’Tis the beginning of blending trials season and shortly we will put our minds and senses to sparkling wine dosage trials.  The wines have been resting en tirage (in bottle resting on the lees) which gives shape to the character of the wine.  Before final bottling, the bottles will be gradually turned and lifted so that the solids end up in the neck.  At final bottling, that plug will be frozen and disgorged prior to fitting the bottle with final cork and the muselet (the wire cage that holds the cork).  Backing up a step, disgorging the plug means that the bottle has lost 10-15 ml of wine which we must replace.  This is our final opportunity to influence the style of the wine.  We have two main choices; what wine should we use (it doesn’t have to be the sparkling wine) and whether to add sugar to the dosage.  In our case, we have generally used one of our Chardonnays as the dosage wine and 4 – 6 grams per liter of sugar.  Both of these choices are intended to influence mouthfeel.  4 – 6 grams of sugar puts us in the Extra Brut category.  You won’t notice the presence of sweetness, but the sugar will balance the high acidity of the wine in the front and mid-palate.  Using a small amount of Chardonnay from a few vintages back will also add a bit more depth to the wine.  You’d be amazed at how many trials we will go through (thank you Emily) and we may well go through multiple sessions before we reach a conclusion.  After that, we all wait in anticipation until the final result is released later this year.  More later…