🍷 Riddling

Riddling (remuage) is a step in making sparkling wine by the traditional method. After the second fermentation in the bottle, yeast sediment remains. It has to be gathered at the cork so it can be removed without losing the bubbles.

For this the bottles are placed neck-down in a pupitre, a slanted wooden board with holes. Each day a worker gives every bottle a slight turn and shake and gradually increases the tilt. By hand this takes about six to eight weeks; a skilled riddler turns tens of thousands of bottles a day. The technique was developed in Champagne in the early 19th century at the house of Veuve Clicquot.

Today a gyropalette, a machine that turns hundreds of bottles at once, is used more often. It needs only a few days and works around the clock. Once the sediment has collected in the neck, disgorgement follows: the neck is frozen, the bottle opened, and the pressure pushes out the ice plug with the sediment. Without riddling, champagne would be cloudy.