Champagne & Sparkling Wine

Tips, myths & recommendations!

This article is all about the glories of fizz! Be it Champagne or sparkling wines, I'm going to give you some tips and tricks relating to them, gathered from questions I've been asked... so let's get started!

Myth Busters

I’ve gotta tell you something to kick it all off, I found myself bursting a lot of mythical bubbles with this little fact! I imagine if you’re reading this, you are the type of person who's going to be popping a lot of bubbly (my kinda gal/guy/they!), and maybe you're attempting to use a silver spoon to keep the bubbles in?

But I'm sorry to tell you, it doesn’t work! All the carbonation will escape out of the bottle, and your fizz will be flat quickly! So instead you need to get a 'Champagne Stopper' and it will keep the bubble lovely and fresh for one or two days, but most importantly get it in the fridge! I'm really sorry to disappoint, but the spoon trick doesn’t work!

Sparkling Wines

I’m going to tell you about Pet Nat, do you know what Pet Nat is? It’s Pétillant Naturel, and it’s the oldest sparkling winemaking technique before Champagne, and at the minute it’s the trendiest, the most rustic!

Basically, they bottle it before the end of the first fermentation, so it’s quite wild, a natural fermentation takes place with the yeast, there’s most often sediment. A really delicious one I can recommend is Somnam’bulles from Fabien Jouves in France. It’s really fruity on the nose, a Chenin Blanc based wine, so why not try some 'Pet Nat' if you haven't before?!

Crémant D’alsace is another highly regarded sparkling wine from France. It has the same traditional winemaking process as Champagne, so you get the yummy brioche nose mmm, but you also get more apple and pear fruit aromas from it. It’s most often Pinot Blanc with blends of Auxerrois, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir allowed... I would say if you like Champagne, give Crémant D’alsace a try because it’s delicious!

Champagne

So if Champagne is your preferred choice of bubbles, here’s some help with your shopping and decoding the label.

At the top of the label, it will say 'Champagne' which is the region it’s grown in, then underneath that it’ll say the producer, and then it may say something like 'Brut', and that will mean the sweetness.

The sweetness levels can differ depending on the bottle, so if it says 'Brut Nature', that’s the least residual sugar added dosage, if it says 'Extra Brut', that’s drier than just 'Brut', just 'Brut' alone is our most popular here. There's also 'Extra Sec' and 'Sec', which means dry, and so on and so forth, the list goes on!

It may also say on the label 'Blanc de Blanc' which means it’s 100% Chardonnay, 'Blanc de Noir' means it’s entirely Pinot Noir, and if it doesn’t state anything then it’s the traditional Champagne blend which is Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Let me know if you need any help choosing your champers here at @winetimetips.

How long should we keep Champagne for and should we store it in the fridge?

We all get gifted Champagne for Weddings, Birthdays, and parties, and we think let's keep this for a special occasion, but no! If it doesn’t state a year, or is a non-vintage and says NV, it means drink now! If they’ve released it and it’s in the shops, they want you to drink it young and not age it. Get popping!

How do we store our Champagne?

It doesn’t have to be in the fridge the whole time, but we should keep it at a cool and constant temperature, so try to store it away from your hot kitchen! Lay it on its side, so you keep the cork nice and moist, and then when you're ready; get it well chilled, pop it and party!

Onto some basic terminology of bubbles...

When people talk about the 'Collerettes', they’re talking about the little trains of bubbles you see going up in a line, these trains vary in speed and density depending on the pressure and style of sparkling wine.

When people describe their fizz with 'Perlage' or perlaaaaage or 'Mousse" it's the intensity and feel of the bubbles or 'Pearls' in your mouth or the 'Pétillant' (slightly sparkling), so with Prosecco, you’d get a light, frothy, fun and playful fizz in the mouth, and with Champagne, you’d get more intense finer bubbles, and it just depends on what you prefer!

Thanks for reading Wine Time Tips!

Any questions or comments just jot them down below, I'd love to hear from you!

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