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Wine & Spirits > Sparkling Wines > Flashcards

Sparkling Wines Flashcards

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1
Q

What were the beginning steps of alcoholic beverages?

A
  1. Experimentation
  2. Observation - Monkey see monkey do (saw that when monkeys ate rotten fruit their behaviour changed)
  3. Discovery of fermentation
  4. Competitiveness/Survival strategy
  5. Part of the diet
    - Wines, Beers, Spirits - covered underneath the food bracket from government perspective, high in carbohydrates & preservative nature (palatable for longer as it is stored)
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2
Q

Was fermentation an accident or design? and how long ago?

A

More a process of experimentation than design

It was prehistoric, being 8,000-10,000 years ago

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3
Q

What is required to make alcohol?

A

You need:

  • Complex carbohydrates = Sugars
  • Source = Grapes (fractose & glucose), Grain (malted & grounded), Honey & fruit
  • Vessel
  • H2O
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4
Q

Who were the first recorded brewers?

A
  • The Sumerians
  • Around 3,000 BC
  • Kilns to make different malted beers, brown, red, black
  • different strength beers i.e. old and young
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5
Q

What is viticulture? Describe the viticulture basics

A

Viticulture - growing grapes for winemaking

  • successful in cultivated temperate non humid climates
  • Vitis vinifera - is the ‘European’ grape vine species
  • a climber, will run along the ground until it finds somewhere to climb
  • humans made the vine able to be grown and harvested every year - vineyards are trained to grow chest height, pruned, all to make easier to harvest/farm them.
  • North grapevines, they came across a point where the vines would not grow - due to groundwater, water table (soil drainage), temperature, ripening
  • South - subtropical areas are not liked, humid then canopy is a vector for fungi and rot to occur
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6
Q

What is Old World & New World?

A

Old world - Europe, UK in West to far East

New World - Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Chile, Argentina

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7
Q

Who transported the wine westward?

A

Romans

as they conquered they brought the wine with them

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8
Q

What was used in ancient winemaking?

A

Kvervi

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9
Q

What is Fermentation? What is needed?

A

Fermentation - the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat

  • complex carbohydrate
  • Yeast ; wild or cultured
  • Water - added or part of fruit

Sugar + Yeast = CO2 + Alcohol + Heat

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10
Q

What is wild yeast vs culture yeast?

A

Wild yeast

  • grape + bloom (adhesive coating powder on the outside of the fruit)
  • flavours, complexity, natural

Cultured yeast

  • taking samples of wild yeast, selecting and culturing that yeast, commercialise it and sell it.
  • different yeasts have different properties that help during fermentation, so adding different cultured yeasts to base wine to get desired flavours
  • it is predictable and fast
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11
Q

What are White Spirits?

A

Potable spirits which have not been matured in casks, therefore maintain their water clear appearance.
E.g. Vodka, White Rum, Gin (botanical juniper), raki, saki…

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12
Q

What are dark spirits?

A
  • Matured in oaks/casks, giving dark colour or added e.g. caramel
    Cask maturation - will soften and change the compounds, that may have been too harsh. Giving smooth, round, rich, soft.
  • Perception that older means better
  • Therefore adding caramel makes it darker, making it look older, inferring higher quality
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13
Q

What are major dark spirits?

A

Rum - derived from sugar cane molasses

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14
Q

What are the main dark spirits?

A

Grain derived

  • Whiskey - barley, corn, rye, wheat
  • Scotch Whiskey - Barley, can be single malt or blended
  • Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey

Grape derived:

  • Brandy (cognac & armagnac)
  • Grappa (white)

Fruit Brandies:

  • Calvados
  • Schnapps
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15
Q

When did sparkling wine appear? What region? How/ what method?

A

Back in 1531
Languedoc region of southern France
Accident - Traditional Method
- Thought yeast finished consumption
- As months warm, get refermentation of yeast in the bottle
- Sugar leftover
- CO2 produced trapped by cork in bottle moved back into the alcohol

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16
Q

When was Prosecco created? and where?

A

Prosecco production in Italy back in 1754

  • Australia & New Zealand currently only other place to use the name - hard to export but still sold domestically
  • Italians own the name
  • Prosecco is the name of an old grape variety and not just a place
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17
Q

What is Cava and how is it made?

A

Spanish sparkling wine

Traditional Method

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18
Q

What are the five methods used to make sparkling wine?

A 
Traditional Method 
Tank Method 
Transfer Method 
Ancestral Method 
Carbonation
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19
Q

What are the first three steps in any method? Describe them

A
  1. Harvest
    - early (not overly ripe)
    • Grapes with high acid, low sugar
    • Another way, grow grapes in cooler climate to reduce rate of ripening
  2. Light Press
    - Press lightly, as we don’t want to extract the phenolics
    • Want just the juice
      Free run juice
      = juice that comes out of the pressure without any pressure behind it = best = low phenolic concentration
  3. Primary fermentation
    • Add yeast to tank, which consumes sugars
    • Produces alcohol, CO2, heat
    • Left with a BASE WINE - as still white wine
    • This is used to make a sparkling wine
      Cause they start with low sugar = low alcohol, high acidity
20
Q

What is the tank method? List some examples of wines made from this method.

A
  • Base wine transferred to tank that can take pressure
    • Add yeast + sugar (sugar acts as food source for yeast)
    • Sealed top of pressurised tank
    • 2nd Fermentation occurs (10 days)
      Produces CO2, alcohol, heat —– Alcohol goes up, CO2 dissolves into solution
      • Filter out the sediments
      • Dosage - receive a mixture of sugar and must
    • Sparkling wine created (some sugar)
      Examples: Prosecco and Lambrusco wines
  • Fun Facts:
  • It was the only way to make Prosecco until a couple of years ago
  • Dry wines have no sugar - Sav Blanc can’t be sweet cause no sugar
21
Q

What is the Ancestral Method “Pet Nat”?

