|
7. The capture of the sparkle
The bottles are filled leaving a gap of 5cl maximum under the closure, then corked. They are then taken down to underground or air-conditioned cellars, where they are stored horizontally for several years. They are sheltered from shocks, light and air currents and kept at a fresh and constant temperature of between 9 and 12° C in summer and winter alike. This is ideal for the capture of the sparkle. At a lower temperature it would not take place and at a higher temperature it would occur too fast.
The Champagne cellars, according to certain historians, were frequently constructed in ancient Gallo-Roman or Medieval chalk pits. Most of them were forgotten until the 18th Century, but they have since been fitted out and extended.
 |
Next, the bottles are stacked head to tail either in piles or in pallets. This is known as the 'entreillage'. The bottles are placed on wooden laths, which separate each row. This system of laths avoids an eventual collapse of all of the bottles in case one of them should explode from exterior pressure |
The second alcoholic fermentation begins after the entreillage. The yeast, incorporated into the still wine, will start to work by acting on the added sugar. It will transform this sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The alcohol content thus rises by 1.2° to 1.3°. The yeast will then multiply, creating a deposit, which must later be eliminated. The carbon dioxide created gradually dissolves in the wine, causing a slow increase in pressure inside the bottle (6kg/cm2). This pressure increase, initially significant, reduces over the following two months. It is this gas that creates the pressure and the characteristic noise when a bottle of Champagne is opened.
Effervescence
Vidéo 1'00 min
| Appendix
: About bottles...
|
 |
|
In order to resist this pressure, the Champagne Houses use top quality bottles, made with stable glass without defects. In 1662, the Englishmen, Henry Holden and John Colenet became the first manufacturers of mass-produced bottles "with a thick body and a long neck". In France, it was not until the end of the 17th Century that the glass manufacturers of the North and the Argonne made thick, black glass bottles in the shape of an apple and later a more resistant pear shape.
During the 18th and 19th Centuries, pressure was enemy number one for the producers of the sparkling wine of Champagne. Frequent explosions and a breakage rate of 80% devastated the Houses and made it necessary for the cellar workers to wear protective masks on their faces.
Today, the dark green Champagne bottle is designed to resist a pressure of 12 atmospheres, weighs 860g and has a reinforced base to make it easier to stack up vertically during the 'mise en masse' (stacking bottles in large piles, neck down) and increase its resistance to shocks.
The ‘capture of the sparkle’ phase is vital for the quality of the future wine. If it is too fast, it will give a coarse sparkle and lack length. If it takes place slowly and at a constant and fresh temperature, it will create a fine and long-lasting sparkle.
|