Sparkling wine Champagne. Sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. Commonly called champagne, EU countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne region of France. Usually sparkling wine is white or rosé, but there are examples of red sparkling wines such as the Italian Brachetto, Bonarda and Lambrusco, Australian sparkling Shiraz, and Azerbaijani "Pearl of Azerbaijan" made from Madrasa grapes. The sweetness of sparkling wine can range from very dry "brut" styles to sweeter "doux" varieties (French for 'raw' and 'sweet', respectively). The sparkling quality of these
History of French wine the earliest amphorae, from the 2nd century BC, bear Iberian shipper's marks, indicating that distribution of wine predated conquest. It wasn't till the first century AD that there was record of Gaul's wine being of any note or renown. In his "Natural History" (book xiv), Pliny the Elder noted that in the region near Vienna (modern day Vienne in the Rhone wine region), the Allobroges produced a resinated wine that was held in esteem and commanded a high market price. It was also during the late first century BC/early first century AD that viticulture started to spread to other areas