Guests are aboard for a birthday and you have three sparkling wines in the fridge at wildly different prices. One of them will be opened on the sun deck at 11:00 with orange juice. Knowing which is a professional judgement, not a snobbish one.
Two ways to get bubbles in
| Traditional method | Tank (Charmat) method | |
|---|---|---|
| Second fermentation | In the bottle it is sold in | In a sealed pressurised tank |
| Time on lees | Long, legally defined minimums | Short |
| Character | Bread, brioche, biscuit, nutty autolytic notes; fine persistent mousse | Fresh primary fruit and flowers; softer, frothier bubble |
| Examples | Champagne, Crémant, Cava, English sparkling, Franciacorta | Prosecco, most inexpensive fizz |
| Cost | High (labour, time, bottle handling) | Lower |
Neither is "better". Autolysis buys complexity; the tank method preserves fruit and freshness. Match to the moment.
Champagne
Cool, marginal, chalky. Three principal grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.
- Non-vintage (NV) - a blend across years to hold a consistent house style. The workhorse and the true test of a house.
- Vintage - declared only in strong years; richer, more ageworthy.
- Blanc de Blancs - white grapes only, in practice Chardonnay: taut, citrus, elegant.
- Blanc de Noirs - black grapes only: broader, fuller.
- Rosé - usually made by blending in a little red wine.
- Prestige cuvée - the house's flagship.
Dosage is the small addition of sugar after disgorgement, and it sets the sweetness:
| Term | Approximate sugar |
|---|---|
| Brut Nature / Zero Dosage | Bone dry, no added sugar |
| Extra Brut | Very dry |
| Brut | Dry - the default style |
| Extra Dry | Off-dry, despite the name |
| Sec / Demi-Sec | Noticeably sweet |
Grower Champagne (look for RM, récoltant-manipulant, in small print) is made by the grower from their own fruit - often site-specific and characterful. A house (NM, négociant-manipulant) buys widely and blends for consistency.
The alternatives
- Prosecco (Glera, Veneto) - tank method; pear, apple, white flower. Better zones: Conegliano Valdobbiadene.
- Cava (mainly Penedès, Spain) - traditional method from Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada; earthy, savoury, superb value.
- English sparkling - traditional method, Champagne grapes on similar chalk; high acidity, green apple, increasingly serious.
- Crémant - traditional method from elsewhere in France (Loire, Alsace, Bourgogne).
Onboard Notes
- Never pour a prestige cuvée into a mimosa. Keep a good NV or a Cava for mixing and say nothing further about it.
- Serve at 6-8 C. Open by holding the cork and turning the bottle, with a thumb over the cork at all times - a launched cork on a moving deck is a genuine injury risk.
- Sparkling under pressure plus sea motion equals gushing. Let bottles rest after a passage; do not open one that has just come out of a rolling locker.