Did You Know Cream of Tartar Comes from the Winemaking Process?

You may be familiar with Cream of Tartar. It’s commonly added to egg whites for meringue, it adds loft to baked goods and helps to make fluffier whipped cream. But, did you that Cream of Tartar is a natural by-product of the wine making process?

It comes from tartaric acid, a naturally occurring substance in grapes. During fermentation, the tartaric acid will form in wine making vessels and line the inside with a white sediment. The sediment is removed and ground into a fine white powder, which we know as Cream of Tartar.

Cream of Tartar is also known as Potassium Bitartrate or Potassium Acid Tartrate.

Tartrates are known in the wine industry as “wine diamonds.” Not only do they form in wine making vessels, but they can also appear inside a wine bottle or attach to the inside of the wine’s cork.

These tiny, crystalline deposits are completely harmless. But, winemakers use a process called cold stabilization to remove tartrates from wine before it’s bottled. It’s most is common for white wines to be cold stabilized because consumers commonly store white wines at colder temperatures, which increases the risk for these ‘wine diamonds’ to form in the bottle. Cold stabilization is done mostly for aesthetic reasons so that consumers doesn’t have to deal with the ‘diamonds.’

If you do find these ‘wine diamonds’ on the cork you can simply wipe them away with a cloth. Or, if you see this sediment in the bottle, you can simply decant it to leave the crystals behind. But, either way, don’t worry about seeing these crystals - they are harmless. And, very useful in baking! Cheers!

Wine Fun Fact: Blanc de Blanc versus Blanc de Noir

Having just wrapped up the holiday season when a lot of Champagne and sparkling wines are enjoyed, I came across a Blanc de Blanc Champagne. At first it seems that ‘Blanc de Blanc” is just a fancy name for a French Champagne. But, this is just another example of something in the wine world that is seemly complex or confusing that is really rather simple.

If you took high school French, which I didn’t, you’d know that ‘Blanc de Blanc’ literately translates as ‘White from White.” Okay, you might ask, but what does that have to do with Champagne? The answer to that question requires a very quick review of how Champagne is produced. French Champagne is traditionally produced from three grapes - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (Pee-noh Mehr-n'yay). The Chardonnay is a white grape, while the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes are black.

So, you may have already gotten ahead of me. A ‘Blanc de Blanc’ or ‘White from White’ means that this type of Champagne is made solely from white grapes, namely Chardonnay.

Conversely, a ‘Blanc de Noir’ simple translates as ‘White from Black.’ Thus, it is a Champagne made from black grapes - Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. And, as we’ve learned, the juice from all grapes is clear - it’s the grape skins that give it the red color. So, in a ‘Blanc de Noir’ the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes are pressed but the juice is not given any time in contact with the dark grape skins and therefore remain ‘white.’

So, in summary, you can have Champagne in three different styles:

• Traditional Champagne - Produced with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier

• Blanc de Blanc Champagne - Produced with Chardonnay

• Blanc de Noir Champagne - Produced with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier

Wine Fun Fact -- Do You Know About the Codes on a Bottle of Champagne?

It was recently brought to my attention that each bottle of champagne includes a code on its label indicating the type of producer who made the wine in the bottle.

The codes will start with two letters followed by a series of numbers. The numbers are simply the champagne’s house code, not unlike an address. But the two letters tell you a bit about the growers and producers of the Champagne.

RM (récoltant-manipulant): These are grower-producer champagnes. These are produced by growers who grow their own grapes on their own land, then make and bottle their own wine. There’s actually a large number of “RM” producers in Champagne. By law a “RM” labeled wine must go from grape to final product on the estate of the production (an estate wine).

SR (société de récoltants): These are produced by an organization set up by two or more growers to share one winery to make and sell wine under the organization’s label.

MA (marque d’acheteur): These are sold as their own but don’t they don’t produce it themselves.

RC (récoltant-coopérateur): These are grower-cooperator (co-op) wines. Grape grower will take their grapes to a cooperative for them to make the wine and then the wine will be sold under the grower’s brand. So, it their grapes but produced by someone else.

ND (négociant-distributeur): These are merchant-distributor champagnes. The merchant simply buys finished wine and put their own labels on them.

NM (négotiant-manipulant): These are merchant-producer champagnes. They purchase their fruit from growers and then produce the champagne. This category includes a lot of very well-known labels from Champagne.

CM (cooperative-manipulant): These are Champagnes made by a cooperative of growers who band together and share resources and then sell the resulting wines under one brand name. The growers usually don’t participate in the wine production in the co-op model. Instead, they have a winemaker who creates the final product.

So, next time you are looking at a Champagne bottle, read the fine print on the label to learn a bit more about the growers and producers of the bottle. Cheers!

Some Fun Facts about Your Champagne for New Year's Eve

Here are some fun facts about Champagne as we head towards New Year’s Eve:

• Champagne is not made from Champagne grapes

• Champagne is typically produced from three grapes — Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (Yes! A red wine grape!) and Pinot Meunier (another red grape)

• To be called Champagne, it must be produced in the Champagne region of France. Otherwise, it’s called Sparkling Wine

• An exception to the above rule is that California can produce “Champagne” – such as Korbel, Cook’s or André – and it is perfectly legal to be called Champagne. The loophole that makes this legal stems from a ruling in 2005, after two decades of court battles, when the U.S. and the EU reached an agreement. In exchange for easing trade restrictions on wine, the American government agreed that Champagne would no longer appear on domestic wine labels – that is, unless a producer was already using the name

• The first step in making Champagne is to make the wine, like any other wine, in a barrel or tank and bottle it

• The wine gets its bubbles from a second fermentation inside the bottle that is initiated by adding a solution of sugar and yeast. As the yeast consumes the sugar, it gives off carbon dioxide which stays trapped in the sealed bottle and ‘dissolves’ into the liquid

• Champagne bottles are stored with their neck down during the second fermentation so that the yeast will settle in the neck

• The upside-down bottles are regularly turned to ensure all the yeast ends up in the neck of the bottle in a process called riddling

• The Champagne bottle is then opened and the spent yeast is removed or disgorged

• Finally, some additional wine and sugar is added (the dosage) to balance the Champagne’s acidity

• This process of making Champagne is called the méthode champenoise

• Champagnes are generally categorized as: Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Demi Sec and Doux. All of this depends on sugar levels

  Cheers to enjoying a bit of the bubbly this New Year’s Eve and throughout the year!