Champagne or not Champagne? This is the question.

With the festive season almost upon us, its time to stock up on indulgent food and wine.  Toasting the New Year with a bottle of something special seems to always pose a problem.  Should it be Champagne or is Prosecco a good alternative?  What exactly is the difference?

We can tell you that the main difference is the method that is used to produce the wine in question.

In order to use the label ‘Champagne’, (in addition to other requirements), it must be produced using the méthode champenoise. Prosecco, a dry sparkling Italian wine produced from the Glera grape, uses the charmat method. Both methods require a secondary fermentation, which occurs in the bottle in the méthode champenoise; and in a stainless steel tank in the charmat method.

It is less expensive to produce Prosecco than Champagne, resulting in a large number of inexpensive, yet tasty Prosecco wines in the marketplace.

Can most people tell the difference? Probably not.  Serve Prosecco in a real Champagne flute and you can be pretty sure none of your friends will question it.  The Champagne flute is designed with a small opening at the top in order to prevent the carbonation from dissipating too rapidly, thus enhancing the flavours.

In speaking of Champagne and sparkling wines, the word “brut” indicates the level of sweetness contained in the wine and refers to the amount of sugar that was added to the wine to attain a desired level. Sparkling wines are produced across a wide spectrum of sweetness from being very dry (little or no sweetness) to being extremely sweet. Brut is right in the middle of this range.

Salut!

Posted by Admin1 on Dec 20, 2011