The Iliad, Book XVIII,
“a man who came around and placed in their hands a sparkling bowl of the sweetest bacchus”.
We can in fact find references to sparkling wines as far back as Homer, and Virgil. While we may take their use of “sparkling” as poetic license, it’s worth noting that another poet, Lucan, wrote about sparkling wine served to Julius Cesar and Cleopatra— and he described the process with which it was made.
The first written record we have in more “modern” times dates to 25 October 1544, in Limoux, France. However, it seems that as early as 1531 the monks at Saint-Hillaire Abbey had figured out how to intentionally produce the bubbles, after a happy “accident”.
Before going on let’s look at a simplified explanation of wine making.
Ripe grapes are pressed to get their must (grape juice), in which we find sugars and natural yeasts. When the must is heated to just the right temperature the yeasts can grow and reproduce, and they feed on the sugars. At the end of their life span, they die and become a sediment (lees). The fermentation process produces carbon dioxide and alcohol. For still wines the carbon dioxide escapes before bottling. To produce dry wines the fermentation will continue until the sugars are completely eaten up – for sweeter wines, the fermentation may be halted by cooling the liquid.
When there is second fermentation, in a tank or in a bottle, (where more yeasts and sugars may be added) the carbon dioxide is trapped and creates the festive bubbles we know and love. With traditional (champagne style) and Charmat (prosecco style) wines, the lees are removed before the product is released on the market.
It seems that our friends at Saint-Hillaire accidentally bottled wine that had been fermented, but not fully. This means that there were still sugars in the wine to be consumed by yeasts. However, the winter cooled the bottles, and it wasn’t until temperatures started to rise in the spring that the fermentation re-started naturally! Surprise!
It didn’t take them long to realize that they could create this wine intentionally – and the rest is history.
To sum up … Méthode Ancienne, or ancestrale wines, (sometimes also referred to as “pétillant naturel” or “pét-nat”) are made by placing partially fermented wine in bottles, without extra sugars or yeasts (a process known as dosage). The wine continues to ferment, in the bottle, and rests on its lees The lees were traditionally not filtered; however, recently some producers have started filtering them, resulting in wines that retain a slight cloudiness in the glass.
The result is wine with a low alcohol content, a slightly sweet flavour, with fresh fruit aromas and just a hint of that fresh bread scent we find in Méthode Traditionelle, with a light, gentle bubble.Question answered – and now you know!
