As midnight approaches on December 31st, many of us will crack open a of champagne to help toast the New Year. Strictly speaking, champagne is a sparkling that comes from the Champagne region of northeastern France. If it is a bubbly wine from another , it is sparkling wine, not champagne.
Sparkling wines can made in a variety of ways, but traditional champagne comes life by a special process. Champagne starts life like any normal wine. The grapes are harvested, pressed, and to undergo a primary fermentation. The acidic results of this process are then blended and bottled a bit of yeast and sugar so it can undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. It is this secondary fermentation that champagne its bubbles.
The northern location makes it a bit cooler France's other wine-growing regions, which gives the grapes the proper acidity for sparkling wine production. Moreover, the porous, chalky soil of the area - the result of large earthquakes millions of years - aids in drainage.
Perignon, a Benedictine monk worked as cellar master at an abbey near Epernay during the 17th and 18th centuries, did have quite an impact on the champagne industry. Perignon helped standardize production methods to avoid explosions, and he also added two safety features to his wines: thicker glass that better withstood pressure and rope snare that helped keep corks in place.
As mentioned above, a bit of sugar known as dosage is added to the bottle right it is corked, and these terms describe exactly how much sugar went in. Extra dry has less than six grams of sugar per liter added, while dry less than 15 grams of additional sugar per liter. Several other classifications exist, but drier champagnes are common.