'Dosage is like a sprinkle of salt'

Of all the questions to ask a sparkling winemaker, there's one which always tends to draw out the most reluctant answer: 'What's the dosage?"

- Tom Hewson

Dosage is a small addition of sugar (in the form of cane, beet or grape sugar) and wine that forms the liqueur d'expédition added to a sparkling wine after disgorgement (removal of the yeast lees following second fermentation in the bottle).

The vast majority of sparkling wines made in the traditional method (Champagne, Cava, Franciacorta, Trentodoc, English sparkling wine and most quality global sparkling wines) are either labelled as extra brut - between zero and 6g/L of sugar; or brut - between zero and 12g/L.

Champagne used to be sweet. Not just a little sweet, either, but properly cloying by today's standards: 19th-century French chemist EdmeJules Maumené reported Champagnes in the 1880s being shipped to Russia with added sugar at about 300g/L three times as sweet as Coca-Cola!

Sugar, though, is a dirty word these days, and sparkling winemakers can be wary of shedding too much light on this unique practice, despite an entire bottle of extra brut Champagne at 5g/L containing no more sugar than a single espressosized measure of typical apple juice. Even if we need worry less about Champagne-induced dentist bills than the Russian tsars did, surely knowing the exact dosage level is a good clue to how sweet the sparkling wine will taste, though?