Generally, crisp and celebratory, wines like cava, brut, Champagne and American sparkling wines probably won't turn any heads if you bring them to an occasion that calls for bubbles. But Crémant, a French sparkling wine, can make a fashionable entrance. Although still a nouveau import to many areas of the U.S. it's tres affordable. Most Crémants are priced under $20 a bottle.
Crémant is produced in seven regions throughout France: Bordeaux, Alsace, Burgundy, Loire, Die, Jura and Limoux. Strict laws from the French government stipulate that the grapes must be harvested by hand and the bottles aged for at least a year. There are also rules for the composition of grapes. And they differ by region. In Burgundy, for instance, at least 30 percent of the wine must be Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris.
While traveling through the Burgundy region this summer, in between spreading cheeses on rustic baguettes and reveling in the deliciousness of mustards from this region, we sipped some very good bottles of Crémant de Bourgogne. Fortunately you can buy both of our top picks in the States.
Ah, bottle of champagne, most delightful of ways to waste a spring's day. However, with the season just beginning and the economy showing no signs of improving, you'd best make that bottle of champagne an inexpensive one. How convenient then, that the good people of Barefoot have added a few new varieties to their line of sparkling wines.
Brut Cuvee and Extra Dry have been joined by Pinot Grigio and White Zinfandel, with the Chardonnay getting pretty new blue packaging to match the others' yellow and pink. The colors go with the light, fruity flavors and the pleasant, somewhat pastel buzz you feel after a few glasses. With the bubbly running less than $10 a bottle, you can even stockpile a few for April and May.
I'm going to keep it brief this week. It's been hectic up here in Maine for me, and I am heading out for the weekend for a much needed vacation. Maine's nickname is "The Vacationland," so how come I feel like I need to get away to get mine? I thought I had a vacation early this summer around the Fourth of July, but it wasn't as relaxing as I needed. I was so set on relaxing that I never did. Then I was in New Orleans for eight days for Tales of the Cocktail, but that turned out to be hectic work as well. So I'm heading down to the Hampton's on Long Island in New York for the weekend. I'll be seeing some of my oldest friends who I have known since I was in my late teens. It's been a year or two since I last saw some of them and it should be fun.
So it's wine making time for us at Winterport Winery, and bottling time as well. We have been making blueberry wine this week. The wild Maine blueberries are in season and we are making the most of it. These tiny, low bush blueberries have an intense, sweet flavor. Much better than those giant blueberries you see most of the time in the supermarkets. We have had an order placed for a year waiting for harvest time and earlier this week we got our delivery of organically grown wild blueberries. Joan scooped up four quarts for me to take home and packaged up a many more for the rest of the crew. I figure I'll take mine to the party and make blueberry pancakes and preserves for breakfast.
As for bottling, our sparkling apricot wine, Fancy That, became the star at a bottling party Wednesday night. After closing for the day we sat down with a few pizzas and were joined by friends of the winery, come to add a few more pairs of much needed hands. To efficiently bottle the sparkling wine at any type of speed it takes us eight people. A few more would have been better, but at least we had the critical number. This is only the second time we have bottled a sparkling wine and while we have some equipment on order to make it easier, right now it's a pretty exhausting and frazzling process.I'm glad that it was only a couple of hundred gallons that had to be bottled.
That's one tall glass of sparkling wine. Technically it's a Spumante glass, and it's the world's largest as recently certified by Guinness. The gargantuan glass was unveiled a few days ago in the city of Spoleto at a celebration of wine known as White Night.
It took 11 magnums (or a little more than 6 gallons) of Spumante to fill up the monster glass, which is 6.5 feet tall and 1.4 feet wide. Naturally they used Spumante Asti DOGG. I sure could of used 6 gallons of refreshing sparkling wine during the heat wave that engulfed New York City earlier this week.
Dolcevita posted a video of the authentication ceremony by a Guinness judge who flew in from London. It's 10 minutes long and entirely in Italian, so I chose not to post it here. It is kind of cool to watch them measuring the glass with stoic seriousness and then fiIling it. I speak fairly good Italian, but the only words I picked out were the emcee commanding silencio to the hordes of Italians cheering on a gigantic wine glass. Only in Italy.
