Women and Sparkling Wine

Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day? For more than a century this day marks the continuous campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, and end discrimination in any form. No matter how a woman decides to live her life, she must be free to make her own choices. The winemaking world is still very male-dominated, as many other occupations. In Italy, there was a saying that women in the cellar would make the wine sour, just to keep them away. Today, women buy more wine than men in general, but not in value: in the US, women buy 61.2% of wines under US$20 a bottle, but 71.5% of bottles over US$90 a bottle are bought by men. Why? Our goal here is to share knowledge and have fun, because we can take wine seriously and have fun at the same time. Cheers!

Here is a quote from wikipedia…..“Champagne is a sparkling wine produced from the Champagne region grape grown in France following rules that demand, among other things, secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to create carbonation, specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from specific parcels in the Champagne appellation and specific pressing regimes unique to the region. Some use the term Champagne as a generic term for sparkling wine, but in most countries, it is illegal to officially label any product Champagne unless it both comes from the Champagne region and is produced under the rules of the appellation.”

So all this means is that Champagne is a sparkling wine that comes from Champagne. If it’s not from champagne it can not be call Champagne. There are other sparkling wines from France and usually you will see the word “cremant” on the label such as Cremant de Bourgogne or Cremant de Loire. These are done in the same method and can be a great bargain for traditional method wine.

This traditional method is also called Champenoise, but only in Champagne. The grapes used in Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Menieur. Other regions in the world can use the same varieties and the same method, but they cannot call their wine “Champagne”, and this is protected by law. Wine is all about exclusivity and rarity, that’s why the name “Champagne” has such value attached to it. We’ll talk more about Champagne later.

The bubbles are a by-product of fermentation (the transformation of the sugar from the grapes into alcohol by yeast. This process also releases carbonic gas). To make sparkling wine, first we need to make a regular white wine. In a regular fermentation, the carbonic gas is released, so the wine doesn’t have any bubbles. But when we want to make a sparkling, we do a second fermentation and we trap the gas in the wine. The traditional method created in France puts the base white wine, plus yeast and sugar, into individual bottles, and the fermentation creates more alcohol and carbonic gas. In the past, the bottles would explode because the glass wasn’t thick or appropriate for this purpose, and it took some time to master this technique (Dom Perignon). The wine contact with the yeast inside the bottle gives it more flavours and complexity

Wine Folly is an amazing resource for all things wine. Click on this link for more great information!

There are other methods to trap the bubbles in the wine. One of the most used methods is called “Charmat” or “Cuve Close”. The second fermentation happens inside pressurized tanks, which is way easier and cheaper to make big volumes. This is how Prosecco is made. Prosecco is a wine region in Veneto, northern Italy. The main grape variety is Glera, indigenous to that area. This method also avoids the extended contact with lees, so the wine doesn’t develop the same flavours as the traditional method sparkling wines. That’s why they are different. Besides that, in the traditional method the bubbles are finer and more numerous (pressure tends to be higher).Main differences in flavour profile traditional method vs charmat method. Bruised/cooked fruit, bready, butter, yeasty vs fruit, citrus flavours. 

Villa Conchi Brut Seleccion Cava -Catalonia, Spain- NV- 30% Xarel-lo, 30% Paradella, 30% Macabeo, 10% Chardonnay- 13g RS 6 months in vat/ 3 years in bottle $21.95 Paired with Jamón Serrano

We’ve added a list of books if all this talk of wine wet your appetite to learn a bit more about the world of wine!

The Winemakers Wife– Camille’s recommendation set in the vineyards of Champagne

The Widow Clicquot: A Story of a Champagne Empire and the Women who Ruled it

Wine and War: The French, the Nazis and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure

The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah- A fiction that I read with Red Stone’s book club

And finally I’ve included some web site that might interest those who would like to do a deep dive into the world of sparkling wine

https://www.winespectator.com/articles/unexpected-steak-wine-pairings-pros-recommend

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-widow-who-created-the-champagne-industry-180947570/

https://winefolly.com/wine-pairing/getting-started-with-food-and-wine-pairing

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1913/the-history-of-champagne

https://www.pernod-ricard.com/en/media/champagne-production-method

https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/champagne-sparkling-wine/differences-between-champagne-prosecco-and-cava

https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/veuve-clicquot-champagne-lady-barbe-nicole

https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/champagne-sparkling-wine/champagne-basics-explainer