Making Sparkling Wines 

* The following information is designed to be a guidline for making sparkling wine or 'Champagne'. Please be careful when following these directions. Serious injury can result from improper equipment or process.

  1. Make a good quality dry table wine around 10-12% alcohol by volume. Too high of an alcohol content can result in the wine not carbonating in the bottle. Chardonnay is a good choice for the wine base.
  2. When the wine is dry, still, clear and stable and about 6 months old, transfer it into a bottling bucket. Add one and a half (1 1/2) ounces of table sugar per gallon. Be careful not to exceed this limit.
  3. Immediately begin puting wine into Champagne bottles. Regular wine bottles will not do as they cannot withstand the pressure and will explode. Push-in Champagne stoppers and wire them down. Most American made Champagne bottles can also be capped (in place of the stopper and wire) with a regular beer bottle cap and capper.
  4. Then stand the bottles upright for about a year at which time they can be opened and enjoyed. Each bottle will have a slight yeast sediment so be careful when dispensing not to disturb the sediment. Chill the bottle before serving.

More complete information can be found in the book 'The Art of Making Wine"' by Anderson and Hull