© Moet & Chandon

Bottles in their traditional riddling racks in Champagne

Solving the riddling riddle.

Researchers have found a faster way to produce Champagne.

Traditional method sparkling wines, including Champagne, undergo a lengthy and painstaking process known as riddling to encourage the dead yeast cells - or lees – to work their way to the bottle neck so they can be frozen and removed. This can take up to 60 days, according to The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) but Slovenian researchers have come up with a way to do this in just 15 minutes.

A team at the University of Ljubljana has found a way to attach magnetic nanoparticles to the surface of yeast. With the use of magnets, removing the yeast takes just 15-20 minutes, which IChemE says is more than 4000 times faster than the traditional process.

The yeast remains unaffected by being magnetized, even after fermentation, and sensory tests suggest the wine’s aroma, mouthfeel, body, taste, bubble size and overall drinking experience is unaffected by the process.

Dr David Brown, IChemE's chief executive, said: “As the global population grows there is pressure on food and drink manufacturers to become more efficient. Saving time and energy is fundamental to this if we are to maintain adequate food supply.

"Although many wine connoisseurs will stay loyal to traditional manufacturing methods, the inventiveness of chemical and biochemical engineers demonstrates that even wine production, which has been made for millennia, can be made more efficient with clever nanotechnology combined with simple magnets.”

This isn't the first time the tortoise-like speed of the riddling process has been addressed. In the 1970s, the Cava industry developed a method of speeding up riddling that has been adopted by many Champagne method sparkling wine producers across the world. The Catalan sparkling wine producers invented the gyropalette – a machine that allows up to 400 dozen bottles to be stacked and shaken, and with the assistance of riddling agents, can be processed in as little as three days.