By Deborah Damery Lazear, CSW

I love “Bling”.  My husband knows this as a certainty.  As a wine lover, my wine bling is in the bubbles.  I simply adore sparkling wine from all over the world.  Nothing says “chill out” like a glass of cold sparkling wine bubbles tickling your nose.

Summer is the perfect time to branch out and try bubblies from all over the world.  Sparkling wine is consumed cooler that still white wine and the high acidity pairs wonderfully with warm weather fare.  All right, I confess, any time of year is great for bubbly.  Heck, I consider Champagne the number one breakfast food after eggs Benedict.  It even beats out chocolate much to my husband’s chagrin.  Sometimes one just doesn’t get excited over a familiar old friend Chardonnay.  While Pinot Grigio (aka Pinot Gris) is a great summer choice, too many tastes like lemon water without any zing whatsoever.  I put too much effort into cooking to pair it up with a ho-hum wine.

You have probably noticed that I have used the word sparkling wine several times now and Champagne only once.  There is a distinct difference between the two.  Men and women of the period 1789-1890 died over the word.  I know, because the seat of the revolution to guard the word Champagne for sparkling wine whose grapes are grown and vinified only in Champagne, was started by Rene Lamarre  in the little village of Damery, in the region of Marne, Champagne, France.  My ancestors are from Damery; note my name at the top of this article.  I come by my love of Champagne honestly!

Allow me to quickly explain the difference between the world’s sparkling wines and Champagne.  It is really not all that complicated.  Champagne is from the Champagne region of France…period. All other sparklers are not and do not earn the name Champagne.  California is phasing out the use of the word Champagne to bow to the wine world’s opinion that a place name belongs to the place and not to the wine style.  Remember California Chablis?  There was nothing Chablis about it!  The only similarity was that Chablis, the place in France, makes white wine and the color of the wine in California Chablis was also white! The grapes weren’t even the same! 

Well, maybe this differentiation is a little too simple. Allow me to elaborate. There are several methods of producing sparkling wine:

1. Charmat or Cuve Close.  This refers to an inexpensive method of allowing the second fermentation of a still wine, through the introduction of additional sugar (dosage) to occur in a large sealed vat.  Examples are Asti Spumante from Italy and Sekt from Germany.
2. Carbonation. The cheapest method and poorest in terms of quality.  Think soda bubbles here.  Still wine is chilled in large tanks into which carbon dioxide is pumped.  The wine is bottled under pressure.
3. Method Champenoise. The most complex method of all and used by the finest houses over the world.  After the first fermentation in stainless steel tanks, the still wine of high acidity is blended with other still wines (some of the same year, some of older years) to create the blend.  The wine is then put into bottles with sugar and selected yeasts.  The wine is bottled, capped, and the second fermentation begins.  The yeast feeds off of the sugar (much like making bread), creating carbon dioxide which is trapped in the bottle.  The yeasts die and drop to the bottom of the bottle UNLESS the bottles are rotated a little over a period of time to where all the sediment ends up in the upside down bottle’s neck.  Eventually, the wine bottle necks are passed through a freezing solution, the cap is removed, and the dead yeast shoots out leaving the remaining wine clear.  However, there is a space of air left by the departing residue. Air is the enemy of wine.  The gap is filled with reserved still wine and sugar. The amount of sugar will determine the sweetness of the finished sparkling wine. The wine bottles are laid to rest in a quiet, cool place for 15 months up to many years, where they enjoy a spa-like vacation.

To be continued...

Deborah Damery Lazear, CSW, is a member of the Society of Wine Educators and the program advisor for San Diego State University’s College of Extended Studies "Certificate Program for The Business of Wine", and is also an independent journalist and a blog contributor to VinVillage.com

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