What Grapes Are Used in Making Sparklers?
“Again at Ocala Winery in Port Perry and what I wanted to tell you about in this segment is to discuss the many types of grapes used in making sparkling wine. You know, the French really like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier for making their champagne style wines; they make their champagnes. But you know it’s not necessary because you can make great sparkling wine from almost any type of grape imaginable. As a matter of fact, as Irwin Smith said, almost any type of fruit imaginable. We’ve found that you can make a nice sparkling wine out of almost any fruit that will ferment. We have obviously, like other wineries, Chardonnay, Reisling, makes an excellent, gives excellent flavor in a sparkling wine, either method. But we’ve also found that because we have lots of orchard fruit, we can make some very tasty sparkling apple wine or apple with some raspberry in it. And this year, we had an excellent crop of Damson plums and we are considering making a sparkling plum wine. There’s a
