Riddling

Put up a short video clip form Oz & James showing the process of 'riddling' in the making of sparkling wine - here done at the Schramsberg Vineyard in Calistoga California.

http://wineloverspage.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1374122%3AVideo%3A5022

Cheers, Dave C.

Thanks Dave. I make my own bubbly, but my riddling rack is an old kitchen cabinet, turned upside down at about a 20 degree angle with holes for the necks and dividers, like a wine case. I can do 24 bottles at a time.

Dave,

I wasn't able to see the video (insufficient bandwidth--I'm on a dial-up line).

Does Schramsberg still do hand-riddling? Nearly 100% of the output from Champagne is riddled by machine. A few Champagne houses still employ hand-riddlers simply because it's cheaper under French law to let them continue their profession until they retire or die than to lay them off. Otherwise this would be an entirely mechanized operation in France.

-Paul W.

Does Schramsberg still do hand-riddling?

Yes, 100% by hand according to the programme.

The guy who riddles the bottles at Schramsberg is supposedly quite a work of art himself--from the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Davies also have a second family, their employees, many of whom arrived in Napa Valley years ago from Mexico. One, master riddler Ramon Viera, has been with Schramsberg 30 years, arriving in the valley to play soccer. With the spot on the soccer team came the job.

Viera turns thousands of sparkling-wine bottles ever so slightly, every day, so that the sediment -- dead yeast cells -- gently collects in the necks of the inverted bottles; the process is known as "riddling." The sediment is later expelled and the bottles corked. The racks holding the bottles are similar to the riddling table devised by widow Clicquot 200 years ago.

Viera turns 30,000 bottles a day and can do up to 50,000. "His hands just float over the bottles," Davies says.

The guy who riddles the bottles at Schramsberg is supposedly quite a work of art himself

He's shown in the video above.

The guy who riddles the bottles at Schramsberg is supposedly quite a work of art himself

He's shown in the video above.

Yes - and he says he can do 40,000 in a seven hour work-day.

EDIT - I've just listened more carefully and he actually says 48,000


Cheers, Dave C.