Madame Clicquot studied this issue to find a solution. She is credited with a great breakthrough in champagne handling that made mass production of the wine possible. Assisted by her cellar master Antoine de Müller, she invented the riddling table ("remuage") in 1816. This technique makes it possible to transform the champagne from a cloudy state to crystal clarity.
|
|
Often associated with the Loire wines of the Muscadet region. ;Sur pointe :French term for a sparkling wine that has been aged with its neck down following the completion of autolysis but before dégorgement. Wines that are being riddled (remuage) will end up sur pointe with the yeast sediment consolidated in the neck of the bottle. ;Süss :German term for a sweet wine ;Szamorodni :Hungarian wine term meaning "as it comes".
|
|
Instead of transferring the wine from bottle to bottle, she kept the wine in the same bottle but agitated it gently. The bottles were turned upside down, causing the yeast to collect in the neck. Composed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck sur point or upside down. For six to eight weeks, a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist the bottles (remuage), rotating them by a quarter-turn every day, to bring the sediments into the neck through gradual inversion.
|
|
Le Remueur: 1889 engraving of a man engaged in the laborious daily task of turning each bottle a fraction After ageing, the lees must be consolidated for removal. The bottles undergo a process known as riddling (remuage in French). In this stage, the bottles are placed on special racks called pupitres that hold them at a 35° angle, with the crown cap pointed down. Once a day (every two days for Champagne), the bottles are given a slight shake and turn, alternatively on right then left, and dropped back into the pupitres, with the angle gradually increased.
|
|
Gyropalettes in a wine cellar A gyropalette is a piece of equipment used in the production of sparkling wine, such as Champagne, made by the traditional method, where the second fermentation takes place in the bottle.Decanter.com: Glossary, read January 9, 2008Vincyclopedia: Riddling In order to remove the yeast sediment ("lees") left in the bottle after the fermentation, riddling (or in French remuage) is performed. At certain intervals, the bottle is twisted, shaken slightly and moved progressively to a vertical position with the neck pointing down. Traditionally, this used to take place manually over the course of several weeks, with wine cellar workers called remueurs performing the task on each individual bottle.
|
|
The wine was one of the first to be described as "limpid" or sediment-free. This was due to the new technique of remuage or riddling developed by Veuve Cliquot that tackled the historical problem of how to remove the ill tasting and unpleasant looking sediments from the sparkling wine without losing the carbon-dioxide gas that makes it bubble. The development of riddling was a hallmark moment in the evolution of the modern Champagne industry. In the early 19th century, Veuve Clicquot tried to keep their techniques a secret, but the clarity and limpidity of their Champagne captured worldwide attention and eventually their secret escaped.
|
|
The Cassar de Malte is vinified using the same procedures of the methode traditionnelle used to create champagne. This Marsovin wine takes its name from the wine-making family, in keeping with tradition. It is made from Chardonnay grapes harvested from the family’s private 15-tumolo estate in Wardija, where there are 7,500 vines. No more than 8,000 bottles are produced from each harvest, and the process takes more than two years, including two fermentations and 15 months in which the bottles are left to lie on lees, allowing the conversion of yeast into sediment. The bottles are placed on special racks called pupitres where they are turned by hand every day for four weeks in a process called riddling or remuage in French, so that the sediment collects in the neck, from where it is finally removed to allow the addition of the liqueur d’espedition, which determines its classification as Brut.
|
|