coffee, even meaty notes (due in large part to
complex sulfur compounds). In addition to
flavor, yeast proteins and carbohydrates will
stabilize bubbles when they form in the glass,
and help produce the very fine bubbles typical
of Champagne. After aging on the yeast, the
sediment is removed and the bottle topped off
with additional wine, and finished with a
small amount of aged wine mixed with sugar
and brandy. The bottle is then recorked.
Making Other Sparkling Wines The
traditional Champagne process is labor
intensive, time consuming, and expensive.
More affordable and less complex sparkling
wines are made all over the world in a number
of different ways. One is simply to minimize
or eliminate aging on the yeast sediment.
Others involve fermenting the base wine for
the second time not in individual bottles, but
in large tanks, or not fermenting again at all:
the cheapest sparkling wines are simply