I'm opening a lot of sparkling wines these days in preparation for my exam, and a girl can only drink so much bubbly plain.
Enter the classic sparkling wine cocktail, Kir Royale. If you're not familiar with this gem, here's the short history: A guy named Canon Felix Kir, who was mayor of Dijon, France and a hero of the Burgundian resistance movement during World War II, loved to drink his Aligote, a dry, acidic white Burgundian wine, with a splash of crème de cassis, a locally produced liqueur made from blackcurrants. He served the cocktail at official town functions and it caught on.
Kir Royale is simply a Kir made with sparkling rather than still white wine. And did I mention it's gorgeous? After the jump, several versions to try and the basic recipe.
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.
Of course, Moet isn't a suggestion for any of the five menus Epicurious.com developed for each of the Best Picture nominees, but even if you do one of those, the Champagne will make a nice aperitif.
If you're planning to toast a special someone tonight, try adding a little chic pizzazz to the old bubbly with one of these recipes from trendy Chicago restaurant Pops for Champagne wine director Craig Cooper. The High Sage Cocktail looks delish to me.
Framboise Cocktail 1. Combine Sugar Cube, a splash of Orange Bitters (soak the sugar cube), 1 oz. of Pasquet Marie-Framboise 2. Fill Champagne flute with sparkling wine 3. Garnish with Orange twist
High Sage Cocktail 1. Combine 1.5 ounces of Hendrick's gin, 1 ounce of sage-infused simple syrup, and ice in a shaker tin 2. Shake and strain over ice in a Highball glass. 3. Fill with Prosecco, 3 to 5 ounces depending on size of glass 4. Stir gently 5. Garnish with cucumber slices and a sage sprig.
Sage-simple syrup: Combine equal parts sugar and water and bring to boil, lower heat, toss in a few sprigs of sage, then reduce by a third to a half until you get a syrup consistency. It should have a pale green-gold color.
Celestial Fizz Cocktail 1. Combine 1.5 oz. Francois Peyrot Cognac, ¼ oz. Grand Marnier and 1 oz. of fresh Cranberry Juice 2. Top with sparkling wine 3. Garnish with Lemon wheel
The Luxury Institute has released its annual Luxury Brand Status Index (did you know that even luxury brands have their own status index?) for the wine and spirits category. The index is based on surveys of the wealthy, sampling more than 1,200 American consumers with an average weighted income of $342,000 and an average weighted net worth of $2.9 million. Here are the top-rated brands in each category:
Champagne and sparkling wine: Dom Perignon Cognac: Courvoisier Gin: Hendricks Liqueur: Grand Marnier Rum: 10 Cane Scotch: Macallan Table wine: Opus One Tequila: Patron Vodka: Grey Goose Whiskey: Woodford Reserve
If you've ever tried to toast with one of those wide-mouthed coupe-style Champagne glasses, you know how woefully inefficient they are for actually drinking bubbly. Legend has it that that particular shape of glass was modeled after Marie Antoinette's breasts, and now Karl Lagerfeld has designed an updated version for Dom Perignon based on Claudia Schiffer's decolletage.
Why is this ironic? First, the shape is terrible for Champagne because, as already mentioned, it's too wide and sloshy, and the Champagne goes flat fast because the surface area is so big. That's why those tall, thin glasses work better--they keep the bubbles in the wine. Second, Dom Perignon? The Champagne brand named after a monk? Releasing breast-shaped paraphernalia?
The word "septicemia" probably won't figure into the next Moët & Chandon ad campaign, but for my money, the passage that follows would be a sure-fire sell (as if I need any more reason to buy champagne). Forget Granny Clampett's medicinal moonshine, i.e., the Hollywood version of alcohol as folk curative, and raise a glass to this well-told true story from One Writer's Beginnings, the elegant memoir of a true grande dame of Southern lettres, Eurora Welty:
"What had struck her was septicemia, in those days nearly always fatal. What my father did was to try champagne."
I had a really mellow New Year's Eve this year. A couple of friends came over for cheese fondue (with roasted potatoes, sausage, brussels sprouts and broccolini, in addition to the tradition bread cubes, for dipping) before the early They Might Be Giants show at Philly's TLA. Afterwards, we came back and ate vanilla ice cream drizzled with Kahlua. Of course, there was some bubbly to toast 2009.
How did the rest of you celebrate? Did you eat our or make a special meal at home? Do you have New Year's Eve traditions?
I can't claim credit for it, but by far the best New Year's resolution I've ever heard is "Drink more champagne." It flies in the face of the conventional model of resolutions, which entails discipline at best and deprivation at worst. When food and booze are involved in resolutions, "less" is typically the operative word.
For the second year running, I plan to include the word "more" in my resolutions, or at least the spirit of the word. I hardly have to tell myself to drink more champagne, but I could remind myself to seek out caviar more frequently, for instance, or to order that appetizer of pâté de campagne whenever it's on offer. Or I might resolve to develop my taste for Scotch, invest in crystal stemware, or host a bacchanal every month.
This is all sounding pretty highbrow so far, but it doesn't have to be. "Eat more fried shrimp/potatoes/okra/chicken" would work. So would "Never run out of PBR." Milkshakes, McDonald's fries, cream pies, waffles, mozzarella sticks...Plenty of inexpensive food is plenty decadent.
