The Wine Institute

CALIFORNIA SPARKLING WINE

Sparkling wine/champagne is a beverage that brings to mind several thoughts—celebration, success, luxury, love and romance.  These pleasant associations seem to be as strong now as they ever were.  And because the wine is produced with different levels of sweetness, menu planners use the wine as an aperitif or a versatile accompaniment to a variety of foods such as salty nuts and cheese, lightly-spiced fish and Asian dishes, fried foods, strawberries and more, paired in the same manner as one would a white or rose table wine.

The beginning of sparkling wine/champagne production in the U.S. was more than 160 years ago.  Ohio Attorney Nicholas Longworth made the first American sparkling wine/champagne near Cincinnati in 1842.  In California, Benjamin Davis Wilson, the first mayor of Los Angeles, produced the first one in this state.  Today, California’s more than 50 producers shipped 7.0 million cases of sparkling wine/champagne to U.S. markets in 2007.  Total U.S. and foreign-produced sparkling wine/champagne shipped to the U.S. was 13.7 million cases. The category holds a 4.4 percent share of all wine-buying purchases of Americans, according to the Gomberg, Fredrikson Report.

Several U.S. producers label their sparkling wines “champagne,” which is legal in the U.S. provided the term, “champagne,” is directly and prominently qualified with the appellation indicating the geographic location where the winegrapes were grown.  Traditional winegrape varieties used in California sparkling wine/champagne production are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc, though there are several other proprietary blends of winegrape varieties.

Major Production Processes
Following are the two most common methods used for sparkling wine/champagne production:
Méthode champenoise--Still wine is used as a base wine in the process.  A blend of base wine, yeast nutrient and a sugar source is added to the base wine.  The mixture is sealed, fermented a second time and aged in the bottle, which captures the carbon dioxide released in the fermenting process producing the bubbles.
Bulk or Charmat process--Still wines are fermented in a pressurized tank.  Sugar and yeast are added for a second fermentation, but the wine remains in the tank for this stage of the process and is not fermented in individual bottles.

Styles

Sparkling wine/champagne ranges in style from very dry (Natural), dry (Brut), and slightly sweet (Extra Dry) to sweet (Sec and Demi-Sec).  (Wines with no noticeable sweetness are described as “dry.”)  Many sparkling wines/champagnes are also identified as “Blanc de Blancs” (wines made from Chardonnay grapes),  “Blanc de Noirs” (wines produced from black grapes), or rosé or pink sparkling wine/champagnes (small amount of red wine added to the blend or wine that is allowed brief skin contact with color-laden grapeskins).

Top 10 U.S. metro markets for
sparkling wine/champagne in 2007:
Thousands (000) of 9-liter cases

Source: 2008 Adams Wine Handbook.

Top 10 states for consumption of sparkling wine/champagne in 2007
(9-liter cases)

Source: 2008 Adams Wine Handbook

Estimated shipments to the U.S.
Nine months ending September 2008
(In thousands of nine-liter cases)