What’s The Difference Between Sparkling Wine And Champagne?

Is Champagne a sparkling wine? What’s the difference between the two? Ideal Wine Company investigates.

Types of sparkling wine

The term ‘sparkling wine’ refers to all products which are made via secondary fermentation – the process by which wines are carbonised. But wine-makers worldwide have developed various methods for producing sparkling wine, with some regions becoming famous for these signature products.

Gradually, bodies in various sparkling wine regions established rules to govern how their signature products can be made. Therefore, Champagne is a type of sparkling wine, which is made via specific rules. Other popular types of sparkling wine include Prosecco, Cava and Cremant. Below we explain the key characteristics which define these types of sparkling wine.

Champagne

Produced in the French region of the same name, Champagne is perhaps the most famous of all sparkling wines. Champagnes can only be made from three different types of grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. Furthermore, these sparkling wines get their bubbles via the traditional secondary fermentation process, where the carbonisation takes place inside the bottle.

You can read this article in full with Ideal Wine Company.

Am I holding my wine glass correctly?

Drinking wine is an art form.  Even the simplest of things, such as the way you cradle your wine glass in your hands, can have a dramatic impact on the way the product tastes. Drawing on recent expert commentary, Ideal Wine Company explains how to hold your wine glass properly.

Glass shape matters

In 2015, a study conducted at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan determine that the shape a wine glass really does matter. This is because the glass acts as a filter, siphoning off the ethanol in wine so you can enjoy its rich flavours more easily. Of course, different types of wine hold different levels of ethanol, so you’ll need a different glass depending on the wine.

The Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT 1990, a gorgeous Italian red wine, from Ideal Wine Company would work best in a wide-brimmed, traditional wine glass, just like any other red wine. But for something like Champagne, a flute would work better, because its shape is more effective for bringing the best out of this signature French sparkling wine.

Read in full at the Ideal Wine Company WordPress site.