A
  • Base wine isn’t allowed to finish primary fermentation - sugar and yeast movement
  • Halfway its paused, filtered and chilled to 0C then stored for several months
  • 3/4 fermented its then bottled
  • bottles riddled & disgorged without sugar sometimes
  • Likely the way people accidentally stumbled upon sparkling wine
  • Cloudiness = dead yeast cells
22
Q

What is the Traditional Method?

A
  • wines complete the primary fermentation
  • a blend or ‘cuvee’ is created with selection of base wines
  • bottles are blended with yeast & sugar initiating 2nd fermentation - called Tirage
  • wines age on the lees (dead yeast particles)
  • aging lasts 9 months to 5 years
  • riddling & disgorging occurs
  • dosage

*bubbles form at 6-8 weeks - alcohol increases by 1.5%

23
Q

Why do we riddle and disgorge?

A

Need to get rid of the dead yeast cells at bottom of bottle

Riddling - twist and invert wine over period of time, need to move all sediment to bottom of bottle, one 1/4 to right then 1/2 to left
(not as effective if you just turn bottle upside down)

24
Q

What is the benefit of yeast?

A

Yeast cells provide good flavours:

- Yeastiness to the wine (breadiness) 
- Not just the fruit flavour anymore, giving greater depth 
- So lie bottle on its side, get greater distribution of yeast, wine in contact with yeast 
- Then leave it there 
- How long depends on rules 
- Sulphur containing, bind into the wine
25
Q

What is disgorgement?

A

Disgorgement:

- Bottles inverted into freezing bath halfway up the neck
- Freezes sediment in the neck and little bit of wine
- Turn bottle over and remove cap
- There is now 7bah of pressure at the top, bursts off plug
25
Q

What is dosage?

A
  • Adjust sweetness of wine by adding liquor
  • can use base wine

*for vintage wine this must be from the same year

26
Q

What percent of alcohol is base wine?

A

9-11%

27
Q

What is the carbonation method?

A
  • Add CO2 under pressure to your vessel
    • Generally cheapest of cheap wines e.g. passion pop
    • Get the biggest bubbles in this method
28
Q

What is the Transfer Method?

A
  • Same as Traditional Method except one extra step
  • Before disgorgement add all the bottles together
  • after aging, bottles transferred into high pressure tanks
  • Filter - clarify the wine by passing it through high pressure filters
  • Dosage - some wine, sugar/must is added back
29
Q

What is a nucleation site?

A
  • Bubbles caused by imperfections
    • Need attachment site (nucleation site) for growth
    • 30 bubbles per second for each site
    • Its good, high concentration, makes aromatic wine

*Can create artificial sites, by scoring the glass

30
Q

What method produces the most & biggest bubbles?

A

Carbonation method

31
Q

What method produces the smoother finer bubble?

A

Tank method

32
Q

What produces the best and smoothest bubbles?

A

Traditional Method

33
Q

What are 3 types of glassware and their features?

A

Flutes - tall narrow glass, with long stem, retain bubbles by reducing surface area

Coupes (saucers) - wide rim & short stem, shallow

Tulips - like flutes but with inward curved rim and wider bowl
*preferred = allows aroma but stops carbonation loss

34
Q

Describe champagne and how its made

A

• High acid, low sugar
• Only method traditional
• Not pressed at the wineries themselves but press houses, this is because the wineries are in the cities, make sure fruit doesn’t have to travel that far (retain freshness)
• House style (brand) is more important than anything else
• Everything is regulated:
- Yeasts
- Time to hold before blending bottling
- Time of aging
- Labelling and packaging
- Etc.
· This is to uphold the status

35
Q

What wines can be used to make champagne?

A

Chardonnay , Pinot Noir , Pinot Meunier

Blanc de Blanc - white grapes only
Blanc de Noris - red grapes only (can be 100% pinot noir or meunier or both)
Combination of any of the three

Rose - white and red mixed

36
Q

What is vintage and non vintage champagne? What is a prestige cuvee?

A

Vintage Champagne

- Minimum 3 years aging 
    - Using one years harvest 
- They normally double the minimum requirements 
- For good years of harvest

Non-Vintage Champagne

    - Minimum 15 months 
    - Blend of base wines, retain multiple years to create a consistent product

Prestige Cuvee

    - most meticulous & expensive, presumably highest quality  * can be vintage and nonvintage
37
Q

What is Brut Nature?

A

Champagne bottled without any dosage.

Other names Non-Dose or Brut Zero

38
Q

What is Extra Brut?

A

0-6g/l of sugar

39
Q

What is Brut?

A

0-12 g/l of sugar

Most common

40
Q

What is Extra Dry?

A

12-17 g/l of sugar

41
Q

What is Sec?

A

Means dry but in champagne refers to 17-35 g/l of sugar

42
Q

What is Demi-sec?

A

Sweet style, 35-50 g/l of sugar

43
Q

What is Doux?

A

Sweetest, > 50 g/l of sugar

44
Q

What is lees?

A

The yeast particles in the wine

After second fermentation bottle put on its side to get access to all yeast for better flavour

45
Q

What is Autolysis?

A

The yeast responsible for second fermentation die and dissolve (autolysis) and sit in the bottle

Wine & Spirits (8 decks)

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