Champagne

Champagne is a former French province in northeastern France. The area is famous for Méthode Champenoise - , a traditional method of producing sparkling wines in the French Champagne region and is based on secondary fermentation in the bottle. The grapes are carefully pressed and the first fermentation follows. This is followed by blending, or blending, of wines of different varieties, from different vineyard routes, but also vintages. The finished still wine is then bottled in sparkling wine bottles. The bottle is closed with a crown cap and stored horizontally. A prise de mousse (secondary fermentation) occurs and the resulting CO₂ turns the still wine into sparkling wine and bubbles are created. The peak phase of production is rremulation or shaking off the sediment on the cork. In practice, this means that the bottles are stored for some time with the cork down, tilted and shaken every day. The bottle necks are then cooled in a freezing solution, after opening the bottle the frozen sediments shoot out and this ends the dégorgement (disgorging phase). The bottles are closed with a cork stopper and secured with wire.