TASTING NOTES
Tickling the tongue with the “charmat” method
All that sparkles nowadays is not French Champagne. Nor is it nearly as expensive as French Champagne. It’s called “charmat,” or tank-method sparkling wine, and it’s getting better and better as technology improves. Around the world, and especially right here in Ontario, more wineries are turning out charmats that are simple, fresh expressions of local, often aromatic grape varieties. And they have energy and bloom that make them ideal for spring sipping.
Brief production background is essential. (I will wait here while you pour a glass.)
Most higher-end sparkling wines, including French Champagne, are made by what is called the “traditional method.” A mixture of yeast and sugar is added to a bottle of wine, which is then crowncapped. A second fermentation occurs in the bottle, creating the fine, tiny bubbles. After fermentation, the wine ages on the spent yeast cells, or lees, creating yeasty/toasty complexity, creamy texture, and excellent depth of flavour. The wine is then disgorged (the yeast is removed). It is a labour-intensive process and takes a minimum of two years, making traditional-method wines expensive.
With the charmat, or tank method, the second fermentation occurs in a pressurized tank that traps the bubbles in the wine. It is not long-aged, so there is very little transference of a yeasty/toasty flavour. Larger volumes can be made in weeks instead of years. The result is a sparkling wine with more pronounced, simpler fruit aromas and structure. So yes, it is lower in quality and may not receive high critic ratings. On the other hand, the wine is much less expensive, and increasingly it is perfectly enjoyable.
The tank method has long been used for highvolume wines such as the proseccos and spumantes of Italy and the sekts of Germany (i.e., Henkell Trocken) and the good old Duck family of Canada (Baby, Fuddle, and Cold). But the combination of lower cost, more straightforward fruit flavours, and improved smallerbatch production is creating a mini-boom in charmat wines around the world and across Canada — from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island — as small cottage wineries try to find something new. Closer to Ottawa,
charmats are picking up steam in Prince Edward County, led by the efforts of Hinterland Wine Company, which set up shop in the mid-2000s as a sparkling wine specialist. They make excellent traditional method wines too, but there is more buzz about tank projects such as the off-dry Whitecap and the pink sparkler called Borealis (reviewed on previous page).
Hinterland has also become an incubator for other County charmats, renting out its new high-tech fermenter to neighbours like Ottawa-raised Glenn Symon at Lighthall Vineyards near Milford. Using aromatic vidal grapes grown in solid limestone soils, he has created one of the finest charmat bubblies in Ontario, called Progression (below). Over in Hillier, Casa-Dea has produced Dea’s Cuvée, which is based on pinot noir and chardonnay, while next door, on Greer Road, Rosehall Run has created Indigo, from a blend of aromatic grapes, and a pink wine called Pixie.
Whether you order direct from an Ontario winery or shop at the LCBO, the great liberating factor about charmat “bubs” (aside from lower price) is the fact that they are now cool (or at least widely accepted). The high-brow, not Champagne stigma is fading. This is thanks in part to the huge popularity and social acceptability of Italy’s prosecco but also to the fact that quality is better and the next generation is embracing simpler and more local pleasures. Cheers to that!