Lesson 4 of 9 · 5 minutes

  1. 1. What makes wine sparkle
  2. 2. The life of a bubble
  3. 3. Five ways to make bubbles
  4. 4. The traditional method step by step
  5. 5. Grapes and the blend
  6. 6. Sugar and dosage
  7. 7. Where it sparkles
  8. 8. Reading the label
  9. 9. Serving

The traditional method step by step

After this lesson you will be able to follow one bottle of champagne from tirage to cork and say what happens to the wine at each step.

  1. 01

    Tirage: sugar and yeast go in

    The finished blend, the cuvée, is bottled with liqueur de tirage, a mix of wine, sugar and yeast.1,2 In Champagne it adds 24 g of sugar per litre of wine.2 The bottle is closed with a crown cap holding a small hollow plastic insert, the bidule, which will later collect the yeast.2 In Champagne tirage may not start before 1 January after the harvest.3

  2. 02

    Prise de mousse: the bubbles form

    The bottles lie in a cellar at about 9-12 °C. Yeast ferments the added sugar, and the CO2 has nowhere to go, so it dissolves in the wine. Alcohol rises by about 1.2-1.3 degrees, and the pressure build-up tails off within two months.4 The finished pressure is about 6 bar at 20 °C.5,4 This second fermentation is called the prise de mousse.

  3. 03

    Ageing on lees: time does the work

    When the sugar is used up, the yeast dies and settles along the bottle as lees. It slowly breaks down, a process called autolysis, and releases compounds into the wine.6 A review links them to foam and to flavour.7 Champagne must rest at least 15 months from tirage before release, vintage champagne at least 36 months.3,8 The EU minimum for the traditional method is 9 months on lees.9

  4. 04

    Riddling: the deposit moves to the neck

    Before the lees can be removed, they must gather in the neck. In riddling each bottle is turned 1/8 or 1/4 at a time, about 25 turns in all, and tilted until it stands neck down.10 By hand on wooden pupitres this takes 4-6 weeks, according to the Comité Champagne. Machines called gyropalettes turn cages of about 500 bottles at once and need about a week.10

  5. 05

    Disgorgement: the plug flies out

    Now the deposit rests on the cap. In disgorgement the neck is dipped into a freezing liquid at about -27 °C (the UMC gives about -25 °C), which traps the deposit in an ice plug about 4 cm long.11,12 When the cap comes off, the pressure in the bottle pushes the plug out.11,12 In Champagne this may not happen earlier than 12 months after tirage.3,8

  6. 06

    Dosage, cork and cage

    The space left by disgorgement is filled with liqueur d'expédition, usually cane sugar dissolved in wine; a wine without dosage is topped up with the same wine.13,14 For a brut about 1 cl goes into a 75 cl bottle.13 The sugar content sets the sweetness term on the label.9 Then the cork goes in, held by a wire cage, the muselet, and the bottle is shaken to mix in the liqueur.15,16

Remember

  1. The second fermentation happens in the same bottle that reaches the shop.
  2. The tirage sugar becomes the gas: about 6 bar at 20 °C.
  3. Champagne rests at least 15 months from tirage, vintage champagne at least 36.
  4. Riddling moves the lees to the neck; disgorgement throws them out in an ice plug.
  5. Dosage sets the sweetness; the cork and muselet hold the pressure.

Check yourself

1What starts the second fermentation in the bottle?

2What is riddling for?

3Why is the neck frozen before disgorgement?

See also

Traditional methodMethodsTirageMethodsAgeing on leesMethodsRiddlingMethodsDisgorgementMethodsMinimum ageing by appellationMethods

Sources

  1. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Bottling and second fermentation
  2. Union des Maisons de Champagne. Tirage or bottling the blended wine
  3. Cahier des charges de l'AOP « Champagne » - modifications approved by the INAO national committee on 11 September 2024 (national opposition procedure text) (2024-09-11)
  4. Union des Maisons de Champagne. Second fermentation (capturing the sparkle)
  5. Comité Champagne / champagne.education. L'élaboration du Champagne (fiche) (2024)
  6. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Maturation
  7. PubMed. Torresi S, Frangipane MT, Anelli G. Biotechnologies in sparkling wine production. Interesting approaches for quality improvement: a review. Food Chem 2011;129(3):1232-41. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.05.006 (2011-12-01)
  8. Cahier des charges AOP Champagne, proposed modifications approved by INAO national committee 18 June 2026 (2026-06-18)
  9. EUR-Lex. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 (consolidated text), Articles 47, 48, 49, 53, 54 and Annex III Part A (2023-12-08)
  10. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Riddling
  11. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Disgorgement
  12. Union des Maisons de Champagne. Disgorgement
  13. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Dosage
  14. Union des Maisons de Champagne. Dosage
  15. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Corking, shaking and final inspection
  16. Union des Maisons de Champagne. Corking and muselage

Facts checked on 2026-10-20