THE CHAMPENOISE METHOD AND CHARMAT METHOD

This article describes the origins and main differences between the champenoise and charmat methods.

THE CHAMPENOISE METHOD AND CHARMAT METHOD

1. ORIGIN

The first, perhaps a seventeenth-century stroke of genius by the Benedictine abbot Dom Pérignon, is the basis of Champagne and in Italy it takes the name of the classic method. The second, conceived almost three centuries later, in 1985 by the Italian Federico Martinotti, director of the Experimental Institute for Enology in Asti, even before Eugène Charmat patented and refined it in 1910.

2. DESCRIPTION

The Charmat Method requires fermentation to take place in an autoclave under controlled temperature and pressure conditions for short periods, usually from 1 to 6 months. The yeasts transform the sugars in the wine into alcohol and carbon dioxide, that is, bubbles! At the end of the fermentation in the autoclave, the sparkling wine is bottled and is ready to be consumed. With the Charmat-Martinotti method, fresh, fruity and pleasantly immediate sparkling wines are obtained. The classic example is Prosecco

More complex is the Classic Method (or Champenoise), in which the second fermentation takes place directly in the bottle. The added yeasts act for a period that varies between 6 and 30 months in bottles placed horizontally. At the end of this phase, the bottles are tilted and periodically rotated by 1/8 to allow the gradual deposit of residues in the neck of the bottle.

This phase is called Remuage, a delicate moment carried out manually by careful and increasingly rare Remueurs or mechanized. When the bottle reaches a vertical position which guarantees the total deposit of residues, disgorging (or dégorgement) is carried out: the neck of the bottle contained is frozen, allowing the deposits contained in it to be eliminated.

3. CORRECT ANSWER

The correct answer to the weekly quiz is number 1.

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