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Dégorgement

Viniculture
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The removal of sediment from a sparkling wine bottle after secondary fermentation.

Detailed Definition
During dégorgement, the lees are collected near the neck, frozen or expelled, and the bottle is resealed, usually with a final dosage. The act is both technical and theatrical: what has gathered in darkness is suddenly forced into the light, leaving a clearer wine behind. Poetry can use it as an image of revision, release, or the difficult removal of what once nourished a work but can no longer remain visible within it.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Dégorgement released the sediment from the bottle of sparkling wine,” uses the French term for removing the yeast deposit after secondary fermentation; “At dégorgement, the cloudy past flashed clear”; A poet might compare the process to opening a sealed memory and letting its residue fall away; “The bottle lost its lees and found a brighter voice.”
Additional Notes
Dégorgement is a key step in traditional-method sparkling wine production. After yeast sediment is collected in the neck, it is expelled, usually after freezing the deposit. The bottle is then topped up with dosage, a wine-and-sugar mixture that helps determine the final sweetness.
Also Known As
Disgorging Disgorgement
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