Sparkling Wine Blend

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Sparkling Wine Blend

A significant proportion of all sparkling wine is made using the same basic method as is used in Champagne (known as the traditional method), much of it from the same grape varieties Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and, to a lesser extent outside Champagne, Meunier, even though different wine regions often stamp their own style on the resulting sparkling wine.

Champagne was the first region to make sparkling wine in any quantity, and historically the name champagne became synonymous with the finest, although Champagne is now responsible for less than one bottle in 12 of total world production of all sparkling wine.

An alternative method of sparkling wine making is the tank method. Its advantages are that it is very much cheaper, faster, and less labour intensive than the traditional method, and is better suited to base wines which lack much capacity for ageing. Prosecco wines, coming from the Veneto region of north Italy, exist mainly in fizzy (frizzante) and sparkling (spumante) versions (although some still Prosecco is made), and are produced by the tank method. The frizzante wines are typically cheaper than their spumante equivalents, and have a lighter, less persistent mousse. (They bear a greater resemblance to the older style of Prosecco.) Modern Prosecco Spumante has earned a reputation as a sparkling wine style in its own right rather than as a less expensive alternative to champagne.