Technology at the service of mastery: the stirring process

Stirring: between tradition and technology

In Champagne, some age-old processes have been transformed over time due to technological developments. Riddling is no exception to the rule.
This practice aims to concentrate the sediments in the neck of the bottle. These sediments are mainly made up of yeasts. Then comes the disgorging stage which aims to eliminate these sediments from the bottle.

Traditionally, riddling was done by hand: the bottles were then gradually tilted from the lying position to the “on point” position, i.e. head down. This operation made it possible to direct the sediment into the neck.

In addition to tilting the bottle downwards, the “stirrer” had to turn the bottle successively to the left and to the right, then raise it and guide the deposit towards the neck.
The profession of stirrer has not completely disappeared and the most accomplished among them can stir no less than 40,000 bottles per day.

But if the profession of riddler still exists today, automatic riddling now occupies an important place. These are then metal crates that can contain up to 500 bottles that undergo the same treatment.
Called a gyro-palette, the machine responsible for this automatic stirring has the advantage of shortening the stirring time from six weeks to one week. And this, while improving the precision of the process.

Before the advent of gyro-pallets, wine was said to remain “blue” to indicate that fine sediment remained. Thanks to the precision of gyro-pallets, this phenomenon has disappeared.