About Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wines are not only vivacious, deliciously compatible with food, pleasurable and fun—they are also one of the most social beverages you can serve.

Please pass the bubbly, but before you do, check out our sparkling wine trivia, sparkling wine quotes and how we make our sparkling wines using methodé champenoise.

Méthode Champenoise

Gloria Ferrer wines are produced using the traditional méthode champenoise process.

After primary fermentation and bottling the wines are then capped with crown caps and placed through a second fermentation process referred to as "aging on lees". The wines are aged from one to five years, placed on special racks at a 45 degree angle so that the yeast sediments, or lees, can collect in the neck of the bottle.

Over the aging process, the lees, must be consolidated for removal. This is achieved through a process known as riddling. The bottles are turned or rotated every day throughout the entire aging process. This continuous turning causes the lees to slowly settle in the neck of the bottle.

After aging, the lees are removed through a process called disgorging, or dégorgement. The necks of the bottles are frozen and the caps removed. The pressure within the bottle forces the lees out. Immediately after disgorging, the bottles are topped off with the original base wine and sugar is added, a practice referred to as dosage, before being corked, labeled and packed for shipment.

This double fermentation process has been used for centuries to make sparkling wines. It ensures the highest quality wines with more layers of complexity and fruit, as well as better and more bubbles throughout the wine. Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine has always been made in this traditional process and delivers consistent quality in every bottle.