Champagne vs. Sparkling Wine

After visiting the champagne cellars at Mumm, I was blown away at how different the champagne process is from the normal wine fermentation process. The grapes are picked and squeezed and initially fermented (and all that jazz), but then the juice goes through two more fermentations. After the second fermentation (yes, most wine goes through this as well…), the yeast cake is removed from the bottle. Varying amounts of sugar (depending on the sweetness of the final product) is added to the champagne and it goes through a final fermentation/aging process.

Now I know why champagne is so freakin’ expensive in the US (not in Reims)!