Wine Types
Sparkling Wine & Champagne
Sparkling Wine & Champagne is made from fermenting
using a bottle along with a small amount of sugar, called
the tirage, and stored in a wine cellar, neck down,
for fermentation. This fermentation produces carbon
dioxide, and the bottle traps it, dissolving it in the
wine.
Champagne is sparkling wine specifically from the Champagne
region of France.
Champagne is most often produced from a blend of black
and white grapes. The only white grape permitted is
Chardonnay, and the two black grapes are Pinot Noir
and the otherwise obscure Pinot Meunier. Because most
of the color in a red wine comes from the skins, the
juice is pressed off quickly, leaving white juice. The
Pink or rosé champagne is made either by allowing the
skins of black grapes to impart a small amount of color
and then removing them, or by adding still red wine
to the finished product. Grapes used for champagne are
generally picked earlier, when sugar levels are lower
and acid levels higher.
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