neutral yeast used for autolytic styles (pronounced primary aromas non wanted)
Primary aromas wanted in non-autolytic styles (primary aromas drive the style / yeast that promote thiols and esters may be used) = like in many tank method sparklings - common to use the same strain for primary and secondary fermentation
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: secondary fermentation
Enviromental conditions even more stressfull for yeast:
- yeast must start fermentation in alcoholic conditions (often >10%abv = too high for many yeasts
- must tolerate low pH and continue fermenting through low temperature, under high pressure and with kimited nutrients
- ability to autolyse rapidly, and to flocculate readily are desirable attributes
- Malo may be used to reduce acidity and enhance texture (lactic acid produced by Malo is perceived to be cremier than other lactic acid)
- Dyacetil is metabolised by yeast in secondary fermentation = no buttery flavours
- If malo doesn’t occur it might occur later , turning the wine hazy (wine may be sterile filtered to remove lactic acid bacteria if malo is undesired)
Flocculation is the process by which fine particles, in this case dead yeast cells, clump together
‘Prise de mousse’ (EC1118) is one of the most common cultured yeasts used in traditional method sparkling wine production
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: handling of the base wine
Can be matured before undergo secondary fermentation
- Oak maturation: new or old
- Lees maturation: either in oak or in neutral vessel
- new oak flavours such as vanilla toast and spice are usually magnified in the resulting wine (usually represent only a very small proportion of a blend = do not dominate)
- base wine for primary fruit style (Prosecco) = no oak at all
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: Assemblage
Blending of base wines from different vineyard sites, grape varieties, vintages and of wines that have undergone different winemaking techniques is one of the hallmarks of some sparkling wine production
REASONS:
- Balance: Pinot noir adds body while chardonnay adds acidity (when in cool climate) / blance acidity blending chardonnay from warmer and cooler sites
- Consistency: consistency from year to year is very important in NV wines
- Style: more approachable style with riper fruit and lower acidity (least expensive) / Higher acidity + more concentrated flavours (top wine)
- Rose’ wines: made by blending white and red base wines
- Complexity: to achieve a greater range of flavour (older vintages can add dried fruit character/ blending wines that have undergone different treatment, such as oak maturation)
- Minimisation of faults: may be possible to correct minor faults by blending
- Volume: may be necessary to blend base wine from different growers who hasn’t enough vineyards individually / blending wine of different grape varieties or adding reserve wines to increase volume in bad vintages
- Price: blending cheaper grape varieties with more premium vzarieties (Meunier with Chard or PN) / 2nd or 3rd press can be used for more affordable wines
Common options for sparkling wine
Traditional Method: second fermentation
- Occurs in the same bottle in chich the wine is sold
- Also called “Prise de mousse” = “Capturing the sparkle”
PROCESS:
- Liqueur de tirage is added to the base wine to achieve 2nd fermentation
- Liquer de tirage = mixture of wine and/or must, sugar, cultured yeast, yeast nutrients and a clarifying agent (bentonite and/or alginate)
- Amount of sugar depends on the degree of effervescence required (24g of sucrose per lt in most sparkling wines = 1.5%abv)
- C02 created as a by-product of fermentation cannot escape = pressure increses (24g/L = 6 bars/6 atmospheres)
- Cultured yeast are inoculated (strains that can withstand 9.5-11%abv + temp around 16C and pH values often below 3 + (eventually) high pressure
- After fermentation is important that yeast flocculate readily to produce sediment that can be efficiently removed by riddling
- wine is bottled and sealed usually with a crown cap (with a small plastic pot inside to catch the sediment)
- Bottles are stored horizontally at costant temp (10-12C) to avoid yeast stress
- 2nd fermentation usually last 4-6 weeks (lenght depends primarily on temperature = cooler tempereture causes slower fermentation)
Common options for sparkling wine
Traditional method: Lees aging
- Involves Autolysis = enzymatic breakdown of dead yeast cells
- releases aromas and flavours such as brioche and/or biscuit
- usually can last from 4-5 years to 10+ years
- bottles can be stored horizontally in stacks or metal cages at temp around 10C
- Effect of autolysis become detectable after the 1st year
Lenght of Lees aging depends on:
- Legislation. In the EU minimum lees ageing times are regulated according to appellation (NV champagne = min 12 months / Cava de Guarda = min 9 months)
- Style (fruitier vs more lees-aged character)
- Price (longer time add cost)
- Financial ability of a producer to invest in longer periods of lees ageing
Late disgorgment = wine kept on lees after auotlysis has finished:
- yeast protect wine from oxidation
- however the longer is kept in this state, the faster its evolution once disgorged
- the older a sparkling wine becomes, the less it can withstand the sudden shock of oxygen
- RD = intended to be drunk soon after release
Common options for sparkling wine
Winemaking: Riddling and Disgorgement
RIDDLING:
- Ageing horizontally either on slats (sur lattes) or off them, bottles are placed into riddling racks (Pupitres) for hand riddling or placed into computer-controlled gyropalettes for riddling (remuage)
- Riddling: gradually twisting or rotating the bottles while slowly moving it from horizontal to vertical position with the cap facing downwards (moving the flocculated lees towards the neck of the bottle)
- manual riddling = 8 weeks
- Gyropalette = 3-4 days
- Sur pointe = bottles stored upside down before they are disgorged
