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“The wine doesn’t have the protection of the lees anymore. “When wines age under cork, that’s a permeable seal – much more permeable than the crown cap,” AJ explains. “So we lay it down again on cork for at least three months.” During that time the dosage is integrating with the wine, which is changing and developing over time. The process of disgorgement and dosage comes as a bit of a shock to the wine – letting lees out, oxygen in, introducing sugar. A lot of that is going to come during cork ageing.” The majority of our wines get dosage and are better for it – it’s all about obtaining that balance between acidity and sweetness, perfectly integrated. The sugars react with the acids and create this lovely toasty, nutty, caramel character. “Mostly due to the Maillard reaction, which is essentially the same thing that happens when you caramelise food. “The difference between not adding any sugar and adding even just a little, say four grams, is dramatic,” says AJ. Then comes the dosage – the addition of a carefully judged amount of sugar solution to balance out the wine’s acidity.
#BIDULE WINE FULL#
“There’s around six bar of pressure behind the bidule,” AJ explains, “so when the crown cap is removed, the ice plug full of frozen lees is immediately ejected, leaving a nice clear sparkling wine.”
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When the winemakers deem the wine ready for the next stage of ageing – they test, taste and analyse throughout the process – the necks of the bottles are frozen to minus 26 degrees Celsius, trapping the lees in the bidule.
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Then it’s time for the lees to hand over to cork. The riddling process regularly turns and eventually up-ends the bottles so that the lees particles collect at the bidule.Īt Gusbourne, we age our sparkling wines on the lees for a minimum of 28 months. It’s only after lees ageing at a controlled temperature – around 12 degrees Celsius – that the wine is prepared for disgorgement and corking. “Wine that’s aged longer on lees will retain its freshness longer than if it was only aged on cork,” AJ adds.ĭuring lees ageing, wines are sealed with a bidule – a small plastic plug that goes in the neck of the bottle – and a crown cap on top. The other benefit of the lees is what’s known as its redox potential, which stops the wine from prematurely oxidating. The longer wine ages on the lees, the more pronounced these characteristics. And of course that soft moussey foaminess.” “They add depth and complexity, flavour and aroma – those creamy, buttery, brioche characteristics we associate with sparkling wine. “The outer cell wall of the yeast starts to break down and releases mannoproteins and other compounds that benefit the wine,” says AJ. When there’s no more sugar to feast on, the yeast dies and turns into lees during a process called autolysis. Around 50 days for the yeast to eat the sugar and get the fermentation going. “We prep our tirage culture three or four days beforehand so it’s acclimated and ready to ferment when it hits the bottle,” explains Alastair “AJ” Benham, Assistant Winemaker at Gusbourne. The magic starts to happen when winemakers add what’s known as a tirage liqueur – essentially a sugar and yeast solution – to the bottle just before the wine goes in. What are lees and why do sparkling wines love them? Sparkling wine starts life as still wine. So what exactly is the difference between cork ageing and lees ageing? What happens at each stage of the wine ageing process has a profound effect on how the finished wine tastes. Time developing into perfection in a glass.