Glossary · Perry
Champagne perry
Definition
A nineteenth and twentieth-century trade name for sparkling bottled perry sold as a substitute for sparkling wine, made by bottle or tank fermentation and sometimes by carbonation.
- Subject
- Perry
In more detail
The name is no longer lawful in the European Union or the United Kingdom, where the use of protected wine designations on other products is prohibited. It survives as a historical term describing the moment when perry moved from farm cask to branded bottle.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Perry
Perry
A fermented alcoholic drink made from the juice of pears, and specifically from perry pears rather than dessert pears. It is not cider made with pears added: it is a separate drink with its own fruit, chemistry and problems.
Perry
Sparkling perry
Perry carrying dissolved carbon dioxide, whether from a bottle or tank conditioning, from an incomplete keeved ferment, or from injected gas.
Fermentation
Traditional method
Sparkling production in which a base cider is bottled with sugar and yeast, refermented under crown or cork, matured on its lees, then riddled, disgorged and topped up with a dosage before final closure.
Law and labelling
PDO
A protected name under which every stage of production, processing and preparation must take place in the defined area, using raw materials from it. The strictest of the geographical schemes.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24
European Union · legislation · retrieved 2026-08-24