Sparkling Wine Making: Technology

Yesterday, you've seen how the yeast settles down in the bottlenecks of the sparkling wine bottles. Now we need to get it out there. In former times, the bottlenecks got frozen so that the yeast was easy to get out as a block of ice. Nowadays, a machine like the one above on the left simply sucks out the yeast.

Then you see 2 tubes going into the bottles. Through one of them, the machine checks how much fluid is inside the bottle and adds some more sparkling wine, if necessary. The other tube is used for the refinement of the sparkling wine. Whenever you read "Cuvée" on a sparkling wine bottle, it means that it got refined with other wines. For example with some sweeter wine to give it a milder taste. But the dosage is very much the secret and the success of every good sparkling wine maker.

Once the sparkling wine is ready and refined, the bottle gets its cork in the machine on the right. The cork gets pressed into the bottle and then a metal cap is added to secure the cork.