Champagne and Sparkling Wine

Champagne and Sparkling Wine In Edmonton

Champagne is a French sparkling wine. Mostly the word Champagne is used for sparkling wines, but in the EU and some other countries, it is illegal to label any product Champagne unless it came from the Champagne wine region - France. Rare types of grapes are used to prepare this alcoholic drink, which is grown in the Champagne region following rules that demand, among other things, specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from places within the Champagne region, specific grape-pressing methods and secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to cause carbonation.

Opening Champagne bottles

To reduce the risk of spilling or spraying any Champagne, open the Champagne bottle by holding the cork and rotating the bottle at an angle in order to ease out the stopper. This mechanism, as opposed to pulling the cork out, prevents the cork from flying out of the bottle at speed. Holding the bottle at an angle allows air in and helps prevent the champagne from spilling out of the bottle. A saber can be used to open a Champagne bottle with a great ceremony. This technique is called sabrage (the term is also used for simply breaking the head of the bottle).

Three Hallmarks of a Good Sparkler:

Fresh: Bright and alive in your mouth, fruity but not compulsorily sweet.

Precise: On the tongue, the feeling of the wine should be direct and penetrating. Precision is more about acidic nature, which is mandatory for good sparkling wines.

Sparkling: Small bubbles are a clue of high-quality wine.