Sparkling Wine: ‘Tis ALWAYS the Season

sparklersandoakbombs:

(But maybe a little bit more now than usual.)

I personally don’t need a reason to celebrate and open a bottle of sparkling wine. “It’s Thursday” seems like a good enough explanation as to why I’m popping open the bubbly. There are just too many fabulous, affordable sparklers for us to wait around for anniversaries and new years to open them. That being said, I know that this is a big season for bubblies, and therefore I’m going to try to talk a whole lot about them over the next few weeks for maximum pre-NYE sparkling wine exposure.

A good start is to explain that there are three main ways to make a sparkling wine:

The Champagne, or Traditional, Method is the classic approach, with the message “Secondary Fermentation in This Bottle” on the label. The Transfer Method has a similar “Secondary Fermentation in The Bottle,” meaning that the fermentation did take place in a single bottle but the juice was then transferred into its current bottle. Finally, the Charmat, or Tank, Method is when the secondary fermentation takes place in a tank and is then bottled. Most sparklers made using the Champagne method but not produced in Champagne, France, now use the politically correct “Traditional Method” on their labels instead. Cheers!