Sparkling wine production

Different methods of sparkling winemaking
Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Traditional Base wine is bottled with sugar and yeast & secondary fermentation occurs in bottle. Yeast is then removed by riddling and the bottle topped up and sealed with a cork. Widely used for quality sparkling wines e.g. Champagne.	Widely recognised as producing the highest quality product.	Expensive in space, time and labour
Aeration Dissolving carbon dioxide into a base wine in a pressurised tank. Used for the cheapest sparkling wines.	Quick, cheap and easy to perform	Bubbles are large and aggressive No lees contact effect Must be labelled ‘aerated’
Cuve Close, Bulk or Charmat Sugar and yeast are added to the base wine in a pressurised tank, which may contain agitators to increase yeast contact. After fermentation, the yeast is cooled, clarified, and then bottled under pressure. Widely used, e.g. in Prosecco & German Sekt.	Economies of scale and space. More homogenous product Can produces more ‘fruity’ wine styles	Less lees contact effect
Transfer method Wine is bottled with yeast and sugar and undergoes secondary AF in the bottle. Wine is cooled, bottles decanted into bulk tanks, wine filtered & re-bottled. Used in Australia & USA. Machinery is expensive.	Similar quality to traditional method, but more practical. Product can be labelled ‘fermented in a bottle’	Machinery is expensive.

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WINEMAKING