The closure on a bottle of sparkling wine is often a clue as to what's inside. Bottles under crown caps are often an indication the wine should be consumed now, or in the next few years at most. Conversely, traditionally minded producers almost always present their sparkling wines under mushroom cork, believing it is the best way to ensure optimum ageability for long-term cellaring.
But there's another, less visible choice producers make behind the scenes that some believe impacts the flavor and character of the final product just as much as their ultimate closure choice. It concerns what happens behind closed doors during the second fermentation-and it also involves corks and caps. This stage is key in the traditional sparkling winemaking process: It happens once the wines have been blended and bottled, when a liqueur de tirage-a blend of still wine, sugar and yeast-is added to the bottle to naturally create the bubbles within. And there are those producers who opt to conduct this process under cork, while others opt for the crown.
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