Our historical vocation for fine sparkling wines has been transformed into the courage to relaunch South Tyrolean sparkling wine with the Kettmeir Traditional Method: Athesis Brut, Athesis Brut Rosé, Pas Dosé
and “1919” Riserva Extra Brut
“There is a lot of talk about territory,
and we want you to feel it from the moment you put your nose in the glass.
Whoever drinks Kettmeir’s Traditional Method must think: “this is South Tyrol”
It was 1992 when we decided to take on a new challenge: making sparkling wine according to the Traditional Method.
We start by filling the bottle with a base wine, prepared in the autumn, to which yeast and sugar (more or less 24 g/l) are added in the spring.
It is a mathematical process: for every 4 grams of sugar we put in, we have 1 bar of pressure, and at the end of fermentation we want to get to about
6 bars of pressure.
In addition to sugar, yeast is added.
The wine is then bottled with a crown cap
and is stacked in the cellar.
Within a few days, the second fermentation starts and lasts for 5/6 weeks
depending on the vintage and the predisposition of the base.
After the second fermentation, the yeast does not
have any more sugar to “eat” and slowly settles to the bottom. So, after a while,
the autolysis process begins: the yeast decomposes
and begins to yield its ingredients to the product, making the noble bubbles.
The longer the ageing on the lees, the more autolysis we will have, and the more the ingredients will come out
of the yeast that give the sparkling wine flavour.
During this period, the bottles remain stationary in the stack and do not move.
At the end of the ageing period, we take
the bottles from the stack, shake them to detach the yeast from the bottom of the bottle, and place them on stands (called Pupitres) where every day
a 1/4 or 1/2 turn is made in a slightly spiral pattern to channel all the yeast into the neck of the bottle.
This process takes about 1 month/40 days.
At the end of the remuage process, we will have all
the concentrated yeast in the neck of the bottle.
The bottle is then immersed in a glycol solution and brought to freezing point.
The crown cap is then removed.
The pressure in the bottleneck
allows the ice and yeast deposited inside to be ejected, leaving the bottle clean.
At this point, the “liqueur d’expedition”, or dosage, is added to the bottle a mixture consisting of a certain
sugar content used to increase the concentration of sugars in the Traditional Method.
In the last stage, the bottle is corked with a mushroom-shaped cork, and after a few months of further ageing in the cellar, the product is ready for
sale.
The iconic onion dome, towering majestically in the Alpine landscape, is the symbol that also distinguishes the label of the “Traditional Method” line.
This shape represents the elegance and strength of our bubbles, sculpted by the mountainous terrain, but also the flame that guides our oenological research.
