Friday night lesson: Riddling

If Champagne becomes Champagne because it's fermented a second time in the bottle, how do they get the yeast out?

In the very beginning, Champagne makers weren't able to remove the yeast, and Champagne was sort of cloudy and gritty as a result. But in the early 19th century, riddling was invented. Called remuage in French, riddling involves inserting the neck of the Champagne bottle in a special frame, then turning and upending it slightly each day until the yeast slides down into the neck of the bottle. The neck is then frozen, the clump of yeast removed, and the final cork inserted. With quick twists of the wrist, a good remueur can riddle 30,000 to 40,000 bottles a day, and for centuries, it seems, no one complained about carpal tunnel syndrome.


as copied from "Wine Lover's Calendar" by Workman Publishing