Winemaking effervescent wines

The effervescent wines occupy a place privileged among all the products obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of the grape juice. Wines of festival, they contributed much, by their smoothness and their distinction, with the notoriety and the celebrity of the wine in general. The champagne is obviously the unchallenged leader of the wines of this type, but it is accompanied by different”crèmants” produced in France, of undermined Spanish, of the Italian spumanti and well of others. One understands perfectly all the problems to which the successive generations vine growers have to bring solutions, in order to manage to regularly produce effervescent wines in areas which were not adapted always perfectly to the culture of the vine.

In all the cases, the quality of the vintage is essential. This central role of the grape made a major contribution of dom Pérignon in the creation of champagne, but it conditions also the other productions. Each area sought thereafter to develop technical requirements adapted to its possibilities and its objectives.

Extract of the foreword of Professor Pascal RiBEREAU-GAYON of the book“effervescent wines, from the terroir to the bubble”( les vins effervescents, du terroir à la bulle), french version,Gerard Liger-Belair and Joel Rochard, Editions Dunod/La vigne , 2008.