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 neck of the bottle is immersed upside down in a cold bath at -27°C. This low temperature molecularly binds the carbon dioxide 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 yeast residue and is ejected as soon as the bottle is opened as a result of the pressure, whereby 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 disgorging is done by hand:
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