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| Photo: oskay, Flickr |
August, in all its hot, humid, waning-of-summer glory, is my favorite month of the year. It may be sweltering and sticky, but August is like the bachelorette party before the wedding: Live it up while you can, because school is gonna start soon.
Which is why sparkling wine is the perfect antidote to impending fall. Light, refreshing, and bubbly, it has all the ingredients for celebrating (mourning?) the passing of Casual Season. (Besides, I'm still practicing Champagne service for my sommelier test. I almost have the silent "pop" perfected, but if you have any tips, I'm all ears!)
So what kind of sparkling wine do you like in the summer? Tyler Colman, author of "A Year of Wine," recommends saving the expensive and complex Champagne for chilly winter and sticking to simpler bubblies when it's hot, and I happen to agree (except for my anniversary on August 26, when Champagne is the only way to go ... are you reading this, honey?).
After the jump, my criteria for smashing, wallet-friendly summer sparklers.



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.









