Jan 2005

If you had champagne, or some similar bubbly wine on New Year’s Eve, please raise your hand. Well, what do you know? Damn near everyone here drank some bubbly wine on New Year’s Eve!

Is there anything more romantic, more celebratory, more readily prepared to proclaim any occasion a special occasion than champagne or other sparkling wine? All those bubbles just seem to add something very special to a wine. Over the next three issues of Dan’s Cellar Notes, we will explore just what that “something special” is, and how to go about getting it in your own homemade wine, no matter whether you make your wine from fresh grapes (or other fruits) or from kits.

First some clarification of nomenclature. If it is made in the Champagne district of France, just north of Burgundy, and it is a white or pink sparkling wine made by a certain traditional method from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Meunier—or some blend of these three grapes—then, and ONLY then, is it really “Champagne.” All other bubbly wines are more properly called “sparkling wines.” All sparkling wines start with the creation of a still wine, sometimes called the “cuvee” (coovay) or the “base wine.” This month we will look at what is needed to make a proper base wine.

The cuvee may be made from a single wine or from a blend of wines. In the Champagne district, the cuvee is often some blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and/or (Pinot) Meunier (Moon-YAY). Some Champagnes are made just from Chardonnay, a white grape, and are, therefore, referred to as “Blanc de Blancs,” or white (wine) from white (grapes). A “Blanc de Noirs” or “white from black” Champagne is made Pinot Noir or (rarely) from Meunier or a blend of Pinot Noir and Meunier. Here in Virginia it is sometimes possible to by slightly under-ripe harvests of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir for making bubbly. These under-ripe grapes have the correct acid/sugar balance for this type of wine.

Of course, Champagne isn’t the only traditional sparkling wine. Very similar wines, made by the same process, are called “Cava” in Spain, or “Sekt” in Germany. In the latter case the base wine is usually a Riesling, but other grapes may be included as well. In Italy, sparkling wines, made by either the traditional method of champagne or by a bulk-carbonation method go by names such as “frizzante” or “spumante.” Perhaps Italy’s best known bubbly is a bulk-carbonated wine made from Muscat known as Asti Spumante.

Bubbles can be added in a number of ways. Barely sparkling wines, with just a light fizziness, are made by simply bottling wines early, before the fermentation has completely ended. I don’t recommend this method for home winemakers, unless you carefully track specific gravity and can be certain that your wine will not ferment more than a slight amount in the bottle. As an alternative, you may want to chill your wine during the last few days of fermentation to capture a little “spritz.” Then, when you bottle, do it with both the wine and the bottles well chilled. This will preserve a little dissolved CO2 in the wine, and add some tingle to punch up your vino.

Another way to add bubbles to wine is to ferment a regular table wine to completion, and then to force carbonate the wine using compressed CO2 and a “Corny Keg.” If you have homebrew beer kegging equipment, this method should be easy for you. I’ll discuss this bulk carbonation method—also called the “charmat” process—in a forthcoming installment. However, the most challenging AND the most rewarding method for getting all that zing into you wine is the traditional champagne method, also known as méthode champenoise. I will discuss the details in later issues, but, if you are interested in trying a champagne style wine, here is what you need to do to make the cuvee, or base wine.

Begin with a dry white (or pink) wine that has fermented completely, and which has preferably been allowed to rest on its fine lees for a period of at least several months. The wine may come from grapes, from other fruits, or from a kit. However, it should have only a minimal sulfite level (less than 25 ppm), a total acidity considerably higher than a table wine (preferably in the range 8-10 g/l), and it should be bone dry with no additions of sorbate or other stabilizers. The reason for the low sulfite, and nil sorbate levels is to permit a secondary fermentation in the bottle. It is this second fermentation that provides both the bubbles, which give the wine its zip, and the “yeast bite,” which provides that particularly creamy-cheesy quality we associate with fine champagne.

