Champagne (or sparkling wine)

[Vaughn]

Let's talk about Champagne.


Has anyone tried the Millennium Sparkling Wine kit (and would like to give their take on it?)? I had a few questions about it, I know George probably knows these things...
- Do the instructions give procedure for both Natural and forced carbonation?
- How is the sweetness derived? There does not seem to be an f-pack.
- What is the base varietal for this wine?


I had the privilege of visiting the Korbel Vineyard in California a few years ago. There, I got an education on how fine champagne is made. I now know that a GOOD champagne is naturally carbonated in the bottle. However, in order to do this, you have to let the lees settle at the top of the bottle, freeze it and then extract it. This seems both messy and time consuming (and wasteful). they explained to me that many "less than perfect" sparkling wine makers use forced carbonation to produce the sparkle in their wine. What am I loosing by using this method?


Also, you may not know this, but Korbel makes a sparkling Merlot and Pinot Grigio.(http://www.korbel.com/modules/products/) They are quite good. You will not find these in your grocery store though. They are only sold at the vineyard. I was toying with the idea of trying to sparkle a few non-traditional wines myself. What do you think of this idea?

 

[NorthernWinos]

We have made Sparkling Wine...see tutorial...http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1206
It is time consuming, but good things take time....

We have only made it with a dry apple wine...and just love it.

When you freeze the lees in the plastic stopper there really isn't much waste, at least we haven't found it to be....If you just leave the bottles in the freezer till the neck of the bottle has ice crystals, you will find that when you dègorge it just a 2 inch [or so] ice plug flies out and you place your finger over the top of the bottle, but usually there isn't much foaming because it is so cold, you top off the bottles, retop them and wait again for refermentation...
It really gets bubbly and worth the wait...try some...

Here are some Sites with the method we use....

http://www.winemakeri.com/information/sparkling_wine/info_sparkling_wine_making_sparkling_wine.htm

http://honeycreek.us/makingsparklingwine.htm

http://www.geocities.com/lumeisenman/chapt20.html

Give it a try...be sure to use Champagne or Sparkling wine bottles, plastic toppers and wire hoods.
I think you could use any wine you like and make it ***Sparkle*** try it and keep us posted...

Edited by: Northern Winos