Fizz

Secondary fermentation in the bottle or forced carbonation. One of the benefits of the Méthode Champenoise is that one of the steps removes any yeast sediment produced during the fermentation. It's possible to carbonate any wine by either leaving residual sugars and not stabilizing before bottling, or by adding additional priming sugar (and possibly yeast) while bottling. The activity of the yeast produces CO2, which carbonates the wine.

Forced carbonation is subjecting wine to pressurized CO2 in a sealed container, thus causing it to absorb the carbon dioxide and become fizzy.

If it was a very light 'fizz', could be that the white wine went through malolactic fermentation in the bottle.

You can make a carbonated wine by restricting the carbon dioxide from leaving the wine. For people familiar with making beer, think of it as bottle conditioning during primary fermentation. One way to do it is by brewing in a 2 liter bottle. They are designed to hold moderate pressure. There is a yahoo discussion group that covers this :

. Basicly, you put your must and yeast in the bottle, put on a special lid that keeps some pressure, and let it ferment. Racking will tend to release the trapped CO2, so do this in moderation

Depends on how you define fizz. Do you mean something like champaign? In that case you probably want to do fermentation in the bottle which is doable but tricky. It does require special champaign bottles and wiring down the cork.

Or are you looking for something more subtle. You can bottle the wine before it has a chance to degas. It will not be truely bubbly but it will give a prickly feeling to the toungue when you drink it. The french say it is picant. This does not require special bottles or corks as the pressure is not high. Some people really like it. I don't. But then I am drinking my wine, not yours! And vicversa. ;o)

Ray

Hi Teak,

I have made sparkling apple cider with fizz by adding 1/2 cup of sugar to 5 gallons of the fully fermented (dry) wine, and bottling in beer bottles with crown caps. I have done this several times with no explosions, and consistently fizzy cider. I can't guarantee you have the same outcome, but it is worth a try.

P.S. There is a very small amount of yeast sediment at the bottom of each bottle, but not enough to be a problem.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Gary

Bottle it just a hair green. The natural carbondioxide is what causes the fizz. Bottle it to soon and the bottle will blow up!

Good Luck...