What is the difference between still and sparkling wine

What is the difference between sparkling wine and Champagne? All Champagne is sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne. There are several types of sparkling wine. The most common: Champagne, prosecco, cava, and sparkling wine from the United States. Champagne can only be called Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region in northern France.

A typical Champagne or U. If you see a Champagne or U. Prosecco is the Italian sparkling wine. Cava is the Spanish sparkling wine. Champagne and most U. No one way is better, but many winemakers believe performing this process mechanically can damage the grapes. Once picked, grapes are sent through a machine that crushes them to remove the juice from the skins, seeds and stems. After the grapes have gone through the crushing process and grape juice has been separated from the skins, the process of fermentation begins.

This can be one of the most crucial process in wine making because this is where grape juice turns into alcohol. During fermentation, yeast is added to the must which is a combination of the grape skins, juice and stems.

The yeast transforms sugars that are present into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation can be performed in steel tanks, wooden vats or barrels contained in huge holding rooms. Once fermentation is complete solids and proteins are removed from the wine and it is moved into barrels or stainless steel tanks where it is aged before the final stage of bottling.

When it comes to choosing wine for a gift, even the biggest wine lovers face the same dilemma — sparkling or still wine. There are countless tips on how to choose wine for certain occasion; which wine to pair with which food, etc.

However, most people play it safe and usually get white wine which goes with anything, Riesling in particular. Even though, it is good to follow several factors that determine how to choose the right wine, such as alcohol content, acidity, type of grape, etc. Buy wine that you or your friend will drink. Read on to learn what differs sparkling wine from still wine.

Many believe Champagne to be the only sparkling wine when in reality there are many sparkling wines, such as Italian Brachetto and Australian sparkling Shiraz.

This sparkling wine is made exclusively out of grapes grown in Champagne region of France. Thus, contrary to popular belief, there are other sparkling wines produced in Italy, Spain, other regions of France and Australia. While there are many different ways to make wine bubbly, by far the most common process—even more common than the traditional method—is known as the Charmat method or tank method. This process skips the months of in-bottle secondary fermentation in favor of a pre-bottling second round of fermentation in a large stainless-steel tank.

The Charmat method is much faster and less expensive than the traditional method. They also tend to have fewer, coarser, less persistent bubbles, Triffon says.

Prosecco is the king of this category. But there are many other examples, and most tend to be affordable—especially compared to Champagne. Ready to go exploring?