There is a moment, just after the cork is eased from a bottle of champagne, when the air seems to shimmer with promise. Tiny bubbles rise in a silken rush, the glass catches the light, and before you’ve even tasted it, you know whether this is going to be a flirtation or a grand romance. What you’re sensing—though you may not know it—is the quiet, almost secret art of dosage, that final whisper of sweetness (or stern refusal of it) that shapes the entire personality of a sparkling wine.

Dosage is not just a technicality; it’s the finishing touch, the seasoning, the last brushstroke of a winemaker’s hand. And like all the best finishing touches, it’s subtle, deliberate, and utterly transformative.

Let’s slip into the cellar and explore what really happens when liqueur d’expédition meets wine, and how that tiny addition can turn a wine from austere to flirtatious, from racy to ravishing.

What Dosage Actually Is: The Liqueur d’Expédition

Before we get lost in the romance, we must, as ever, begin with the practical.

In traditional-method sparkling wines—think Champagne, Crémant, Cava, Franciacorta, and their kin—dosage is the final addition made to the wine just before the bottle is closed with its familiar cork and wire cage.

This addition is called liqueur d’expédition. It is usually a mixture of:

• Wine (often a still wine from the same estate or region, sometimes aged for complexity)
• Sugar (usually cane sugar, dissolved to make a syrup)

The sugar content in this liqueur d’expédition is measured in grams per litre (g/L), and it is this that defines the style of the wine: from bone-dry Brut Nature to the dessert-like Doux.

You might imagine a grand, theatrical moment in the cellar when this elixir is poured in, but in truth, it is a measured, meticulous, almost surgical act. A few millilitres more or less can tilt the balance between piercing austerity and luxurious softness.

The Journey Before the Final Touch

To understand why dosage matters, you have to know what the wine has been through before it receives it—like understanding the mood of someone before you decide whether to offer them a blanket or a splash of gin.

Traditional-method sparkling wine goes through a long, transformative journey:

At this point, the wine in the bottle is crystal clear, sparkling, and brutally dry—often harsher than you’d want to drink. The acidity is sharp, the angles unsoftened. This is when liqueur d’expédition steps in, like a silk scarf thrown over bare shoulders.

Why Dosage Exists: Balance, Not “Sweetness”

It’s tempting to think of dosage as “adding sugar to make it sweet,” but that’s like saying salt is just there to make food salty. In both cases, the purpose is balance.

Sparkling wines—especially those from cool climates like Champagne—are naturally high in acidity. That racy, lemony, mouthwatering sharpness is what makes them so refreshing and food-friendly, but left unchecked, it can feel severe, almost punishing.

Dosage softens the edges.
A few grams of sugar can:

• Round out harsh acidity
• Enhance fruit flavours
• Add a sense of body and generosity
• Make the wine feel more harmonious and complete

The best dosages aren’t noticeable as “sweetness.” You shouldn’t drink a Brut Champagne and think, “Sugar!” any more than you should bite into a perfectly seasoned roast chicken and think, “Salt!” You should simply think: This feels right.

The Sugar Scale: From Brut Nature to Doux

The language of dosage can sound a little like an etiquette guide—demi-sec, extra brut, brut nature—but behind the French are very specific sugar levels. These are approximate, but they give you a sense of the spectrum:

What matters is not just the number, but how it plays against the wine’s acidity, structure, and flavour. A high-acid Champagne can carry more sugar and still taste balanced. A lower-acid sparkling wine with the same dosage might taste cloying.

The Winemaker’s Palette: Choosing the Right Dosage

If you imagine the winemaker as a painter, dosage is the final glaze: transparent, but capable of changing everything.

Several factors influence the choice:

Above all, dosage is a matter of taste and intention. It’s not about “more sugar” or “less sugar” being better; it’s about what suits the wine—and the story the winemaker wants to tell.

Liqueur d’Expédition: More Than Just Sugar

While we often talk about dosage in terms of sugar grams, the wine used in the liqueur d’expédition can be just as important.

Some producers use:

• Reserve wines aged in tank or oak, adding subtle notes of toast, spice, or nuttiness
• Older vintages to lend depth and complexity
• Neutral base wines that simply act as a vehicle for sugar, aiming for purity and minimal interference

A tiny quantity of this liqueur can introduce a quiet echo of flavour—an extra hint of dried fruit, roasted hazelnut, or honeyed softness—that lingers in the finish. It’s like adding a teaspoon of cream to a sauce: not enough to dominate, but enough to make everything feel more luxurious.

Dosage and Food: Matching Mood and Mouthful

Once you understand dosage, pairing sparkling wine with food becomes something of a delicious game.

Once you begin paying attention to the style on the label—Brut, Extra Dry, Demi-Sec—you’re not just buying a bottle; you’re choosing a mood.

The Rise of “No Dosage” and the Allure of Purity

In recent years, there has been a growing fascination with Brut Nature and Pas Dosé wines—those with no sugar added at all. They are often described as “pure,” “naked,” or “transparent,” revealing the terroir and winemaking with nothing to soften the blow.

These wines can be thrilling: chalky, electric, almost saline. They demand attention, and they don’t flatter. They are, in a way, Champagne without make-up—each contour visible, every flaw, every beauty mark.

But purity is not always the same as pleasure. Some wines, some years, some grapes need that final caress of dosage to sing. A great Brut Champagne, perfectly dosed, can be every bit as honest and authentic as its zero-dosage cousin—just as a perfectly seasoned dish is no less “true” than one without salt.

How to Read the Label—and Read the Wine

To bring this all from cellar to table, here’s how to make dosage work for you when you’re choosing a bottle:

Then, when you finally pour, taste with quiet attention. Notice:

• Is the acidity sharp or soft?
• Does the wine feel lean or generous?
• Does any sweetness register, or is it simply a sense of roundness?

What you are really tasting is the dialogue between the wine’s natural character and that last, decisive addition of liqueur d’expédition.

The Final Whisper in the Glass

Dosage is the final whisper in the story of a sparkling wine: a murmur of sugar and wine that you never see added, but always feel in the glass. It is not there to mask or to manipulate, but to bring everything into focus—to turn raw material into something shimmering, composed, and complete.

In a world that often glorifies extremes—no sugar, no compromise, no softness—it’s worth remembering that much of what we love, in food and in wine, lies in the balance between sharp and sweet, tension and tenderness.

So the next time you hear the soft sigh of a cork leaving the neck of a bottle and watch that first stream of bubbles rise, pause for a moment. Behind that effortless glamour is a quiet act of craftsmanship: a few grams of sugar, a splash of wine, and the winemaker’s judgement, honed over years, deciding just how generous, how strict, how seductive this particular bottle will be.

You raise the glass, you take a sip—and in that instant, you taste the art of dosage.