Champagne is very firmly embedded in our lives. And not only as an easy drink for women, but also as a symbol of the holiday: they celebrate New Year with him, the newlyweds drink it in the registry office, and even break the bottle of champagne, escorting the ship to the first voyage. In our time, this choice of champagne wines, that few people think about what and, in general, how to make champagne.
For the production of champagne, three kinds of grapes are used, namely Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. The harvest of grapes for the production of champagne is collected only by hands. After that, there is an easy pressing of berries.
Further, the production of champagne occurs "traditional" or "champagne" way, some professionals call this method - "the method of bottle fermentation." This process of making champagne, of course, requires considerable material costs and is quite laborious, but the result fully justifies the means, because only in this way you can get the highest quality wine. The technology of making champagne is as follows:
- From the juice obtained after pressing make dry wines. As a rule, the alcohol content in such wine is small, but the acidity is high enough.
- Then, depending on the desired result, winemakers mix wines in different proportions, bringing the bouquet to perfection. Sometimes, however, champagne is made from one kind of grapes.
- The mixture is then transferred to a very thick bottle. It also adds a 'production liqueur', which consists of sweet grape syrup, or sugar, yeast and aged wines. Then the bottle is firmly closed and laid in a cellar in a horizontal position. Inside the bottle, thanks to the circulation liqueur, the process of fermentation starts again. As a result, carbon dioxide is released. Gas has no outlet, so it creates a very high pressure in the bottle, thereby saturating the wine. When the fermentation process is over, the yeast precipitates on the vessel wall with a powdery precipitate.
In this form, the wine is kept in the cellar for a rather long period of time. It is during "aging on sludge" that wine is saturated with shades of bread, nuts, sweet pastries, which some connoisseurs of champagne appreciate.
After the final ripening of the wine from the bottle, it is necessary to remove the precipitate that appeared, while leaving the wine saturated with carbon dioxide. This is the procedure called 'remuage'.
How to make homemade champagne?
Champagne can be made at home. The main advantage of this drink is the confidence in the quality of the ingredients used. Yes, and it's not difficult to cook.
Do this in 2 ways: natural, forcing young wine to wander in closed bottles, and artificial, by pumping carbonic acid into bottles of wine.
You do not need to be an expert to understand that the natural way is better. And the wine at the same time is more delicious and aromatic. So how do homemade champagne? The process of making home champagne, in principle, is similar to the above-described. First, a young wine is prepared, which, after the fermentation, the wine must be bottled, preferably from under champagne, since they have thick walls. In each bottle you need to pour a spoonful of sugar, you can throw a few grapes.
Put the bottles in a warm room, where they should be in a horizontal position. Soak the bottles in this position for several months. After that, bottles with a drink should be placed with a neck down, in this position the sediment from the walls will gather on the plug and it will be easily removed when the bottle is opened. Open them, to remove sediment, you need very carefully. Completely avoid losses, of course, will not succeed, but they should be minimized.
After removing the sludge, the bottles should be topped up with wine, tightly capped and folded in a cool room for aging. The minimum period for holding home champagne is 3 months.