🍷 Quality sparkling wine

Quality sparkling wine is an official European Union category for sparkling wines with stricter requirements. Its rules are set out in the EU's common regulation on the wine market. In Germany wines of this category are usually called Sekt, and other countries use their own version of the term on the label.

The main differences from plain sparkling wine are pressure and strength. Carbon dioxide pressure in the bottle must be at least 3.5 bar at 20 °C, while plain sparkling wine needs only 3 bar. Total alcohol must be at least 10%. The gas must also come only from fermentation, adding it from a cylinder is not allowed, and the second fermentation and ageing take longer.

Many wines fall into this category, from German Sekt to sparkling wines from other EU countries, made either in bottle or in tanks. The term belongs under sparkling wine in general and helps tell a more carefully made wine from the simplest kind, where gas is sometimes added artificially.