Sparkling Winemaking: Transfer method

The transfer method, known as méthode transfert in French and Carstens in the United States, also depends on inducing a second fermentation by adding sugar and yeast to a blend of base wines and then bottling the result. It differs from the traditional method, however, in that riddling and disgorgement are dispensed with and, after a period of lees contact, the bottles are chilled, and their contents transferred to a bulk pressure tank where the sediment is removed by clarification, usually filtration. A suitable dosage is then added and the result is once again bottled, using a counter pressure filler, before being corked and wired. The transfer method is likely to be abandoned in the long term because it has all the disadvantages of the traditional method but does not produce all its qualities in the wine.