The Champagne Method: How Champagne is Made in 6 Simplified Steps
Ever wonder how champagne and other sparkling wines are made?
Well, there are actually three main methods for making sparkling wines, each of which produce unique characteristics in their final products.
That’s what makes sparkling wine so fun - you can actually taste (and smell) the differences in the wines from how they were made!
Learning about the different methods to make sparkling wine can help you find your style preference. For example, the Champagne Method adds a certain nuttiness/toasty brioche flavor to the wine (think: Champage, Cava), while the Tank Method keeps the wine youthful, fruity, and floral (think: Prosecco).
For now, we’ll focus on the Champagne Method, also known as the Traditional Method.
This technique is the most complicated and time-consuming, which is why sparkling wines made by this traditional method are typically the most expensive.
But if you read to the end, I’ll let you in on a little budget-friendly secret to taste some Traditional Method sparkling wines without breaking the bank!
The Champagne Method: How Champagne is Made in 6 Simplified Steps
Before we dive in, I need to clarify something that confuses a lot of people (and rightfully so!). Champagne can only be called Champagne if it is from the region of Champagne in France.* Did I say “Champagne” enough to make that stick?
Champagne refers to the region in northern France, where this traditional method originated.
So like most European wines, the name of the wine is actually referring to the wine’s birthplace.
All other bubbly can be referred to as “sparkling wine”, or their own regional names (i.e. Cava, Prosecco).
Alright, let’s get to it.
Step 1: Make the Base Wine
Just like any other still wine, the winemaker harvests the grapes and produces a fermented, alcoholic grape juice.
The typical grapes used for champagne production are chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier. Each grape contributes their own influence to the wine: chardonnay gives floral and citrus notes and can lighten the body; pinot noir provides structure and red fruit aromas; and meunier adds a refreshing, fruity characteristic.
This base wine is typically lower in alcohol than other still wines. The reason for this is because the wine will undergo a second fermentation, which will bring the alcohol up to a normal level. More on this in Step 3!
Step 2: blend the base wine
The blending of the base wines depends on the producer and the style of champagne they are aiming to make.
If you see “Blanc de Blancs” on the label, this wine was produced with 100% white wine grapes; and if you see “Blanc de Noir”, the wine was made from only red wine grapes.
A winemaker can choose to blend wines for a variety of reasons:
To produce a specific style of wine.
To ensure the wine is well-balanced.
To make the wine more complex.
To make rosé champagne.
These reasons for blending are aligned with why a winemaker would blend still wines, too. It really just depends on the producer!
However, to make rosé champage, the winemaker will always blend a bit of red wine with the white base wine to get the pink color. This is not always the case for still rosé wines.
You can read more about still rosé wine production in this post.
Step 3: Second fermentation in bottle
That’s right, Traditional Method sparkling wines undergo TWO fermentation processes. The initial turns grape juice into wine, and the second adds bubbles to the wine.
Once the winemaker has achieved the desired blend of base wines, the wine is bottled and topped with the liquer de tirage. This is a blend of yeast and sugar - the two crucial components for starting fermentation.
The key here is that this second fermentation takes place in the bottle.
Once the liquer de tirage is added to the bottle, it’s capped and the winemaker waits for nature to kick in.
Here’s a quick fermentation recap:
sugar + yeast = alcohol + carbon dioxide
When the yeast eat the sugar, they release carbon dioxide gas, which gets trapped inside the bottle. This is how the bubbles are born!
Remember what I said earlier about starting with a lower alcohol base wine?
This is the step where more alcohol is produced in the wine as a result of the second fermentation. So by now, the wine has reached a standard wine alcohol level (around 11-14%).
Step 4: yeast autolysis
Yeast auto-what??
This is just a fancy term to say that the yeast die.
Remember that yeast bacteria are living organisms, so once they eat all the sugar in the wine, they die of starvation. Dark, I know.
As the yeast die, they fall to the bottom of the bottle and create a layer of sediment, this is known as the lees.
When they start to decompose, chemical compounds are released into the wine. These chemical compounds create the toasty, briochey, biscuity notes in the wine (yum, dead yeast!).
The amount of exposure to these dead yeast cells depend on the winemaker. More exposure will result in more intensity of these flavors.
This step can last up to ten years!
Step 5: remove the yeast sediment
Once the (now sparkling) wine has had plenty of contact with its dead yeast cells, the sediment must be removed. This process is known as riddling and disgorgement.
Riddling
The champagne bottles are tilted every-so-slowly from a horizontal position to an inverted vertical stance. This allows the sediment to gather at the neck of the bottle, in a very controlled and deliberate manner - it can take weeks or months!
This process was traditionally done by hand in Champagne (and still is at some wineries), but now there’s technology saving people lots of time.
Disgorgement
Once all of the dead yeast has gathered in the neck of the bottle, the sediment must be removed, or disgorged, from the wine.
The neck is first frozen to make a solid formation of the yeast sediment.
Then, the cap is removed and the sediment is shot out by the built-up carbon dioxide pressure in the wine.
What remains is a traditionally made sparkling wine, free of sediment.
And it’s is almost ready for bottle aging!
Step 6: add the dosage
Finally, the winemaker adds the liqueur d’expédition, or dosage. This is just a mixture of sugar and more wine.
I like to think of this as the icing on the cake…quite literally because it determines the level of sweetness in the final wine!
You may notice on your champagne bottles the words Extra Brut, Brut, Extra-Sec, Sec, Demi-Sec or Doux. This is an indication of the amount of residual sugar (i.e. sweetness level) in the wine, listed from driest to sweetest.
So the wine’s sweetness level depends on how much sugar is present in the dosage that is added in this final step.
If no dosage is added, the wine will be labeled Brut nature or Zéro dosage.
After this step, the wine is aged in bottle for a regulated period of time (depending on which wine region we’re in).
Now you can probably see why some bottles of champagne are pricey (but extremely delicious)!
Here’s that budget-friendly tip I promised you above (thanks for sticking it out til the end!)…
If you want to try some Traditional Method Champagne, but your budget is tight, try Cava! This sparkling wine from Spain is made using the Champagne Method, so you’ll get to taste the delicious brioche and nutty flavors that result from this style of production. And in my opinion, it’s super under-priced…so take advantage of that!
Now that you’re an expert, it’s time to pop some bubbly!
I hope these 6 simplified steps help you understand champagne on deeper level, and lead you to find a sparkling wine style you love!
If you’re thirsty to learn more about wine, you can book a wine tasting with me! This service is completely customizable, so I can even curate a full flight of sparkling wines, if you like!
If you want to try a bubbly cocktail, check out my favorite Aperol Spritz cocktail recipe or this Hugo Spritz cocktail recipe to spice up your glass of bubbles.
Ready to further your wine education? Enroll in a WSET class today and use code LexiStephens for a discount.
*Some California producers may label their sparkling wines as Champagne, but this does not necessarily mean they are produced with the traditional method. This all ties back to a very long argument between the US and EU about the use of this term...too much to get into here.