Riddle Me This

Riddling is the term for gradually turning and upending bottles of Champagne and other sparkling wines while it rests in the winery's cellars. The reason for riddling is to concentrate yeast at the tip of the bottle. Sparkling wines go through two fermentations, the second of which is in the bottle and creates the bubbles. After this fermentation, yeast cells remain trapped inside the bottles. Until the mid-19th century sparkling wines were always cloudy, because no one had figured out a way to get the yeast out of the bottle.

A solution was found when the winemakers realized that if they turned the bottles a little each day and slowly tilting them until they rested upside down, the yeasts would slide down the bottle and collect in the neck. When the necks of the bottle were frozen and the bottles opened, the frozen plugs of yeasts flew out of the bottle. A good riddler could turn 50,000 bottles of sparkling wine per day.

Today, while the idea behind the process is the same, many wineries that produce Champagnes and sparkling wines have automated machines that ever so slowly turn the bottles and collect the yeast. The up-ended bottles are dipped into a solution that freezes them, and the machines pop them open and eject the yeast.

What happens to all that yeast? Most of it gets sold to companies that make Champagne Vinegar!