Pinotage

Sparkling Wines

Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it making it fizzy. The carbon dioxide results from natural fermentation, either in a bottle as with the méthode champenoise, or in a large tank designed to withstand the pressures involved, as in the charmat process. In some parts of the world, the word "champagne" is used as a synonym for sparkling wine, although laws in most countries reserve the word champagne for a specific type from the Champagne region of France. The French term "Crémant" is used to refer to sparkling wine not made in the Champagne region.

The classic example of a sparkling wine is Champagne, but many other examples are produced in other countries and regions, such as Cava in Spain, Asti and Prosecco in Italy (the generic Italian term for sparkling wine being spumante) and Cap Classique in South Africa. The United States is a significant producer of sparkling wine: California in particular is famous for its rosé sparklers.

German Sparkling wines are called Sekt. Recently the United Kingdom has begun producing a wide variety of wines, including sparkling wines, many of which are considered comparable or occasionally even superior to Champagnes in quality; global warming is cited as the main reason why southern England is becoming suitable for wine production and that is has similar soils and latitude to the Champagne region of France, although prior to the reign of Henry VIII and his seizure of church property, England's monasteries included several vineyards. Sparkling wine is usually white or rosé but there are several examples of red Australian sparkling shiraz. Some wines are made only lightly sparkling, such as vinho verde in Portugal – such wines are often called frizzante or pétillant, or simply semi-sparkling wines.

Sparkling Wines (continued)

For a description of the production method for Champagne and other wines made by the méthode champenoise see under Champagne. Because this process is expensive, using individual bottles for final fermentation, many other processes may be used. The tank method or charmat process is commonly used for lower priced sparklers.

Champagne

Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of wine to effect carbonation. It is named after the Champagne region of France. While the term "champagne" has often been used by makers of sparkling wine in other parts of the world, many claim it should properly be used to refer only to the wines made in the Champagne region. This principle is enshrined in the European Union by Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status.

Origins

Wines from the Champagne region were already known before medieval times. Churches owned vineyards, and monks produced wine for use in the sacrament of Eucharist. French kings were traditionally anointed in Reims. Champagne wine flowed as part of coronation festivities.

Kings appreciated the still, light, and crisp wine, and offered it as an homage to other monarchs in Europe. In the 17th century, still wines of Champagne were the chosen wines for celebration in European countries. English people were the biggest consumers of Champagne wines, and drank a lot of sparkling wines.

The first commercial sparkling wine was produced in the Limoux area of Languedoc about 1535. They did not invent it; nobody knows who first made it, although the English make a reasonably good claim in that they added sugar and molasses to imported wine and bottled it. The English claim is given some substance as they had developed sufficiently strong bottles to withstand the very high pressures created by fermentation.

"Champagne" and the law

In the European Union and many other countries, the name "Champagne" is legally protected as part of the Treaty of Madrid (1891) to mean only sparkling wine produced in its namesake region and adhering to the standards defined for that name as an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. This right was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles following World War I.

Current U.S regulations require that what is defined as a semi-generic name (such as Champagne) shall be used on a wine label only if there appears next to that name the appellation of "the actual place of origin" in order to prevent any possible consumer confusion. Because the quality of their wines are now widely recognized, many US producers of quality sparkling wine no longer find the term "Champagne" useful in marketing. In addition, some key US wine growing areas such as Napa, Oregon and Washington now view semi-generic labeling as harmful to their reputations.