Remuage

Remuage — riddling — solves a mechanical problem: after the second fermentation, the lees are distributed throughout the bottle. To disgorge them cleanly, they first need to be gathered in the bottle neck.

The traditional method places bottles in wooden A-frame racks (pupitres) at a low angle, then gradually — over 6–8 weeks — rotates them a quarter turn at a time while tilting them more steeply, until they stand inverted with the lees resting on the crown cap. Today most houses use mechanised gyropalettes that do the job in about a week.

The technique was devised in 1816 at Veuve Clicquot by Madame Clicquot-Ponsardin and her cellar master Antoine Müller — a foundational invention for the modern traditional method.