 The Holidays are upon us, and for me that means bubbles and lots of them. In our store more sparkling wine is purchased during the last two months of the holiday season than in any other six months of the year! That should be no surprise though, for nothing seems to say "Celebrate!" more than a sparkling wine. But beyond special occasions and holiday feasts, sparkling wine can be a wonderful secret weapon for making any meal a special occasion. It's an appropriate choice for virtually any meal and I always like to include it in my lists of great wine pairings.
The majority of the wines that we see on the shelves in a wine shop are "still" wines, that is, they have no effervescence to them. Sparkling wines also begin as still wine but then go through a second fermentation in the bottle or in a pressurized tank; this process produces carbon dioxide gas which generates the "sparkle". Originally considered a sign of poor wine making, sparkling wine was not the desired end product. It happened in a natural but unintended way. In an effort to fix the problem, a Benedictine monk named Pierre (Dom) Perignon (circa 1638-1715), whose name would become synonymous with this wine, devoted much of his life to developing ways of blending and improving this "mad wine" in order to create a white wine that the royal court would prefer to red burgundy. Through his innovative processes, the wine that we have come to call champagne was developed.
In order for a wine to be called champagne today, it must be produced in the Champagne region in the north of France; other French sparklers produced outside of that area are called "cremant". There are many other versions produced in other countries, including "cava" in Spain, "sekt" in Germany and "spumante" in Italy. When produced in the United States we just call them "sparkling wine".
Most sparkling wines are Non Vintage (NV) Wines, meaning that they are done in a "house style" and often include varying amounts of juice from different vintages. Over the years each house develops a style or signature, and will change their blends in order to achieve that signature style. Vintage champagnes, on the other hand, are made entirely from the crop of a particular year. Vintage champagnes are only made or "declared" in the finest years and producers reserve their finest fruit for this style of Champagne, thus they are pricier wines, and are often cellared for a decade or more before they are consumed.
While vintage champagnes are prized by many, non vintage sparkling wine from many great producers throughout the world is much more readily available and these relatively affordable and consistently good non-vintage wines make up the majority of the sparkling wine produced throughout the world.
Because the French have had so much to do with the development of sparkling wine, many of the common French terms for the wines can carry over to other country's sparklers. The most common styles of sparkling wine are:
Blanc de Blancs: a bright style made from all white grapes such as Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc.
Blanc de Noir: made from dark (red) grapes whose skins see no contact with the juice leaving it clear to golden in color.
Rosé: a fuller bodied style produced from red and white grapes, often by adding a small amount of red wine to white sparkling wine. It can also be made by allowing Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier skins to soak in the clear champagne for a short while, effectively staining the wine pink.
There are also terms to clue you in on the sweetness levels of the wine. The most common are:
- Brut - the dryest or least sweet style
- Extra Dry - a fruitier style than Brut, it usually has a slight sweetness
- Demi Sec - a sweeter style apt to be used as a dessert wine.
With all these options, sparkling wine has an outstanding ability to complement many different cuisines and flavors, whether savory, spicy, sweet, rich, creamy or just plain exotic. It's natural acidity and effervescence can provide a wonderful lift and stimulate the palate in such a way that your food's flavors seem amplified. During these holidays when so many rich foods can grace our tables, a sparkling wine also helps to temper the richness of the fattiest foods on the table.
Did I mention they are affordable? Because of the wide price range available today, you can choose to serve the most elegant meals with a top-end NV Champagne, have a simple spread of seafood and crackers accompanied by an inexpensive cava from Spain, enjoy a ham and cheese sandwich with a sparkling Rose from California, or lift a simple everyday meal with a crispy prosecco from Italy. With all these choices available, every meal or party is a candidate for improvement by including a sparkler or two.
Here are a few suggestions to get your imagination working.
Brut sparklers work very well as a cocktail to go with caviar, smoked salmon, assorted canapés or almost any of the elegant appetizers that you might serve at a holiday party, but they are also great with fish dishes and seafood like lobster and crab, quiche, scrambled eggs, mushroom dishes, roast chicken and stuffing, pasta with rich cream sauces, assorted mellow cheeses and nuts like almonds and cashews. As a matter of fact, many salty snacks and deep fried foods like fried chicken are great with a brut sparkling wine.
Try a nice crisp Blanc de Blanc with goat cheese or maybe a spinach and feta dip. This lighter style also complements sushi or sashimi- but watch the wasabi, it is accented by the acidity. A Rosé is the style of choice at the dinner table, especially for main courses such as ham, veal, lamb, salmon, or game birds like roast duck or goose.
Because of their fruity style an extra dry sparkling wine will do well with enchiladas, chile relleno and many other Mexican foods.
Demi Sec although sweet, does best when it is the sweetest part of dessert, so try to pair it with plain cheesecake, shortbread, almond biscotti, or angel food cake. As an alternative, a Moscato di Asti is also a good choice. If you are doing chocolate you may want to try a Brachetto from Italy, they do well with dark chocolate.
Hope you will join me in a toast as I wish Happy Holidays to all!
About the Vintner  The Wine Club has been offering fine wines and accessories at discounted prices since 1985. Today there are 3 stores in California: Santa Ana, San Francisco, and Santa Clara, and www.thewineclub.com, a web store that has a constantly changing inventory of over 1200 different wines and accessory items for you to choose from, you can pick them up or we can ship to most of the USA. Stores are open 7 days a week and each has wine tasting events scheduled on most weekends, so come on by and visit.
|
Stumble It!
Digg This!
Save to del.icio.us!
Today's featured Chef Recipe is provided by