The Difference Between Sparkling & Semi-Sparkling Wines

If you’re a wine aficionado, chances are that you’ve probably come across the word frizzante. Or that you’ve had a vino that wasn’t as effervescent as the sparkling wines that you’re used to. This brings us to semi-sparkling variants of wines. Not many people can tell the difference between sparkling & semi-sparkling wines. This is exactly what we are going to elaborate on right now.

How are the two different

In layman’s language, semi-sparkling wines have less ‘sparkle’ than their sparkling counterpart. Technically speaking, the world-renowned French Champagne contain ‘over 3 atmospheres’ of pressure. (Standard atmosphere is the unit in which pressure is measured.) While Champagne usually contains 5 to 6 atmospheres of pressure, many Prosecco wines contain around 1.5 atmospheres of pressure and are hence ‘semi-sparkling wines’. Some other semi-sparkling wines include frizzante (These are Italian wines.) and Lambrusco.

Essentially, this atmosphere pressure depends on the amount of sugar added during the tirage stage - the more the sugar is, the more the resulting carbon dioxide will be. (This is because the yeast feeds on sugar during fermentation, creating carbon dioxide as a by-product. Also, if you are unaware of what tirage means, we suggest reading our blog post on the traditional method of producing sparkling wine.

Please note that it’s not the amount of pressure in a wine that determines if it’s that good or not. For example, good sparkling wines have at least 10% alcohol content and have been stored for a minimum mandatory period of time. Similarly, with their diverse flavour profiles, high-quality semi-sparkling wines are a treat not to be missed!

Additional Read:  What is Prosecco?