Short definition
Gradually rotating and tilting Champagne bottles to collect dead yeast in the neck for removal.
After Champagne ages on its lees for months or years, the dead yeast needs to come out. Riddling slowly moves the bottles from horizontal to upside-down, shaking and turning them so the sediment slides into the neck. Traditionally done by hand on wooden racks called pupitres, most houses now use machines called gyropalettes that finish in a week instead of six.