DISGORGEMENT:
- used to occur by hand / now mostly mechanised
- bottles are cooled to 7C and the neck are immersed in a bath of frozen brine (to freeze yeast sediment in the neck, easing extraction and ensuring the sediment doesn;t fall back in + cooling increase solubility of C02 reducing wine loss)
- crown cap is removed and the sediment is pushed out of the bottle form the pressure
- Liqueur d’expedition is added to the bottle before is fitted with a cork , wire muzzle and metal capsule to top up the bottle of the liquid that may have escaped during disgorgement
- Liqueur d’expedition = mixture of wine and sugar (sugar = dosage) or RCGM
- role of dosage = balance acidity
- Sugar reacts with compounds formed during autolysis in a process called Maillard reaction (roasted,toasted vanilla aromas)
Common options for sparkling wine
Transfer method
- Developed in 1940 to avoid cost of manual riddling
- Same process as traditional method up to riddling (no need to add fining agent or flucculation agents to the liquer de tirage)
- Bottles are chilled to 0C and opened in the transfer machine into pressurised receiving tanks
- Dosage is added, S02 can be topped up and the wine is sterile filtered immediatly prior bottling
- Reduce bottle variation
- not labelled / can be labelled “Fermented in bottle”
- easier to make adjustment to the final wine
- with automated riddling, many advantages of transfer method became less significant (still time and cost saving)
- Used in Cahmpagne and other regions to fill bottles ssmaller than 37.5cL and larger than 300cL
Common options for sparkling wine
Ancestral Method
- Partly fermented must is put into bottles and the remaining sugar is converted into alcohol and C02 providing the effervescence
- Final level of pressure can be estimated by measuriong sugar levels
- Fermentation will create some dopesit of dead yeast: up to the winemaker wheather to disgorge or keep the sediment as part of the style
- Tipically no dosage added
- Fermentation often slow down and stop after a few months resulting in off-dry wines / may start again in some bottles
- Called Pet- Nat (Petillant Naturale)
- No set of regulations
- Often low to medium alcohol, slightly cloudy, dry to off-dry, with unconventional flavours, somitmes compared to cider
- Bottled without additional S02 and intended for early drinking
Common options for sparkling wine
Tank method
- Cuve Close / Charmat / Martinotti
- enables large volumes of sparkling wine to be made inexpensively, quickly and with reduced labour costs than traditional method
- no riddling / no disgorgement
- tipically no dosage or long periods on lees
- wines made to be released for sale quickly
- preferred method when want to poreserve primary aromas and flavours of grapes instead of autolytic characteristic
- often used to produce fruity wines made with semi-aromatic (Glera) or aromatic (Muscat) varieties
- Oftern seen as inferier to traditional method
Common options for sparkling wine
Tank method process
- First fermentation temp 16-18C (to retain floral and fruit aromas and flavours but avoid flavours associated with very low fermentation temp
- sugar + yeast are added = quick 2nd fermentation in pressurised tanks (as little as 1 month)
- fermentatino arrested by cooling to 2-4C when desired pressure and residual sugar is reached
- If removed from lees immediately the wine will retain the fruit aromas
- Cold stabilisationt at the end of the fermentation to precipitate tartrates
- Yeast removed by centrifugation or filtration
- Sugar levels may be adjusted / S02 levels checked and corrected prior sterile filtration and bottling
- wine is chilled at -2C to stabilise and reduce the effervescence and then bottled with a counter-pressure filler
Counter-pressure filling is a system used with other carbonated drinks in which the bottle is first filled with CO2 under pressure. The bottle is then filled with the chilled wine replacing the added CO2. This system prevents the entrance of oxygen and the loss of CO2
Common options for sparkling wine
Asti method
- variation of the tank method
- single fermentation
- sugar that is converted in C02 comes from the sugar in the original must, not throuhgh later Tirage .
- Must fermented in reinforced tanks
- C02 is allowed to escape through the first stages of the fermentation
- part way through the valve is closed and C02 is retained
- timing depending on the amount of sugar and pressure level disire in the finalm wine
- Fermentation is then stopped by chilling the wine and filtering it under pressure to remove yeast
Common options for sparkling wine
Carbonation
- least expensive / least prestigious
- injection of C02 under pressure
- Carbonation die quickly / can be succesfull for low pressure wines (petillant)
- leaves the flavour characteristic of the base wine intact = suitable for aromatic or fruity sparkling wines
- base wine need to be of good quality = faults accentuated by bubbles
Common Options in Sparkling Winemaking
EU labelling terms for sparkling wines
- Brut Nature/Bruto Natural/Naturherb/Zero Dosage = 0-3g/L
- Extra Brut/Extra Bruto/Extra Herb = 0-6g/L
- Brut/Bruto/Herb = 0-12g/L
- Extra-sec/Extra-Dry/Extra Trocken = 12-17g/L
- Sec/Secco/Dry/Trocken = 12-17g/L
- Demi-Sec/Semi-Seco/Medium-Dry/Abboccato/Halbtrocken = 32-50g/L
- Doux/Dulce/Sweet/Mild = 50+ g/L
Common Options in Sparkling Winemaking
Mousse: factors that affect bubbles
- Amount of sugar available to be turned into C02
- Capacity of C02 to be dissolved in wine (depending on grape variety, health of grapes (presence of botrytis reduce amount of bubble formation), and winemaking process
- Lenght of time on lees (some C02 is lost as time on Lees lenghtens / longer time on lees = longer lasting foam
- How well disgorgment has been carried out
- Time in bottle and type of closure
- Size and shape of the glasses / Temperetaure of the wine when served / Way glasses are cleaned / How wine is served
