Wine lovers in Rye are blessed with the number of vineyards on their doorstep, especially those who enjoy a glass of bubbly on a summer’s day. Several of these businesses offer tours and tastings and it’s a great opportunity to sample some of the best of English wines on the market. But how do the grapes get turned into some of the best tasting sparkling wines around?
Chapel Down Vineyard in Small Hythe, the largest producers of wine in the country, have just finished several weeks of what is known as tirage, the process that turns base wine into their famous fizz. So I dropped in to have a chat with Pete Macauley, one of Chapel Down’s award winning winemakers to hear more about it.
He explained that as they produce such a large quantity of wine that needs processing, special equipment and manpower are brought in care of the Institut Oenologique de Champagne (IOC) from France to carry out this intensive process. So what is tirage? It is the process whereby sugar and yeast is added to base wine to begin secondary fermentation, or what is known as the traditional method of producing sparkling wine.
It happens once a year and this year, Chapel Down have tiraged 1.1 million bottles over a period of one month. The IOC do work with other wineries, but this famous vineyard’s output is so large that 9,000 bottles an hour have to be bottled to meet their schedule. Once tiraged, the bottles are stored in temperature controlled warehouses where the yeast dies and autolysis begins. This is the chemical reaction between the wine and the yeast or lees that creates the wine’s characteristics. Depending on the style of wine, this process can last anywhere from 18 months to seven years.
Then comes riddling, disgorging and dosage. As Pete explained all this to me I could hear the enthusiasm in his voice and as he has a masters in oenology, the study of wine, and viticulture, vine growing , it’s obvious he really knows what he’s talking about. Suffice to say, it’s an exciting time for English wines. I think we can all drink to that.
Image Credits: Chapel Down , Susan Desrosiers .