As I did for champagne, I have been putting together a list of some of the best buys in Sparkling Wines of the World for the holidays. I combed stores and the internet for weeks looking for great wines at great prices. Each of these sparklers is a good buy for the money, as well as tasty and interesting. I tried to include as many Rosé bubblies as well since they are becoming so hot and trendy right now. Those in the know have been enjoying their great combination of dry fruit and nose tickling effervescence for years. The following list doesn't have everything out there, but each of these is a great wine for the price, from low to high, they're all worth it. If you have any suggestions please tell us what, where, and how much. Happy Holidays Everyone!
US Sparkling Wines
Barefoot Bubbly non-vintage Premium Extra Dry - $9
Domaine Ste. Michelle non-vintage Blanc de Blancs- $12
I'm writing this on Christmas morning before heading to spend the day visiting family and friends. I have a big bag of presents for the kids and a special box for the grownups. It's full of various bottles of bubbly, special sparklers, that fizzy fun called sparkling wine that I like to pop open on the holidays. Looking back I've always loved champagne and sparkling wines. I can remember as a kid getting a tall, thin, glassful during celebrations and holidays; sipping the tart wine as millions of bubbles danced on my tongue. Right from my first taste I had a deep understanding why we use sparkling wines to celebrate. It's because the wine is a celebration in a bottle. As soon as you open it the wine starts to hiss or pop, and then it wants to dance forth and celebrate being released from the bottle; to go forth and make you smile, laugh, dance, and sing. The sparkling wine wants to celebrate with you, whether the reason is big or small, it wants to be part of the party. It's just like that friend we all know, who, as soon as they walk in the door, joyously makes their presence known, and it is understood that the party will now get into full swing.
Champagne is what first comes to mind when the topic is sparkling wine. It's from France, costs a lot, and is oh... so... refined. It's where many people say sparkling wine first came from, and they have tried to keep all the bragging rights. To be called Champagne it has to be a sparkling wine made in a specific province of north east France called Champagne. If sparkling wine is made anywhere else, it can't claim the name Champagne, although if it made in France it is called Cremant. But although it isn't Champagne, the other sparkling wines of the world can be excellent. I've tasted truly great sparklers from the US, Germany, Spain, Italy, Hungary, South Africa, and Australia.
Moet & Chandon, Lanson, Veuve Clicquot, Laurent-Perrier and Bollinger - the
top five Champagne brands in the UK have seen sales rise substantially over the last five years. These brands
account for two-thirds of all UK sales while the rise in consumption, across the sector, has soared by 30 per cent
in five years, with consumers drinking £890 million (over a billion and a half US$) worth of bubbly last year.
While a great deal of the rise can be attributed to the ever growing prosperity - I don't know the actual figures
but Britain has enjoyed a long, long run in industrial growth and low inflation - some of the rise can be accounted for
by a fall in prices; the average price of champagne has fallen by about 4 per cent since 2000, while sparkling wine
has seen a 10 per cent average drop.
That's one tall glass of sparkling wine. Technically it's a Spumante glass, and it's the world's largest as recently certified by Guinness. The gargantuan glass was unveiled a few days ago in the city of Spoleto at a celebration of wine known as White Night.
As I 
I'm writing this on Christmas morning before heading to spend the day visiting family and friends. I have a big bag of presents for the kids and a special box for the grownups. It's full of various bottles of bubbly, special sparklers, that fizzy fun called sparkling wine that I like to pop open on the holidays. Looking back I've always loved champagne and sparkling wines. I can remember as a kid getting a tall, thin, glassful during celebrations and holidays; sipping the tart wine as millions of bubbles danced on my tongue. Right from my first taste I had a deep understanding why we use sparkling wines to celebrate. It's because the wine is a celebration in a bottle. As soon as you open it the wine starts to hiss or pop, and then it wants to dance forth and celebrate being released from the bottle; to go forth and make you smile, laugh, dance, and sing. The sparkling wine wants to celebrate with you, whether the reason is big or small, it wants to be part of the party. It's just like that friend we all know, who, as soon as they walk in the door, joyously makes their presence known, and it is understood that the party will now get into full swing.
Moet & Chandon, Lanson, Veuve Clicquot, Laurent-Perrier and Bollinger - the
top five Champagne brands in the UK have seen sales rise substantially over the last five years. These brands
account for two-thirds of all UK sales while the rise in consumption, across the sector, has soared by 30 per cent
in five years, with consumers drinking £890 million (over a billion and a half US$) worth of bubbly last year.
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