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Sparkling wine is a kind of wine filled with carbon dioxide. Also called the celebration wine, the bubbles rise in the wine due to the fermentation process which takes place right in the bottle or a huge tank. The process is activated as soon as the sugar is dropped into the wine and the yeast build-up reacts to the sugar and further releases fizz (or in technical terms carbon dioxide).
Now, a common misconception arises; people believe that sparkling wine is the same as champagne. While champagne gets all the glory, sparkling wine is just as good and in fact much less expensive. The kind of grapes and the process of production remains different for both.
Sparkling wine has existed for a long time. The Romans and Greeks would sometimes observe bubbles as they made their wine but they did not know why. It was not till the eighteen hundreds that sparkling wine was commercially produced with bubbles added on purpose. The winemakers had to wear iron masks while making these bottles as the cork would sometimes pop out in full force. It was because of that reason that sparkling wine was termed as “The Devil’s Wine”.
When sparkling wine is poured, the bubbles rise to the top and form a thick white froth. Most sparkling wines are sweet since sugar is added in both stages of fermentation. But the extra-brut sparkling wine is the driest while the brut kind has both characteristics of sweet and dry. Extra dry is dry but sweeter than both extra-brut and brut. The demi-sec is the fourth type and has the highest quantity of sugar. Most sparkling wines are varieties of rosé and chardonnay.
