Pop a bottle of pink champagne into crystal wine glasses anytime for a celebration ...

Crystal Champagne Glasses & Tiny Bubbles: All About Champagne and Brut Wine

By Keith Watt, Morning Bay Vineyard

We've all enjoyed the pop of a champagne bottle and subsequent pouring of the bubbly into crystal wine glasses for a celebration, but the greatest disservice to wine drinkers was to make champagne a drink only to be enjoyed on special occassions. That's because the bubble is a drink best enjoyed with lunch, when the cold clear penetration of effervescence makes it a seductive counterpoint to the mid-day meal.

Or before dinner as an apertif. Or after dinner as a digestif. Nothing makes the appetite flow like a split of bubbly brut, and nothing sets up an evening of high spirits like a few rounds of bubbly champagne. Now that I think of it, just about anytime is a great time to celebrate with the wonders of the bubble. Bubbly champagne and brut wine lifts the spirits and quenches the thirst like few other beverages.

Why? Here's part of the secret--the bubble itself. Whether induced by fermentation or injection, CO2, the gas that forms that lovely tickle, carries the alcohol to the brain faster than still wine. That's why people erupt into high spirits and hilarity under the seduction of the foam. And it's why champagne has so often been linked to special occasions. When high spirits are in order, then order bubbles.

How do those bubbles get in there? Two ways. In Champagne, they use what is called "methode traditionnel" which is a very old recipe invented by an old priest named Dom Perignon. Yes, that Rolls Royce of all wines was invented by a monk of modest means.

The story goes like this: in the middle of the last millenium, Europe went through a cold spell, often called "The Little Ice Age" and the grapes in the cool Champagne region wouldn't ripen. The wine was sour with low sugar levels so the good friar decided to add some sugar, sweeten it up. But the sugar kept the brew fermenting in the bottle and blowing the corks out of the bottles. So he had to secure the corks in the bottle with wire.

They shipped the bottles off to England, which was, and is, France's biggest importer of bubbly. And London loved it! Keep the bubbles coming, London told Champagne. And they have, for the last 500 years.

Today the "methode traditionnel" involves all the same steps. First, grapes are picked very early in the season when sugar levels are low and acid levels high. Lower alcohol and higher acid levels are two hallmarks of the bubbly one. That wine is then fermented "dry," that is the yeast is allowed to convert all the sugar into alcohol. Then the wine is treated with a bit of sugary wine, called the "dosage," that includes more yeast, and bottled in especially reinforced bottles designed to withstand the pressure the fermentation in the bottle creates.

Topped with a "crown cap," these bottles are put away so the wine can ferment. This fermentation creates pressure in the bottle which causes the resulting carbon dioxide to be dissolved in the wine, hence the bubbles. Later, when the cork is removed and the wine poured, that carbon dioxide re-emerges as bubbles. But we are getting ahead of ourselves because there's still more magic in the winemaking process.

Under crown cap, the wine undergoes yet another obscure process called "riddling." Wedged into a board that holds these bottles neck-down, riddling involves slowly turning the bottles one-quarter turn a week and allowing the "lees"--essentially dead yeast cells--to gather in a plug in the neck of the bottle. When the bottle fermentation is complete, the neck of the bottle is plunged into dry ice and the plug is frozen. Very quickly the crown cap is removed and the plug is pried out the neck of the bottle. The wine is topped up with a bit of wine, and the special cork is pushed into the bottle and tied down with wire to keep it from blowing.

The next thing you know, someone is celebrating a marriage or graduation and the cork is removed. So much effort but so much enjoyment. That's the French way, and typically French, it's the most labour-intensive way.

The Italians are much more practical. They make a wonderful bubbly they call "prosecco" and it has a much simpler process they call "chamat." This involves simply loading the wine into a pressurized tank and allowing the fermentation and the carbon dioxide dissolving to happen in bulk, rather than in a bottle. The wines are then bottled and capped. Seems simple, doesn't it? Prosecco is a delightful bubbly--crisp and dry like a Pinot Grigio, but with that seductive tickle the bubbles provide. A perfect summertime drink, low alcohol and thirst quenching, prosecco is the type of beverage you want to serve with a Sunday brunch when the friends drop over for an afternoon of drinks and antipasti. Make sure you load up the ice bucket with several bottles, because prosecco goes down awfully easily.

The final word on bubbly comes right home to Pender Island at Morning Bay Vineyard

Because the grape-ripening conditions on Pender make it perfect for bubbly. A long cool season keeps the sugar levels low and acid levels high, exactly the flavour profile you need for good bubbly. The French have an expression that it takes 100 years to discover what works well in a new wine region, and by that measurement we have about 95 years to go. But my guess is that when we get to the end of our century, there will be a lot of bubbly being made on Pender. And nothing could be better in the shade of a Gulf Island summer afternoon than a frosty bottle of bubbly.

Cheers, Keith

Keith Watt, Proprietor,
Morning Bay Vineyard and Estate Winery
* * * * *

Our BC wines are hand made with loving care from Morning Bay's terraced vineyard and winery on North Pender Island in the sparkling southern Gulf Islands of BC. In the lee of the Olympic Peninsula rainshadow, Pender basks in a glorious mediterranean summer, with long stretches of dry, sunny weather.

Order a case and automtically become a wine club member. With your wine club membership, you'll be getting a superior hand made product produced with careful applications of water and nutrients. Our wine grapes ripen slowly and develop complex flavours that will delight any wine lovers palate. Hand-picked in late fall, grapes retain crisp aromatics while developing long, elegant flavours.

Click for Instant Membership:
Join our wine club online

Morning Bay products are now available at private wine stores and fine restaurants throughout British Columbia or Alberta. Watch for us on the menus at your favourite restaurant. Or order direct from the winery by e-mail: contact here