After the bottles have been stored upside down for a while, the «disgorging» process removes the yeast deposit created during this 2nd fermentation from the neck of the bottle.
In mechanical disgorging, the neck of the bottle is immersed upside down in a cold bath of -27°C. This low temperature binds the carbonic acid molecularly and prevents the wine from foaming out when the crown cork is removed. The ice plug that forms in the neck of the bottle encloses the residue of yeast and as soon as the bottle is opened, as a result of the pressure, it is ejected and the loss of liquid should be minimal.
For large bottle sizes and certain cuvées, disgorging is still done by hand, «à la volée». The bottle is held with the neck down and then turned over in a flash and opened at the same time, so that the pressure flings out the residue without letting too much wine escape.
Davy Dosnon shows us how hand disgorging is done:
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