3 historical facts about the origins of sparkling wine

• Let's start at the beginning: What is sparkling wine anyway? In contrast to normal wine, sparkling wine is fermented twice. After the first fermentation, it is actually a normal wine and is then filledinto bottles or barrels. But then the crucial thing happens: Some sugar and fresh yeast are added so that a second fermentation begins. However, because the bottle is tightly sealed, the resulting carbon dioxide cannot escape and the delicious sparkle that we love so much about sparkling wine is created.
• The German "Sekt" was actually invented as "Champagne" in France, but did you know that many important champagne houses in the 19th century were run by Germans? Many names of important champagne producers still point to their German roots today: Heidsieck, Piper, Bollinger, Deutz and a few more.
• One last historical fact before we can finally turn our attention to the sparkling wine itself: In 1902, Kaiser Wilhelm II had roughly the following opinion: "If you can celebrate, you can also do something for the German navy!" And thus introduced the sparkling wine tax, which we still pay today. Exactly €1.02 per bottle goes to the state, which raises around €450 million a year.

Champagne bottles on a wooden barrel - the matching glasses are already ready.

3 dangerous facts that make the bottle overflow

• Let's take a look at the champagne bottles: quite thick, aren't they? And they're also heavier than normal wine bottles. That's because they have to withstand quite a lot of pressure. Depending on the temperature, the carbon dioxide can cause pressures of over 8 bar - for comparison: a car tire usually only has 2.5 bar! For safety reasons, the cork is therefore secured with a wire mesh, the "agraffe".
• Dangerous: The pressure in the bottle can accelerate the cork to 40 to 50 kilometers per hour when it is opened. No amount of ducking will help if you are in the way. But it doesn't help: the cork has to come out of the bottle if we want toget at the prickly contents. So it's best to hold the cork firmly and slowly twist it out of the bottle - then nobody will get hurt.
• Speaking of "opening the bottle": probably the most spectacular method of opening a champagne bottle is "sabering". As the cavalry officers under Napoleon usually didn't have a corkscrew with them, they opened their champagne bottles with a sabre without further ado. Incidentally, this is where the expression "to decapitate a bottle" comes from. The very brave can find a not entirely serious guide to "sabering", or rather "spooning", in the video below.

3 facts that bring out the full flavor

• So now the bottle is open, the toast has been made and the first sips have been drunk. Quite sweet, this fine drop. Such a sweet sparkling wine naturally has a higher sugar content than an "extra dry" and therefore has a greater impact on your figure? We can reassure you! The calorie content of sweet and dry sparkling wines is roughly the same, as the sugar in dry sparkling wine is converted into alcohol, which is processed in a similar way to sugar during digestion. So if you want to keep an eye on your figure, it's best to choose non-alcoholic sparkling wine, which contains around half the calories of normal sparkling wine.
• At some point, you will have finished the last bottle, but you still have an appetite for the sparkling wine? No problem! In an emergency (!) a simple white wine becomes a sparkling wine: simply fizz it up a littlein the SodaMaxx and the emergency sparkling wine is ready. Of course, the result can't officially be called sparkling wine, but some sparkling wines aren't actually made much differently: the carbon dioxide isn't produced by the second fermentation in the bottle, but is added artificially during bottling. Fortunately, the evening is still saved!
• Now, of course, the thirst is enormously stimulated. And this is where fact number 9 helps: at vinoa.de you will find the sparkling wine your heart desires. Whether champagne, prosecco, sparkling wine or spumante, you'll find your favorite drop here.

Cover picture: © James Cridland - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/2873460438/
Picture in text: © Thomas Schlosser - https://www.flickr.com/photos/tschloss/6272387454/