Champagne recipes?

Brian, I am also going to be making my first sparkling wine soon. My base wine is ready and today i purchased plastic champagne corks. I did a search for "sparkling" on this group and found lots of good information. I suggest you start by reading Lum's instructions to get a good idea on what is involved in making sparkling wine.

Joe

Brian, you will find some information on making sparkling wines here.....

I started with Muscat grapes. Crushed, pressed and cold settled for a day. Racked off clear juice. SG=1.096. Adjusted acid, added fermaid and fermented with Lalvin 71B.

At bottling, added 13 grams sugar to each bottle, filled with base wine, added 10 ml of yeast starter made with Premier Cuvee to each bottle and capped with crown caps.

I left the bottles on their sides for about 10 months, turning them a half turn every month or so to mix up the yeast. I then put them neck down and gave them a swirl every now and again to get the yeast to settle on the crown cap.

I opened one a month ago by keeping the bottle upside down over the sink, popping the crown cap off and quickly putting my thumb over the mouth of the bottle. Very nice, fine bead. Good flavor even without any sugar added, although the Muscat will not produce a typical "Champagne" taste. I plan to disgourge and cork with plastic corks and wire in the near future.

Next year I plan to make some Chardonnay (and Pinot Noir if I can find it) so the base wine is closer to what I expect out of real Champagne. The Muscat was used because it was what I had on hand. More to test my proceedures than anything else.

Andy

I've made two batches so far, following Lum Eisenman's recommendations. First one used a plain Chardonnay kit (Brew King Vintner's Reserve), with an extra bit of water to dilute the flavor (maybe 1/2 gallon extra water, for a 6 gallon kit) and some extra acid blend to raise the acidity a bit (maybe 0.1% or so higher than "normal" for a dry white wine). The second used "Non-vintage Champenoise" blend from Brehm Vineyards (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), harvested with low sugar and high acid. I let the base wine complete and clear, before I add the sugar and yeast for the secondary fermentation, and don't bottle until the fermentation is clearly going well. I let them age for 6 months or so, then "riddled" them by putting them in cases (neck down) propped at a bit of an angle, and turning them 1/4 turn each day for a couple of weeks. I considered making a "riddling board", but it was just too much work (and would take too much room). I made a little wooden rack to hold 6 bottles neck-down in the freezer, with holes large enough that the crown cap (regular 'bottle-cap') is in contact with the metal shelf. After about 3 to 4 hours, the liquid in the neck has frozen solid but the rest of the wine is still just cold liquid (which should allow maximum retention of carbonation). Hold the bottle carefully over the sink at about 45 degrees, pry off the bottle cap (slowly), scoop out the top

1/2" or so of ice/yeast sludge, then jam in a plastic stopper and wire it down. Voila !

Both batches have gotten pretty favorable reviews, although I think the Brehm batch did have a nicer taste and a bit more body. I don't add any sugar after "degorgement", as I prefer the end-result to be dry. If you do add any sugar after "degorgement", use a sugar solution, and make sure you mix in some sorbate as well, to prevent yet another fermentation. Making champagne this way is certainly more labor-intensive than regular (non-sparkling) wine, but it is fun, and is bound to impress friends/neighbors/significant others. Start a batch now, and you'll have some really fine stuff for next New Year's Eve.

Doug