blend to trigger a second fermentation. There was only one fermentation, and not two, as is practiced in modern champagne making. The result was an unpredictable sparkle, with fermentation sometimes continuing even after the wine had been shipped. The yeast dies after digesting all the sugar, leaving sediments in the bottle and making the wine look cloudy. To clarify it, champagne producers traditionally poured the wine from one bottle to another. However, this process was time-consuming and wasteful as it damaged the wine through the constant agitation. Madame Clicquot studied this issue to find a solution. She is credited with a great breakthrough in champagne handling that made mass production of the wine possible. Assisted by her cellar master Antoine de Müller, she invented the riddling table ("remuage") in 1816. This technique makes it possible to transform the champagne from a cloudy state to crystal clarity. Instead of transferring the wine from bottle to bottle, she kept the wine in the same bottle but agitated it gently. The bottles were turned upside down, causing the yeast to collect in the neck. Composed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck sur point or upside down. For six to eight weeks, a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist the bottles (remuage), rotating them by a quarter-turn every day, to bring the sediments into the neck through gradual inversion. When this was completed, the cork was carefully removed, the lees extracted and a liqueur (a mixture of still wine and sugar) was added. This technique was perfected to produce a crystal-clear champagne. These methods are still used today, with a few minor improvements. The riddling rack rendered the dégorgement process both more efficient and economic. Not only did the quality of her champagne improve, but Veuve Clicquot was able to produce it faster, exporting it around the world in large quantities. This was a crucial advantage over her competitors. Veuve Clicquot is also credited with producing the first known blended rosé champagne in 1818. Ruinart was the first champagne house to sell rosé, tinting champagne with elderberry juice, in 1764. Barbe-Nicole produced rosé champagne by adding still red wine to its sparkling wine. Today, rosé champagne is made by adding pinot noir. This method is still used today to produce rosé champagne. Process Different varieties of grapes are picked by hand.