What is a clear wine ?

After the first fermentation, a wine from Champagne is still considered as wine which means a bubbleless wine. Many Champagne vineyards can say that every good Champagne is vinified (first step) as a good white wine. Indeed, the bubbling comes up during the second fermentation, period of time during which we add yeasts and sugars. This is what we call a clear wine. And in Champagne, it is usual to taste wine before the first bubbles appear.

Clear wine : precious to evaluate a good vintage

Will you tell us, what is the point in tasting a champagne without bubbles ? According to many winemakers, this method reveals itself to be extremely efficient when judging the quality of a vintage and determining futur blending. 

Due to the specification need, the clear wine should be bottled on January following the harvest. That is why winemakers have to wait until April to taste them in order to let aromas expand.

Clear wine tasting : a practice for everyone

By definition, a clear wine is an unfinished wine. Its taste will be distinctive, with clearly acidic character and a low alcohol level.  To reduce acidity, a couple of winemakers serve it at room temperature (around 18 degrees). This is far from the traditional Champagne tasting. Originally mainly reserved to professionnals, this kind of tasting is becomming more and more common. Several Champagne wineries offer individual clear wine tasting sessions to discover wine such as : "Maison Champagne Berthelot-Piot".