Five surprises in every bottle of sparkling wine

When you uncork a sparkler, the hiss of the cork reminds you that there's a secret in the bottle.

The frothy, free-flowing bubbly is entirely different than the wine that was originally bottled. But most people don't have a clue about how the mystery occurs.

With New Year's Eve in the offing, here are five surprises hidden inside a bottle of bubbly. They will help you understand why early Champagne ads beckoned drinkers with this promise: “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars.”

Surprise No. 1: Birthing the bubble

Sparkling wine is born during a secondary fermentation that takes place right in the bottle, during which the yeast devours the sugar, releasing carbon dioxide. This French method, known as “méthode Champenoise,” is widely used in the top sparkling wine houses.

“The element of surprise comes from finding a different wine than what was bottled originally,” said Arnaud Weyrich, vice president and winemaker of Anderson Valley's Roederer Estate.

David Munksgard, winemaker of Sebastopol's Iron Horse Vineyards, sums up the marvel by saying, “It's amazing to think that each 750 milliliter bottle is its own winemaking vessel.”

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Surprise #2: Shocking base wine

Weyrich said he begins his sparkling wine quest by selecting base wines with such brisk acidity that they can be “a shock when tasted by the uninitiated.”

What's more, he said, finding the right grapes to produce these base wines can be extremely challenging.

“Overripeness is to be avoided at all costs,” Weyrich said, “and sometimes under the dry California climate, this task is like sending a rocket to the moon.”

Many sparkling wine producers agree that picking the right base wines to use for a top-rate bubbly is a painstakingly precise exercise.

“Look at the importance of still or base wines from this perspective,” said Eileen Crane, CEO and founding winemaker of Napa's Domaine Carneros. “What if you started to make a fine dinner with poor quality ingredients? What if you do not cook something long enough or too long? What if you are confused as to which dish received which seasoning? Are your guests likely to enjoy the result?

“The base wines must be as good as possible, blended with a deft palate and handled with care throughout the process to produce fine wines.”

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Surprise #3: The confounding “entaste”

Did you know winemakers have to be visionaries of sorts to pull off a great bubbly?

“Sparkling wine is the hardest wine to make because you must envision or ‘entaste' what the wine will be like three and a half to seven years down the road,” Crane said. “That's a lot of aging time, but on top of that, you have to envision what the wine will be like with the evolution of the bubbles in the bottle, the 1.2- 1.5-percent alcohol gain and how dosage (sugar added) will balance the wine. And you will not know if you have made the right choices for many years.”

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Surprise #4: The wonder of time in a bottle

While sparklers hibernate in dark cellars, sometimes 14 years and beyond, a great deal transpires during this aging.

“The wines will slowly develop and mature,” said Matthew Levy of Calistoga's Schramsberg Vineyards. “Consider how an apple pie will gradually caramelize while being baked in an oven, and the tart Granny Smith apple will become sweet and rich over time. This transformation also occurs in our bottles, where the bright fruit flavors and aromas found within our wines will become richer and more caramelized, but at a much slower pace and without the heat of an oven.”

Levy said time is what creates the magic.

“While the bubbles are what most people would recognize as the element of surprise, those of us at the winery are most ‘surprised,' or for a better word ‘pleased,' by the development that occurs in the bottle.”

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Surprise # 5: The riddler

Did you know that some traditional wineries have a riddler who twists - by hand - as many as 40,000 bottles of bubbly every day?

The riddler turns the bottles to move toward the cork the sediment created during the second fermentation. It will collect over time, and eventually it will be removed.

Levy said that by hand-twisting the bottles, Schramsberg Vineyard's riddler brings to “the life of each individual bottle a special meaning when it's purchased, and makes serving it that much more special.”

As we begin a new year, why not embrace the mysteries of bubbly and resolve to drink more of it? As the late British economist John Maynard Keynes is thought to have said on his deathbed, “My only regret in life is that I didn't drink enough Champagne.”

Staff Writer Peg Melnik can be reached at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.