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consider a grape
to be like a lady
expecting a baby.
A bottle of wine
is like a child 1 am
helping to mature.’
•Salahi
The Salahis make French-style champagne besides red, white and rose wines.
Two fermentations are required for the champagne.
The grapes for champagne are crushed and pressed, and the juice is fermented first in the tanks where it is stabilized. Yeast and sugar are added, and the second fermentation begins.
The champagne then spends at least a year aging in the bottle on its side. “We are experimenting now with a three-year minimum,” Dirgham said.
After a year, the bottles are turned upside down and “riddled” twice a day for five months. “Riddling” means turning the bottles one-sixteenth of a turn, which causes the sediment to gather at the neck.
“I then open one of the bottles to check whether or not it is good,” Dirgham said. “If it’s good, we freeze one inch of each of the bottles’ necks, turn the bottles upside down and the frozen sediment kicks out.”
If the champagne is dry, the bottles are corked and the champagne is ready. Extra dry champagne is made when each champagne-maker adds his own secret, sweetener recipe before the bottles are corked.
“We are the first Virginia winery to win a gold medal in international competition for pur French-style champagne last year, so you know I protect my recipe,” Dirgham said.
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