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Champagne didn't always have its crystalline clarity. Historically, like many other wines, it was bottled with lees, resulting in a remaining sediment in each glass and often giving the beverage the appearance of cloudy apple juice.
In the first ever piece of art which depicts champagne as a sparkling wine in 1735, a few of its mysteries are unveiled. Jean-François de Troy's masterpiece not only captures the effervescence with popping corks and overflowing glasses but also reveals an unusual practice that arose from the era of cloudy wines. In this artwork, guests are depicted downing their wine and then placing their glasses upside down in a small bowl next to their knives. Wines were only enjoyed once the sediment had settled, and when they were finished, they were left to allow the dregs to slide out for disposal.
Jean-François de Troy, Le Déjeuner d’huîtres, huile sur toile, 1735
Before the invention of the riddling rack, various methods were devised in pursuit of limpid wine, with varying levels of success. Many producers decanted their wines three or fours times to remove the sediment, hich demanded significant labor and time. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, resourceful monks turned to sandboxes as a solution. They initially positioned the bottles horizontally and gradually shifted them to a vertical orientation. This technique aimed to capture the lees in the bottle's neck. However, due to the still imperfect fermentation process and the bottles' fragility at that time, this approach often resulted in significant breakage. In 1732, as recorded in notes from one of the most notable monks of the time Canon Godinot, out of 594 bottles opened, 345 couldn't withstand the internal pressure. During this era, bottles were sealed with a cork and secured using hemp string to contain the roughly 6 bars of pressure within each bottle. As the 19th century approached, the string was replaced with metal staples, called agrafes, and bottles were placed on slanted racks with oblique holes, a design introduced in 1813. Although the bottles were already positioned at an angle, they were not yet systematically rotated.
It wasn't until 1818 that the history of riddling truly began. Legend has it that barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, on a suggestion from her Cellar Master, Antoine Muller, created a whole new method to clarify her wines. The traditional method involved inverting bottles to allow the sediment to settle used potentially harmful additives and clarifiers, or decanting many times which could take over three months. This extended clarification period didn't align with the ambitions of the Widow, who, after careful consideration, had a breakthrough idea. She realised that storing the bottles "sur pointe" or "on their necks" would provide an efficient way for the sediment to collect in the bottle's neck. The tale goes that she had holes drilled obliquely in her kitchen table "so that the bottles could be slanted at various angles, allowing the bottles to be turned and sediment to be gathered by gravity. The riddling table, an ancestor of the riddling rack, was born!
In 1864, a patent was filled by a Mr. Michelot for a riddling rack as we know it today, with two slanted pieces of wood holding 120 bottles.
With the invention of the riddling rack, a new profession was also born: that of the riddler. Their job was to detach the deposit from the bottle's walls by performing a double rotation, first to the left, then to the right, while gradually tilting the bottle more and more with the riddling rack to bring the deposit near the neck. Mastering the efficient "wrist flick" was very difficult. At the time, the best of them could riddle up to 75,000 to 80,000 bottles a day.
In 1920, the first crank-operated riddling rack appeared, marking the very beginning of automation. Bottles placed on shelves were raised vertically using a crank. This enabled 108 bottles to be riddled at once. However, it wasn't until 1966 that the first automatic machine was born: the Pupi-Matic. Holding 240 bottles in stacked cuplike holders, it was connected to mains power which lighlty shook the bottles to dislodge the lees.
In 1973 came the most revolutionary machine: the gyropalette.
Invented by winemaker from Le Mesnil sur Oger Claude Cazals, and inventor Jacques Ducoin, the first prototype took over five grueling years to create. On the brink of giving up, they were joined by Pierre Martin and Georges Hardy, with whom they founded Station Œnotechnique de Champagne (SOEC). For six more years these four innovators tirelessly experiment and present their new inventions at various fairs.
In 1978, after being humiliated and seen as madmed at yet another trade fair, they are ready to give up altogether. And then a Christmas miracle happens: Piper Hiedsick puts through an order for 221 gyropalettes! Then comes an order for Taittinger for 231 gyropalettes, and Roederer for 60.
It wasn't long until competitors started flooding the market, and today five main machines are used in Champagne: le Champarex, le Rotopal, le Remupal, le Giratech et le Giromatic. Many of these are exported, and have been baptised with hilarious names overseas, notaly the VML in the USA which stands for Very Large Machine. So creative!
Overall the gyropalette reduces riddling time from 3 months to around a week. The process is much more precise and enables a winemaker to riddle 504 bottles in less than two square metres, over forty times a year.
Some exceptions still remain, with large formats still being riddled by hand, keeping the romance of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin's tradition alive.
Sources: https://maisons-champagne.com/fr/appellation/elaboration-les-etapes/article/historique-du-remuage https://www.calameo.com/read/006700710c8e956eda9ca
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