CHAMPAGNE: FROM VINES TO PLEASURE

Years in the making

11. Dosage

     Disgorgement leaves a space in the bottle that has to be filled. Also, since the wine and carbon dioxide are naturally high in acidity, the contents of the bottle need to be sweetened. This depends on the type of champagne desired, ranging from "extra-brut", through "brut nature", "brut", "extra-dry", "sec", "demi-sec", all the way to "doux" (sweet). This is the other role that is played by the liqueur d'expédition, which is a mixture of very pure cane sugar and old wines that are chosen each year for their correcting effect.  
     The liqueur is prepared several months beforehand with reserve wines that are at least two years old, and carefully filtered using a sterilization technique that removes any risk of unwanted fermentation being restarted by bacteria or yeasts.

     It is the amount of added sugar that determines a sparkling wine's category in terms of sweetness. Within the European Union this is defined as follows: 

* extra-brut : entre 0 et 6 g/l de sucre; * brut nature : moins de 3g/l; * brut : moins de 15 g/l; * extra dry : de 12 à 20 g/l; * sec (ou dry) : de 17 à 35 g/l; * demi-sec : de 33 à 50 g/l; * doux : plus de 50 g/l.

     There is one more category, which is wines that do not receive any dosage at all. The empty space is refilled with more of the same wine that is in the bottle. These wines are known as "totalement bruts" and are labelled with various descriptions such as brut 100%, brut 0, brut intégral, brut sauvage, ultra brut, etc.

To each his own...!

     The practice of dosing goes back a long way and, in times past, the wines of Champagne were in fact more heavily dosed. The demand for drier wines has gradually increased as people's tastes have evolved, probably partly as a result of the comparative lightness of the modern diet, which requires a drier wine. The Scandinavian countries, where it is cold, are the only countries that still order sweet and demi-sec wines. Russia was, before the revolution in 1917, one of the largest consumers of sparkling wines. Traditionally, they only drank the sweetest of champagnes, with the result that such champagne became known as "goût russe", while the Americans preferred dry champagne, known as "goût américain", and for the English it was usually extra-dry or brut, sometimes known as "goût anglais". This divergence in tastes on the international market was so pronounced that for a long time the dosage was calculated as a function of the wine's destination. This is no longer the case, and the precise level of dosage must now be displayed on the label.

     The ‘dosage’ operation, being the addition of between zero and five or six centilitres of liqueur d'expédition to the bottle after disgorgement, is now carried out by an automatic or semi-automatic machine known as a ‘doseuse’. These machines vary in sophistication depending on the size of the Champagne house with the fastest of them reaching rates of more than 18,000 bottles per hour. Such a machine in fact carries out three operations:

     * First, a few centilitres are removed in order to ensure that there is enough space for the same quantity of liqueur d'expédition to be added to every bottle. 
     * The liqueur d'expédition is added.
     * The final level is adjusted using the wine that was previously removed. Any excess wine remains in the machine's reservoir.

      Immediately afterwards the bottles go on to the corking machine adjacent to the doseuse, to be hermetically sealed with a cork of the highest grade which are held in place with a wire cage. This seal is essential if the wine is to keep properly. The carbon dioxide must not be allowed to escape, as this would eventually result in the wine losing its sparkle.