December is the time of year when almost everyone will have a glass of sparkling wine at one point or another.<\/p>\n
The prerequisite to this of course is purchasing a bottle of sparkling wine. The terms and labelling of sparkling wine have barely changed over time where many of the \u2018old world\u2019 regions have added information to make deciphering what is in the bottle simpler, for example stating the grape varieties on the front of the bottle. Working out what each term and phrase on a bottle of sparkling wine means can be challenging.<\/p>\n
The grape varieties<\/strong> Dry or Sweet?<\/strong> How bubbly is it?<\/strong> Traditional\/Champagne method wines will tend to have the finest, most persistent bead of bubbles. The tank\/charmat method used for most Prosecco and cheaper sparkling wines will usually result in a \u2018bigger\u2019 bead more akin to soft drink for example. In Italy you may see wines labelled as Spumante or Frizzante. The former simply denoting that the wine is sparkling, which is what you would expect from most sparkling wines, whilst Frizzante will indicate that it is only slightly sparkling.<\/p>\n
\nA sparkling wine may be made using red grapes, white grapes or a mix of both. You will likely be familiar with the classic blend of Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay that is typical in Champagne. However, where only white grapes are used, this will be mentioned on the label as Blanc de Blancs, whilst a sparkling made with only red grapes and retaining a white colour will be labelled as Blanc de Noir. Beyond this point we still need a little bit of regional knowledge to know exactly which varieties are used.<\/p>\n
\nThere are a range of terms that will give you an indication of how dry or sweet the wine will be. Just before a sparkling wine such as Champagne is bottled, a small amount of sugar or grape must will be added to the wine which can help to balance \\ the naturally high acidity of the wine. The most confusing part here is the grading between Brut and Extra Dry. Counterintuitively a wine labelled extra dry, as many Proseccos are, will have more residual sugar than a wine labelled
\nBrut, it is Extra Brut which indicates that a wine is drier than Brut. The scale from driest to sweetest being: Brut Nature,
\nExtra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Dry, demi-Sec and Doux.<\/p>\n
\nThe production method chosen will often dictate how bubbly the wine is likely to be.<\/p>\n