As the story goes, a monk named Dom P rignon was making wine for his colleagues when, unbeknownst to him, he failed to complete the fermentation before bottling and corking the wine. During the cold winter months the fermentation remained dormant, but when spring arrived the contents of the sealed bottles began to warm and fermentation resumed producing carbon dioxide that was trapped in the bottle. Thus, Champagne was born and named after the region where it was discovered. In the U.S. the legal definition of sparkling wine is one which contains 0.392 g of carbon dioxide per 100 mL of wine, the equivalent of about one atmosphere of gas.
Most Champagnes contain about four atmospheres of carbon dioxide.
Today, the production of Champagne is quite different from Dom P rignon's accidental discovery. This is true of most American sparkling wines. M thode Champenoise, which is the method used in Champagne, involves several distinct steps. The key reaction of winemaking is alcoholic fermentation , the conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast. The maximum alcohol content can be determined by multiplying 0.55 times the percent sugar initially present in the grape juice before fermentation.