Blanc de Noirs
Literally translated, Blanc de Noirs means “white from blacks”. The term “Blanc de Noirs” refers to a white juice that is extracted from black grape varieties.
Whole cluster pressing
Within the production of soarkling wine, the pressing of the grapes is of course an important part of the process, when white (yellow/green) or black grapes (red/blue/black) will produce white grape juice (must) upon an initial gentle crush. The colouration of wines, is usually achieved during maceration (skin contact during fermentation) since the color pigments are part of the grape skin. Here the black grape skin will, depending on the length of time, release pigments into the juice so the (deep red to black) colouring of the skins releases into the white grape juice to eventually turn it pink to dark red.
In the case of Blanc de Noirs sparkling wines, the whole cluster of the grapes are gently pressed and the resulting juice is directly separated from the grape skins in order to avoid releasing the colour pigments into the juice and ensuring that no color is transferred to the base wine.
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