If you are making your base wine from either fully ripe (Brix=21 degrees or more) grapes or from a wine kit, then you should dilute the wine with acidulated water to about 18-19 degrees Brix. Use tartaric acid to raise total acidity to at least 8 grams per liter, and preferably a good bit more. The bubbles, and the slight bit of sugar added to Champagne at bottling will require this crisp acidity to provide balance to the wine. What’s more, the secondary fermentation in the bottle will add 2-4 degrees Brix to the overall sugar levels that go towards producing alcohol. If you use a regular kit or table wine without any dilution, you will wind up with a bubbly wine that is way out of balance with too much alcohol. I cannot stress this too much. The base wine that makes a Champagne style bubby is very tart, and well below normal table wine alcohol levels. So make this base wine and let it rest on fine lees for several months. Whatever you do, don’t be impatient. There are lots of cheap commercial bubbly wines out there. If you want that, then go buy them. If you want the real thing, learn patience. Your “Champagne” will take at least 1 and ½ years to complete, and a really good Champagne-style wine requires 2- 5 years before it is ready to drink!

Q&A

I did a Traminette in August this year and bottled it
in October. I tried the first bottle yesterday, I know
it is still too early but was curious so I had to try
one. The wine was OK, but still too young, it seemed
it had too much acid, I bottled the wine with a PH of
3.2. How long should I wait? Will the acid fade?

Roger,

Don't measure acidity by Ph. You should be titrating to measure total acidity (TA). Ph is
important--especially if it's too high--but it is TA that determines how
acid the wine tastes.

Traminette is meant to be a bit acidic, but you certainly bottled too early.
I would never bottle a white wine until it has had a chance to sit cold
through a winter (on the porch or out in the garage, for instance) so that
it can drop excess tartaric acid in the form of tartrates or bitartrates.
If you put a bottle of your wine in the fridge and leave it for several
days, you'll notice little crystals depositing on the bottom. If you then
taste the wine, you'll find it less acidic.

One possible solutions for you is to go ahead and cold condition the wine in
bottles, and just be careful not to pour the "wine diamonds" or "wine sand"
when you serve it. It won't hurt the wine at all, but it's a little
unpleasant straining crystals through your teeth!

Here's another tip. Usually I find that many folks complain of a wine being
too acidic, when what they really want is a bit of sweetness to balance the
acid. Pour a glass and add a little bit of wine grape concentrate or wine
"conditioner," or a simple syrup you make up yourself. Just a tiny bit. If
that doesn't seem to help, add a tiny bit more. Eventually you will reach a
point in which the sugar balances the acidity. Then just add a little sugar
syrup each time you serve some. In fact, you decant each bottle, filtering
out the tartrate crystals (after cold conditioning!) and adding your sugar
syrup to the decanter.

Last of all, patience will help. The wine will mellow a bit with age. In the
future, please have the patience not to bottle wine prematurely. Whites need
AT LEAST 6 months of bulk aging, and reds need AT LEAST 9 months (usually
longer).

Dan

Help! On 23 Dec I started a 4 gallon batch of plain Mead. I
did all the normal stuff, boiled the honey and water, skimmed it,
let it cool down to about 100 degrees and added the nutrients,
Ensigns, 3 Campden tablets, crushed, etc, etc. I then waited 24
hours and then added liquid mead yeast on the 24th while the brew
was reading 72 degrees. As of today, Dec 27, I still have no signs
of fermentation. I am thinking I must have done something to have
killed the yeast but have no idea what it was, unless the Campden
was still active after twenty-four hours. Anyway, I am now
considering trying to re-start fermentation by adding a package of
champagne yeast and hope it starts to ferment. Have I ruined this
four-gallon batch of mead by letting it sit there for the last four
days? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Dave,

Relax! Your mead will be fine. First of all, meads are notoriously difficult fermenters. Honey has a natural preservative quality. Make sure you are using a yeast that is a powerful fermenter, such as EC-1118, KV1, or a specialty mead yeast. Since you boiled the honey and water (which is not something I advise folks to do), the Campden tabs were overkill.

Make a yeast starter, and keep increasing its volume until you have at least 1/2 gallon of actively fermenting starter. A full gallon would be even better. Then stir your honey-water wort vigously to help dispel some of the SO2 and pitch the yeast. No need to add additional yeast food as long as you put plenty in the batch to begin with. If you're not certain, then wait until you see good signs of fermentation and add a bit more nitrogen-based yeast food. Keep the mead as warm as you can! Mead likes warmth.

Meads are also susceptible to stuck fermentations. Make sure you have more yeast and some yeast hulls ("energizer") on hand. If fermenting seems to stop, then add the hulls and another starter. Mead is a slow fermenter. Don't expect a rush of action. AT this time of year, a full-strength mead can easily ferment for two or three months.

Dan’s Cellar Notes for January 2005

By Dan Mouer

Bubbly!!!!!

Q&A