Champagne Yeast Sediment

Champagne’s yeast sediments are called lees. Many sparkling wine wineries will just filter out the lees like any other wine, but traditional wineries use the methode Champenoise.

Winemakers put the Champagne into a special wine rack slanted at a 45 degree angle with the cork pointed down and rotate the bottle everyday for around three months and place it back on the rack at a slightly higher angle until the bottle is upside-down at a 90 degree angle for the lees to settle in the bottleneck.

Winemakers then flash-freeze the Champagne and eradicate the lees like a frozen plug. More sugar is usually added now, as Champagne can be quite acidic. 

tags: champagne · sparkling wine ·