Glossary
Prise de mousse
The second fermentation that takes place in the bottle — the step that turns a still base wine into sparkling champagne.
Prise de mousse — literally “taking of foam” — is the second fermentation that produces the bubbles in champagne. After the still base wine is bottled with liqueur de tirage (a mixture of sugar, yeast and a clarifying agent), the bottles are stacked horizontally and the yeast slowly consumes the sugar, producing CO₂.
Because the fermentation is sealed inside the bottle, the gas dissolves into the wine rather than escaping, reaching a pressure of roughly 5–6 bar at cellar temperature. The process takes several weeks to several months depending on temperature; cooler cellars yield finer, longer-lasting mousse.
After the prise de mousse, the bottle enters the long sur lie (on-lees) ageing phase that builds autolytic complexity.
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