First fermentation

What happens

Yeast converts the sugar of the must into alcohol and carbon dioxide.^1,2 The CO2 from this fermentation is not kept, so the result is a still wine. The bubbles of a traditional-method wine come later, from the second fermentation in a closed bottle.

Vessels

The Comité Champagne notes that alcoholic fermentation can be carried out in oak but usually takes place in stainless steel vats.²

Where it differs

The first fermentation is the same for the traditional, transfer and tank methods: each needs a still base wine before the second fermentation. Two methods skip this step. In the Asti method and the ancestral method there is only one fermentation, and its gas is kept.^3,4

How long the base wine waits

The still base wine does not go into bottle at once. In Champagne tirage may only take place from 1 January of the year after the harvest; for Crémant de Loire and Crémant de Bourgogne from 1 December.^5,6,7 These French texts are INAO drafts under national opposition.

After the first fermentation comes the optional malolactic fermentation.