How to Make Sparkling Wine

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To make sparkling wine, follow the steps for making white wine - then include these steps at the end of the process.

• Use a white wine that has been fermented to absolute dry.
• Bubbles form when yeast ferments in the bottle.

1. Follow the process of making white wine, but omit final addition of campden tablet (sulfite) during final racking.
2. When sediment has formed, give each bottle a slight, 1/2-inch twist and invert about 2 inches. Do this every two to three days until bottles are upside down and sediment sits on the corks.
3. Figure out how much sugar you'll need to add to wine to create 4 pounds of atmospheric pressure after fermentation. Usually, 4 grams of sugar for each liter of wine will make 1 atmosphere of pressure.
4. When wine is clear, place bottles, upside down, in a deep-freeze with tops of bottles inserted in a freezing mixture.
5. Dissolve the sugar in a small amount of wine to make sugar syrup.
6. Remove cork and sediment when sediment freezes.
7. Add 1 tsp. sugar syrup per bottle as quickly as possible and immediately recork. Fit cork with wire.
8. Rehydrate yeast in warm water and add to sugar syrup. Let sit for 10 minutes.
9. Add syrup/yeast mixture to wine. Stir thoroughly and shake to aerate.
10. Let age or serve. Chill wine to about 55 degrees F before serving.
11. Siphon wine into bottles.
12. Insert corks and secure with wire.
13. Lay bottles on sides to ferment.