Hi Paula.

Our sparkling wines are actually fermented two times, once to produce a still wine (the base) and again to carbonate the wine, to make it bubbly. Our process is the more traditional Methode Champenoise which means that the second fermentation occurs in the bottle. It is thought that this process produces wines of the highest quality.

Another way of putting the spark in the sparkling is to add carbon dioxide to a still wine in a tank and bottle it under pressure, the Charmat method.

We harvest the grapes a little less ripe than we normally would since we are looking for  higher acid and more subtle flavor. Less ripe also equals less sugar, which in turn means less alcohol, which is important since we will be adding more alcohol when we ferment the wine in the bottle to produce carbonation.

After the base is fermented we will store it in either stainless steel containers or old French oak (neutral barrels) until we have worked up enough courage for the next step--Le Tirage, which can occur anywhere from six months to several years, depending on house style and fortitude of the winemaker.

We  draw off the wine from its containers, cold stabilize and filter it and then the fun begins.

Keep in mind that we will be introducing this mix into what is not a very hospitable environment for yeast--low pH, no sugar, and alcohol. 

We then start a small tank of  liqueur de tirage, a mixture of yeast, wine and sugar. 

As the mixture ferments, we keep a close eye on how much sugar is consumed and when it gets to the right point, we will add sugar to the base wine in the tank and introduce the yeast mixture to the tank and mix it thoroughly. Mixing constantly we will bottle the wine quickly so that once it starts fermenting it will be in the bottle. Then we will put a crown cap(bottle cap) on and place the bottles in a storage cage for  hopefully fermenting  and not blowing up.

After aging for at least a year or so, we enter the final stage of production: riddling and disgorgement which is basically ridding the wines of fermentation sediments.

We will then remove the crown cap, pop out the sediments, replace any wine that is lost and add the cork and wire cage and voila, in a few months or so, there will be sparkling wine to consume!