Glossary

Beverage & Wine

Dosage

Also: liqueur d'expédition, dosage liqueur

The small addition of wine and sugar (liqueur d'expédition) made to a sparkling wine right after disgorgement, topping up the bottle and setting its final sweetness level from brut nature to doux.

/doh-SAHZH/French 'dosage', from 'dose' (a measured quantity) — the term for the final addition made just after disgorgement to top up the bottle and set its sweetness.

Definition

Dosage is the final step in traditional-method sparkling wine production: after disgorgement removes the frozen plug of yeast sediment from the bottle neck, a small amount of liquid — the liqueur d'expédition, typically a blend of reserve wine and cane sugar (occasionally grape must or rectified concentrated must) — is added to replace the lost volume and fine-tune the wine's final sweetness. The dosage level, expressed in grams of residual sugar per litre, determines the finished wine's style category, from bone-dry brut nature through brut, the most widely produced style, up to sweet doux. Dosage is not merely a sweetening step; it also rounds out the wine's acidity, integrates the effects of long lees aging, and can vary meaningfully from vintage to vintage as the cellar master balances the base wine's natural acid and ripeness. The wine rests briefly after dosage to let the addition integrate before final corking, wiring (muselet), and labeling.

In use

“The house style leaned brut nature for years, but the 2018 base wines carried enough natural acidity that the cellar master added a small 4 g/L dosage to round out the finish.”

See also

Related terms

Méthode ChampenoiseDisgorgementLiqueur de TirageBrutExtra BrutResidual Sugar

References

  1. 1.Tom Stevenson — 'Christie's World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine' (2014), Absolute Press
  2. 2.Jancis Robinson — 'The Oxford Companion to Wine', 4th ed. (2015), Oxford University Press
  3. 3.Peter Liem — 'Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region' (2017), Ten Speed Press

Confidence: high

Notes

Dosage and perceived sweetness

Dosage is measured in grams of residual sugar per litre and sets the final style category: brut nature (0 g/L, no dosage added), extra brut (0–6 g/L), brut (up to 12 g/L — the most common style), extra sec (12–17 g/L), sec (17–32 g/L), demi-sec (32–50 g/L), and doux (50+ g/L). High acidity in the base wine can mask a higher dosage, which is why the same numeric dosage can taste drier in a high-acid vintage than in a riper one.

Trend toward lower dosage

Since the 2000s, many prestige Champagne houses and growers have moved toward lower dosage levels (extra brut and brut nature) as warmer growing seasons produce riper, less acidic base wines that need less sugar to balance, and as the market has favored drier, more mineral-driven styles.