The Philosophy of Sparkling Wine
“I have a very good wine and I’d like to make it into a sparkling wine.”
To answer this request, I receive every year after fermentation, I’m going to ask you a question: what do sparkling wine and red wine have in common?
Would you ever consider deciding the style of a red wine after devating? Choosing, after maceration and alcoholic fermentation, whether your red wine will be fresh and light for early drinking or structured and deep for aging?
Of course not! Vine training system, ripeness and winemaking process will be specifically chosen and guided by the type of red wine you want to produce.
Would adding water to a good red wine make it a good rosé? Could adding coloring to a rosé wine make it a good red? Thinking that would be like saying that water or coloring only affects color but not aromas, tastes, perceptions, textures, or balance.
Spoiler alert: it’s the same for bubbles into a sparkling wine. They change absolutely everything.
So a good still wine will never become a great sparkling wine…just as a rosé will never become a great red wine for aging by adding coloring.
If you want to embark on this endeavor, you’ll have to minimize the aromatic impact of the secondary fermentation and avoid any aging on the lees, but you’ll never reach the level of a wine crafted from the vine specifically to become a sparkling one.
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“What is the dosage ?”
This is for sure THE most asked question when tasting sparkling wines… but what’s the point?
Will knowing that the dosage is 4g/L instead of 5 or 8g/L change the way you appreciate it? Will knowing this number help you imagine its balance and mouthfeel, with so many other impacting factors ? Will you refuse to taste it because there’s too much sugar or not enough? Unless you have health problems (diabetes), the answer to all these questions is “no.”
Number does not matter, balance does !
Is the champagne balanced, underdosed, or overdosed? That’s the real question when tasting a sparkling wine.
The dosage is simply the necessary addition to perfect the balance, depending on the house’s style and the winemaker’s tastes. And then, everyone remains free to like or dislike a style and to have different preferences regarding balance.
At the same age, a Chardonnay will not require the same dosage as a Pinot Meunier. If it comes from Mesnil, Cramant, or Avize, it will not require the same dosage as if it comes from Aisne or Aube. And this dosage will change with the ripeness at harvest, aging, and vinification (MLF, oak aging, type of caps used, etc.).
The dosage that suits one sparkling wine will not suit another, and that’s why the number (excluding diabetes) doesn’t matter.
This is also why blind tastings are used to select dosage with sugar quantities only revealed once the choice has been made.
This is why I have always preferred to hear about balance of the wine we are tasting rather than being asked about its dosage, which can be easily found on a back label, a technical sheet…or soon…by asking an AI.
“What do you smell in this wine ? I don’t have yout level”
This is THE question from family I can’t escape at every family dinner, like for Christmas.
Members of my family never dare to express themselves or say what they think of a wine before me, claiming that they do not have my sensitivity or my knowledge in tasting.
This raises several questions about the world of wine, its perception and image.
Inside a family, ages of tasters are different and…it matters (especially for bitterness and sugar). Give to children dark chocolate/coffee and sugar. They will all smile with sugar and dark chocolate/coffee will make them all grimace. Growing things change and bitterness is more appreciated.
As an individual, you have 400 olfactory sensors and between 2 tasters, 30% are different. This is the genetic side. Some more efficient and others less, making you smell (or not) specific aromas (cork taste, rose) and like (or dislike) others (fresh coriander, truffle).
The places you growth and live impact your habits: sugar consumption of sugar is lower in Scandinavian countries than in southern Europe and peoples tolerate/enjoy less sweetness of wines.
Your past and life also educate your palate/nose: if you never smell a fig leaf, you will never find its aromas but if you grew up or live in a area with lot of fig trees, you will find it every time it appears into a wine.
So, knowing this, how could I be always right and exhaustive? I can say what I smell, what I feel, if I like or not but talking about tasting everyone is right and no-one should be afraid about giving its opinion about a wine.
That’s why my answer to this question is always the same:
“We don’t care!
The most important questions are: Do you like this wine? Do you enjoy/have pleasure to drink it?”, maybe: “Do you think the food pairing is good ?” and “if you can’t identify some/lots of aromas…We don’t care”.
And, for you, what’s the most important question when you drink/taste a wine ?
Why a Non-Vintage (NV) should not be marketed as a Multi-Vintage (MV).
For few years, a new term appears on some blends : « Multi-Vintage »… to qualify what was usually called « Non-Vintage » or « Brut sans année ». This marketing approach was made to enhance the perceived quality of the blend but this move more devalues the quality of « real » vintages.
Through history, and for quality, Champagne producers do not create a vintage blend every years but only when quality deserve it.
The art of Champagne is blending qualities of different years to create most of their cuvées. Does that mean the quality of a blend is lower ? For sure not ! Base wines are blended to use qualities of different years/plot/grape-varieties to create a mix using the best of each and giving birth to the best possible cuvée.
If a vintage did not deserve to be classified as one, how could it be a part of a « Multi-Vintage » ?
So, please enjoy « Non-Vintage » for what they are : amazing blends using best qualities of different years and reserve « Multi-Vintage » term to premium blends of years already vintage-dated by the producer.
When size matters.
Talking about barrels and casks for sparkling and base wines, size matters !
For 2 reasons :
– The larger the volume, the smaller the contact surface/volume ratio.
– Bigger volumes like « foudres » do not undergo « bousinage », the aromatic heating. Woody aromas and tastes are more delicates with more finesse and more elegance.
I always thought wood in oenology is like salt in a dish. It brings complexity but you should not identify it.