Making a sparkling wine is surprisingly easy though a little haphazard the first time you do it. I have made grape, gooseberry, strawberry and elderflower sham-pagnes and only had one batch that has failed to carbonate. All of these have been white or rosé wines with a sharp but floral or fruity taste and not too tannic. The tannic oak leaf or walnut leaf I would imagine are not that good as sparkling wines or the fuller bodied quince I have made. I imagine few reds would make a decent sparkling wine though I may one day try it with a pomegranate and blueberry wine as it was surprisingly light and refreshing. Raspberry could also be light enough so this may one day be thrown into a champagne bottle too. Don’t take my word for it and go crazy as the world is your lobster!

Lets quickly move on from using a sodastream as we are not 11 years old…

The easiest way to get a sparkling wine is simple to bottle it early when fermentation has either just stopped or is about to, as a home wine maker version of pétillant-naturel. The carbon dioxide will be trapped and any further fermentation will add to it creating bubbles when the wine is eventually opened. Making a pet-nat like this is an old school rustic way of making sparkling wine that has its limitations. Sediment will likely be high as the wine was young and active when bottles so when popped open the sediment will be disturbed for a cloudy wine. The level of fizz will be moderate like a lightly carbonated beer rather than a full on champagne too. This method is obviously quite crude but I accidentally made a Seville orange wine this way and the slight effervescence on the tongue highlighted the zingy orange acidity against the earthier zesty base making a great wine for a warm evening in the garden.

The carbonation in a pet-nat may well be happy in a traditional wine bottle or flip top as it will be as fizzy as a posh pop from Marks and Spencer and probably far less so as a light tingle on the tongue. Making a sparkling wine using méthode champenoise carbonates the wine in the bottle to between four and six atmospheres so you really really really need to use champagne bottles. Anyone that says they have had no problems using regular wine bottles is suggesting you make bottle bombs that could explode. Explode like a hand grenade with glass heading towards your face. Anyone that says they have had no problems using flip top bottles is suggesting you make bottle bombs that could explode… with glass flying towards your face. Grolsh bottles can take up to 3.5 atmospheres of pressure and that is bellow the four to six atmospheres that champagne will be bottled at.

Just use champagne bottles! They are made with thicker glass, stronger necks and may well be shaped or have a domed base to deal with the pressure, hollow plastic corks and cages keep the pressure in too and need to be baught rather than traditional corks.

A simplified “Méthode Champenoise” process is surprisingly easy using new yeast to make a second fermentation in the bottle. As the new fermentation happens the gas is trapped and dissolves in the wine creating all those lovely bubbles. The bottle is stored upside down so that the yeast collects in the corks cavity and either compacts enough to be removed when opened or the bottle can be riddled – freezing the wine in the cap then swapping it for a new sediment free one. Unless you add some unfermentable sugars like lactose or an artificial sweetener like saccharine that could add an artificial taste the champagne will be dry.

“Any” wine can be made into sparkling wine but try to use one at least six months old that has had no sanitisers. Pressure and high alcohol content will hamper the yeast from the start – the addition of remaining sanitisers may well kill rather than simply inhibit it. The original starting gravity should have not been above 1.08SG so that the wine is between 10 to 12% ABV when initially fermented – I usually shoot for exactly 11%. At this age the wine should be totally fermented so check the wine with a hydrometer to check that the gravity is 1.00 or lower – any extra and there could be a problem fermenting as it did not dry out initially, or there is residual sugar that could add extra pressure and… kaboom… potential bottle bombs. The final ABV will be between 12 to 13% ABV when finally opened and drunk. Dry champagnes are generally sharp so a pH between 3 to 3.4 and titratable acidity between 6.5 to 7 grams per litre is a good idea.

EC1118, CL23, Gervin No.3, Red Star Premier Cuvee and similar yeasts can all be used to create the second fermentation and carbonate your wine but they do not necessarily need to be used for the initial fermentation with the fruit. No doubt some wine bore will take issue with what ever you do but it is your wine to experiment with. As the yeast will stay in the bottle it will start to affect the flavour as it breaks down eventually adding a biscuitier taste if left for six months or more. Yeast autolysises (break down) allowing amino acids and other chemicals to increase in the wine. One strawberry champagne I made had a far more complex taste after this and was 18 months old when drunk rather than the traditional 9 to 12 months. Look on the changing flavour as a benefit but some that needs to be managed as it may start to dominate certain fruit.

