🍷 Riddling

Riddling (remuage) is the stage of traditional-method sparkling wine in which, after the second fermentation in the bottle, the yeast sediment is gradually moved into the neck. The OIV International Code of Oenological Practices defines it as the operations that gather the sediment on the closure so that it can then be removed by disgorging.

By hand. According to the Comité Champagne, the bottles are placed in wooden pupitres, and the bottle turner rotates each one by 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn at a time, guided by a chalk mark on the base. The bottle gradually tilts until it stands neck-down («sur pointe»). Hand riddling takes 4–6 weeks, about 25 turns per bottle on average; a skilled remueur handles some 40,000 bottles a day.

By machine. Today riddling is mostly automated: a machine turns metal crates of 500 bottles at once, runs around the clock and cuts the process to one week instead of six without loss of quality. The OIV code allows both methods; what matters is not to stir the sediment up again.

History. For a long time the bubbles in champagne were a matter of chance: bottles burst or the gas escaped. Around the turn of the 19th century riddling racks were invented to drive the sediment into the neck, from where disgorging removes it; in 1884 disgorging was made easier by freezing the neck.

Why it matters to you. Riddling and disgorging are what make bottle-fermented sparkling wine clear. So if the label says «méthode traditionnelle», the wine has gone through this stage, and the sediment that would otherwise stay in the bottle has been removed.