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Alice King's wine course
Part 4: champagne and sparkling wine
Our wine expert explains the méthode in her madness
All right, I’ll admit it. I’m an out and out fizz fan. I just can’t get enough of all those dancing bubbles. Tasting fizz (as opposed to merely drinking it) is slightly more tricky than wine tasting, as the added prickle of carbon dioxide makes it more difficult to taste several. To start off with, I’d suggest just comparing two. Make a note of the size of the bubbles, the colour of the wine, the bouquet and what the wine tastes like (see Part 1).
Many people mistakenly believe all fizz is the same, but once you put a couple of examples side by side you’ll immediately see how different they can be.
How do the bubbles get inside the wine?
Carbonated like cola. The cheapest method of making a sparkling wine is simply to carbonate it – i.e. pump carbon dioxide through the wine in the same way all fizzy drinks like cola are made. This is used for the cheapest rather than the best types of sparkling wine. Generally, you’ll notice wines made using this method have large bubbles that disappear quite quickly after the wine is poured.
Bottle fermented or champagne method. Top-quality fizz is fermented in the bottle. This means the wine undergoes a second fermentation in bottle (yeast and sugar are added) and then there is a lengthy process to remove the dead yeast particles without loosing the all-important bubbles. The vast majority of quality fizz is made like this. Look for the words ‘bottle fermented’ or ‘méthode traditionale’ on the label.
How to open the bottle
Unless you want to waste loads of fizz by opening it racing driver style, follow these tips on cork-popping the correct way.
Peel off the foil and place the thumb of your left hand on top of the cork. Gently untwist the wire cage with your right hand and take it off. Grasp the cork with the palm of your left hand. Hold the bottle in your right hand and gently twist the bottle while holding the cork still. Providing the fizz is well chilled and hasn’t been shaken up, the cork should come out with a gentle sigh. That way, you get the maximum number of bubbles in your glass.
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