Turning the wine to champagne will take two days so set a few evenings aside and have an workspace scrupulously clean and clear to work. After all the work estimates vary for the carbonation to occur from a week to three months! It is probably best to leave it a while to allow some extra flavours to be made.

MAKING SHAM-PAGNE

Being honest I have never done this but if you can make sure the wine is below 7 grams per litre of titrable acid. If it is above that use one gram per gallon of wine of cream of tartar and/or cold crash the wine to create wine diamonds that will fall out of the wine. This could take a few weeks…

Rehydrate your champagne yeast according to the manufacturers guidelines. This will probably be allowing the yeast to hydrate in 50ml of boiled then cooled sanitised water for 15 minutes. Doing this allows the yeast to hydrate with out the risk of alcohol being present within the yeast cells killing or seriously inhibiting them.

Separate 750ml of wine from the demijohn into a sanitised litre bottle or jar. Reseal the demijohn and pop it away safely, as there is head space here is a slight chance of oxidation but it is unlikely.

Stir in13g of white sugar and perhaps a 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient stirred in before adding the rehydrated yeast. Some yeasts like Mangrove Jacks have the nutrient already present so check the packet. Once the yeast is added seal the bottle as you would with any other fermentation with a bung and airlock and allow the yeast to sit happily on top for an hour. Some yeast may float some may fall but if it is happy it will start to swell and dissolve and it is then ready to stir in with a sanitised ladle – I use it up turned. Try to disolve thoroughly but keep in mind it may not totally dissolve.

Keep the starter in a warm area of your house so gentle fermentation should begin with small bubbles rising and some very gentle air lock activity. After 24 hours add 40ml of sanitised water to dilute the new alcohol and add another 13g of sugar to keep the fermentation going.

Leave for another 24 hours so the yeast can multiple and be thoroughly acclimatised to your wine.

Bottling day has arrived. Clean and sanitise the bottles and hollow corks. The bottles should be spotlessly clean as always and the caps can either be boiled for ten minutes and left to cool or sanitised in campden or no rinse sanitiser but they must fully drip dry and be free of chemicals. If boiling the caps to sterilise them be sure to make sure they are cool and thus strong enough to push into the bottles. Hot caps are soft and deform easily! It is a good idea to have a few extra prepared so if any accidents happen you can easily carry on.

Decide on the level of carbonation you want as American wines are done to four atmospheres and European wines to six atmospheres. Each bottle needs the equivelent of 17g of sugar for an American style and 25g creates a European style. Most guides suggest totalling up the sugar needed and adding to your demijohn, stirring in thoroughly then adding the yeast starter and syphoning into your bottles.

Personally I find that the sugar has not dissolved evenly so some bottles can be over or under carbonated. I prefer to add sugar individually to a bottle using some scales zeroed when the bottle and funnel are placed on and simply filling with the desired level of sugar. The starter is mixed into the demijohn of wine and then syphoned into the bottles with a top up done from a clean jug to get the bottles filled to where the cork will sit – about one inch/2.5cm from the top. Have the bottles on a flat surface and protect any kitchen benched that might mark as you push the corks in. It requires a lot of force. Once the corks and cages are secured a few gentle twists and turns of the bottles over ten minutes with dissolve the sugar.

Bottles should then be stored upside down so that the yeast collects into the hollow corks at room temperature of about 21ºC for two months to carbonate then stored in a cool area of 15 to 18ºC if you can to age. You can experiment with ageing for longer for a more complex taste to develop. Resist the temptation to shake or upright the bottles. A sharp twist every day for two weeks a few months into ageing will help the lees fall down the neck and collect in the cap.

Open when it is nicely chilled in a fridge for a few hours and marvel at your skills. The easiest and riskiest way to open is simply pop the cap off hoping the yeast stays as a plug compacted in the hollow cork. It is 50/50 if the yeast will be disturbed and cascade into the wine turning it cloudy. The longer it ages the less likely it is to drop into the wine but you will never be able to guarantee it be clear.

More precise is to riddle them. Keep the bottle upturned and submerge the neck to the depth of the cork in a slurry of ice and very cold salted water for 10 to 20 minutes, propping the bottle upright. The aim is to freeze the sediment in a cap of ice that pops out with the cork. Apparently popping the bottles in a freezer can lower the bottles temperature but look for ice forming on the neck so it does not freeze totally. Wrapping the bottles ina tea towel as they are upturned in the slurry keeps them insulated and stops them warming.

Some choose to riddle all bottles of wine at once, using one bottle of wine to top up the others to the desires level and then reseal with new sanitised corks.