Definition: Dosage

extra-brut: between 0 and 6 g/l of sugar - brut nature: less than 3 g/l - brut: less than 15 g/l - extra dry: 12 to 20 g/l - sec (or dry): 17 to 35 g/l; demi-sec: 33 to 50 g/l; sweet: more than 50 g/l.

Finally, some wines are not dosed at all. The void left by disgorging is then filled by adding a wine identical to that contained in the bottle. These wines are known as "totally brut" and have several names: brut 100%, brut 0, brut intégral, brut sauvage, ultra brut, etc. The very ancient origins of dosage suggest that in the past, more dosage was used than today. Consumer choice has followed the evolution of tastes, with today's preference for drier wines, probably due to the richness of modern diets, which require less sugar intake. The Scandinavian countries, where the climate is cold, are the only ones that still order sweet and semi-dry wines. The Russians, who were the greatest lovers of sparkling Champagne wines until the 1917 Revolution, drank only "sweet" Champagnes, hence the term "Russian taste" for this type of wine, while the Americans preferred dry wines, known as "American taste", and the English preferred extra-dry and brut wines, sometimes called "English taste". As a result, for a long time, the dosage of exported wines varied depending on the country of destination. This is no longer the case today, as the level of dosage must be indicated on the label. The dosage itself, i.e. the addition of 0 to 5 or 6 cl of expedition liqueur to the disgorged bottle, is carried out using an automatic or semi-automatic machine, known as a dosing machine. Depending on the size of the winery, these dosing machines are more or less sophisticated, with a maximum capacity of just over 18,000 bottles per hour. Such a machine works in three stages:

First, it extracts a few centilitres of wine from the bottle to make room for the expedition liqueur; it then introduces the expedition liqueur; finally, it fills the bottle with the wine that was previously extracted. The excess remains in the dosing machine's reservoir. Immediately afterwards, the bottles are sent to a corking machine, adjacent to the dosing machine, to be hermetically sealed with a top-quality cork, held in place by its metal cap and wire cage. Before being inserted into the neck of the bottle, the champagne cork is shaped like a large cylinder. It is the pressure on both sides that gives it its distinctive shape. Proper preservation of the wine depends on a hermetic seal that prevents carbon dioxide from escaping.