Méthode Charmat

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The Méthode Charmat (Italian: Metodo Martinotti ) is a method named after the inventor Eugène Charmat for the production of sparkling wine in pressure-resistant large containers.

history

The Italian oenologist Federico Martinotti, director of l'Istituto Sperimentale per l ' Enologia di Asti , invented a new technology for producing sparkling wines at the end of the 19th century. He filled the tirage made of base wine , sugar and yeast into closed containers that were suitable for withstanding pressures of up to 600  kPa or 6 bar. However, isobaric devices were still required to further process the raw sparkling wine obtained. In the meantime, the French scientists Jaunay and Maumené worked in 1852 with a pressure-resistant large container to preserve the fermentation carbonic acid. As early as 1888, the newly established German sparkling wine factory in Wachenheim started fermentation in large areas.

The French oenologist Eugène Charmat was the inventor of the pressure vessel, which is why the method of making sparkling wine in large containers bears his name. The Charmat method is also referred to as Cuve-Close or, purely technologically, as tank fermentation or large-scale fermentation . Charmat developed its technology in 1907 at the University of Montpellier ( Languedoc ) and from 1910 it was widely adopted.

distribution

The groundbreaking new approach was soon to be used for the majority of production, as it had clear economic advantages. The sparkling wine industry in Europe has changed abruptly. As early as 1930, over five million bottles of sparkling wine were already being produced in France, the heart of sparkling wine, using the Charmat process.

France and other sparkling wine producing countries increasingly turned to the "progressive methods" in the sense of making sparkling wines cheaper through large-scale fermentation, increased quantity, shortened fermentation processes and even impregnation sparkling wines. Only the Champagne remained staunchly true to its tradition of elaborate bottle fermentation and the highest raw material quality. Sparkling champagne wines were already renowned worldwide and have been protected as a concept of origin since the Treaty of Versailles .

In technology-friendly Germany in particular, large-scale fermentation was increasingly used to prepare sparkling wine. And so the perfection of the Charmat method, after the Second World War in Germany was advanced technologically than the new method with the 1913 invented sheet filtration to Filtrationsenthefung combined. Only the even cheaper impregnation process for sparkling wines could bring economic advantages. In order to also produce cheap sparkling wine called bottle fermentation, the transvasation process was developed.