What is Sekt?

Sekt is the German trade name for sparkling wine in which the carbon dioxide comes from a second fermentation.

The Deutsches Weininstitut describes Sekt as sparkling wine whose carbon dioxide arises during fermentation and which produces at least 3.5 bar of internal pressure. For sparkling wine in general the lower limit is 3 bar, with in practice an upper limit of around 6 bar.

To that pressure the bottle also owes its equipment: a heavy bottle, a mushroom cork and a wire cage that holds the cork in place.

Secco is pearl wine with 1 to 2.5 bar of pressure, Sekt is sparkling wine with at least 3.5 bar.

With Secco the carbon dioxide is usually added, whereas with Sekt it comes from a second fermentation. You can also see the difference in the closure: a Secco often has a screw cap or an ordinary cork, a Sekt a cork with a wire cage.

In the glass the lower pressure means that a Secco sparkles more lightly and that the bubbles fade sooner.

Sekt b.A. means that the grapes come from one of the thirteen German wine-growing regions and that the wine was also made there.

Those thirteen regions are Ahr, Baden, Franken, Hessische Bergstrasse, Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut, Sachsen and Wuerttemberg. Together they cover roughly 102,000 hectares of vineyard.

If it says only Deutscher Sekt, the origin is Germany without a region being designated. The designation b.A. is therefore the more precise of the two.

Both ways are allowed: the second fermentation can take place in a large pressure tank or in the bottle in which the wine is sold.

With tank fermentation, a large quantity of wine ferments in a closed stainless steel tank, after which the wine is bottled under pressure. With bottle fermentation, each bottle ferments separately and the wine then remains on the yeast cells.

On the label you recognise the second route by words such as Flaschengaerung or traditionelle Flaschengaerung.

Winzersekt is Sekt that a winegrower makes from their own grapes, with traditional bottle fermentation.

The Deutsches Weininstitut requires maturation of at least nine months on the lees. In those months bready and nutty notes develop, as the yeast cells slowly break down.

The word Winzersekt therefore says something about where the grapes come from and about the way of working in the cellar, and not only about the region on the label.