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.
During mechanical disgorging, the bottle neck is inverted and immersed in a -27°C cold bath. This low temperature molecularly binds the carbonic acid and prevents the wine from foaming out when the crown cap is removed. The ice plug formed in the bottle neck encloses the yeast residues and is ejected by the pressure as soon as the bottle is opened, with minimal loss of liquid.
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 disgorging is done by hand:
Related Articles
