Definition: Poignettage

In Champagne, once the wine has been bottled and the dosage added, it undergoes a process known as poignettage, which involves shaking the bottles in pairs with a vigorous movement of the wrists to thoroughly mix the wine and the dosage. Poignettage can also be carried out during riddling to thoroughly remove the sediment from the side of the bottle. In large wineries, the trend is to replace all these operations, which were once done manually, with more or less equivalent mechanical processes.