Sparkling Wine

Buy sparkling wine online – Champagne, Crémant, Cava, Prosecco, and Sekt

You will find over 400 sparkling wines from around 130 producers with us, with a focus on France, Italy, and Germany. What they all have in common is carbon dioxide – what distinguishes them is the way it gets in. The price, and usually the taste, depends exactly on this.

Bottle fermentation or tank: the decisive difference

Every sparkling wine begins as a still base wine. The carbon dioxide is created in a second fermentation, for which sugar and yeast are added. If this second fermentation takes place in the bottle, it is called traditional bottle fermentation – the wine matures on the lees for months or years and gains a fine perlage as well as aromas of brioche, nut, and pastry. This is how Champagne, Crémant, Cava, and many German Winzersekte are made.

If the second fermentation takes place in a pressurized tank, it is much faster and cheaper. The wine remains fruitier and more primary – this is the classic way for Prosecco Spumante. With Frizzante, on the other hand, a still wine is simply carbonated; it bubbles accordingly more restrainedly.

The origins at a glance

• Champagne – only from the Champagne region, mostly from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Bottle fermentation with long yeast aging.
• Crémant – using the same method, but from other French regions such as Alsace, the Loire, or Burgundy. Often the smarter buy.
• Cava – Spain's bottle-fermented sparkling wine, predominantly from Catalonia, with the local varieties Macabeo, Xarel·lo, and Parellada.
• Prosecco – from Veneto and Friuli, from the Glera grape, tank-fermented and distinctly fruity.
• Sekt – the German category, from simple tank-fermented Sekt to bottle-fermented Winzersekt made from Riesling or Burgundy varieties.

Brut, extra dry, mild – what is on the label

After the second fermentation, a portion of the sugar is added back, the so-called dosage. It determines the taste designation, and that is more confusing than it should be: "Brut nature" is practically sugar-free, "Brut" is dry, "Extra Dry" is already slightly sweet – so despite the name, it is sweeter than Brut. If you really like it dry, go for Brut or lower.

Cooling, opening, serving

Six to eight degrees are ideal; in ice water, this takes twenty minutes, in the fridge it takes a few hours. The bottle should never go into the freezer and should not be shaken either. When opening, hold the cork firmly and turn the bottle – not the other way around. The cork should sigh quietly, not pop: every pop costs carbon dioxide. And instead of the narrow flute, it is better to use a white wine glass, as the aromas unfold much better in it.