How do they get the cork into champagne bottles?!
Answers: Iz it teh magik?
Some wrong answers here...
It does seem like magic that they can fit that large cork in aChampagne bottle, but cork is an incredible material and it can be squeezed to half its size without distorting and it will return to its original size.
So with a machine they squeeze a tube of thick cork and, push it in the nexk of a bottle. The bit in thebottle expands as far as it can in the neck, the bit above it swells back to form the mushroom shape we know and love.
This is done after the second fermentation has finished. No more fermentaion happens...
Champagne - they make wine in the normal way, fermenting in tank (and rarely barrel) then bottle it. They start the second fermentation in the bottle by adding yeast and sugar. They close the bottle with a crown cap - the type used for beer (that accounts for the rounded shape of the lip on a Champagne bottle). After the second fermenation is complete, they remove the debris, top up the bottle with a bit of sweet wine and put the 'Champagne' cork in.
With a wooden mallet.
A corker is a lever activated machine that actually squeezes the cork to compress it, then pushes it down into the bottle.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/...
They fit and wire the cork before the liquid finishes fermenting. The cork is squashed and forced into the neck of the bottle by a 'press'. When the cork is pulled the pressure gets released as bubbles.
Pressurised wine/champers bottles have a 'punt' in the base. A 'punt' is the 'dome' bottom that stops the bottle exploding. The dome increases the strength of the bottles base.
lol yup it's teh magic!
push it lol
Jumping up and down on it seems to work well
I am a former chef and have toured a champange bottling reserve (house), the second and third respondants are partially right, it is added after the first fermentation has been completed and the desgougment of the "plug" a yeast build up in the neck of the bottle, they freeze it open it, releaes it and then (the first cap is like a soft drink bottle) they then add a slight amount of sweet wine to promote the second fermentation and then the final cork in pressed in and the wire "cage" is added, this keeps the cork from exploding out, it is then allow to go through the second fermentation were it is "riddled" this is done by rotating the bottle for 6 months on an angle upside down and then the bottles are labelled and the foil cap is put on and it is released for sale, premium is aged longer.
The natural cork that is used is larger than the corks used in regular wine bottles. It is pressed into the bottle using a wine corker, after the yeast plug has been removed. In the case of using the oversized natural cork, as opposed to plastic corks, it is only shoved about half way to 2/3s into the bottles. The remaining amount that is sticking out will tend to make a mushroom shape, sometimes this is pressed or hammered to increase the mushroom shape. A wire cap is then tightened down on top of the cork, to keep it from being pushed out of the bottle from CO2 pressure.