Are you sold yet? If so, what's your indulgent resolution?
Champagne or another bubbly might possibly be my stuck-on-a-desert-island drink of choice, but not everyone feels the love. Monday I posted my top eight bubblies for the holidays, but if you just don't dig sparkling wine, what can you toast with instead? Here are a few ideas.
Syrah/Shiraz from Washington state or Australia, which is big and voluptuous, smooth and silky all at once. Skip old world Syrah from the Northern Rhone, which, though it hails from the grape's true home, can give off aromas and flavors of green olives, white pepper, leather, and even meaty bacon. Great with a big ol' hunk of meat, not so great as the jumping-off point to a midnight kiss or a glass-raising toast to the man of the hour. Try the Sequel Syrah from Long Shadows Winery in Walla Walla, Washington, a Shiraz-style wine that's perfect for sipping without food.
Moscato d'Asti, a low-alcohol, barely bubbly Italian sweet white that my friend John calls "party in your mouth" is the perfect alternative to the dryness of Champagne. Try toasting with a bottle from Michele Chiarlo.
Dessert wine is best for a tête-à-tête celebration rather than a room full of happy toasters, both because it comes in half-size bottles and it's usually spendy. Splurge with Sauternes, the world's best dessert wine, or try a late harvest Riesling from Chateau Ste. Michelle.
Anything in a bottle bigger than 750 mL: a magnum (2 bottles), Jeroboam (4 bottles), or Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles, but you'd better have help pouring) will always wow the crowd, no matter what's inside.
According to a recent Decanter story, worldwide Champagne shipments have plummeted more than 20 percent worldwide. Apparently people are realizing that $180 for a bottle of wine just might be a bit...much...in these economic times.
Still, we have to buy our bubbly for the holidays. I'll probably drink some over Christmas, too, but New Year's is kind of a no-brainer for sparkling wine. Here's my advice: skip the Champagne, but skip the Cook's on the bottom shelf, too. Here are eight of my favorite holiday sparklers that taste delicious but won't break the bank. Best of all? Most of these bottles are easily attainable at any store, so you could walk in with this list and score most of them.
The upcoming holiday season means lots of food and wine, but Champagne and sparkling winemakers around the world have even more to celebrate, as more bubbly is sold at this time than at any other time of the year. But a new study from Sonoma State University in California says that young adults between 21 and 31 would prefer to skip it, thank you very much, unless it's for a special occasion. More than half, or 57 percent of the participants, reported that they only drink sparkling wine on occasions such as New Year's Eve and weddings, but 22 percent said they drink it at least weekly. (At least some Millennials know that every day is a celebration!)
The participants did a blind tasting of Champagne ($27-30), Cava from Spain ($10-12), and a U.S. sparking wine ($10-12), with the value wines beating the pricey and image-conscious Champagne. 21 participants preferred the Cava, 16 the U.S. wine, and just 10 the Champagne.
Clearly the study was a small one and can't be broadly applied to the tastes of Millennials nationwide (I'm a good example: at the upper end of the Millennial age spectrum, I love sparkling wine of all kinds and have often declared it would be my desert-island drink of choice). But a couple of theories can be posited. One, Millennials are value-conscious, and they instinctively recognize that there's better value in less expensive, but still traditionally-made, American and Spanish sparkling wines. Two, Millennials haven't been drinking long enough to hone their taste buds to the complexities of good Champagne. Or three, Millennials are smart enough to know that at least one drink should be reserved for something special, or else it turns out that nothing at all is special.
Do you like sparkling wine, Champagne, or both? Do you pop the cork for no reason at all or wait for a major event?
Sometimes, it has to be done. Maybe you're celebrating something. Maybe you're entertaining a client. Maybe your editor just chopped up your interview and you want to kill everyone. What am I talking about? Drinking at lunch.
Drinking at lunch can be dangerous. Some people get bad headaches from it, even from a glass of wine. It's really best to drink at lunch only if you're going to have time for a nap, but since that isn't realistic, make sure you have Advil at your desk - it might not hurt to pop a couple as a preventative measure.
Don't scare your clients, and don't knock yourself out. Avoid hardcore drinks like martinis, and avoid drinking your night drink during the day; it's likely to make you tired because your brain is used to having it before sleep. If you're particularly prone to afternoon headaches, it's a good idea to drink something involving juice or coffee to try and trick your brain a little.
In addition to headaches and naps (and wildly inappropriate crying jags), drinking at lunch can also cause raucous laughter, the closing of deals; the alleviation of unbearable tension, and a more carefree afternoon to follow.
My picks for what to drink at lunch ( In moderation) are after the jump...
As with everything else these days, the price of glass is going up. Some wine and beer bottlers have already switched to less glass-intensive bottles and a French champagne maker is experimenting with the same idea.
Mumm, is experimenting with bottles that are 65 grams lighter than regular champagne bottles (which are about twice as heavy as wine bottles), in an attempt to cut down on costs. The company is currently storing the test bottles for two years to make sure the thinner glass can withstand the pressure that is produced by the bubbly. If they do determine to use these lighter bottles, Mumm will also have to get approval from Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, the trade association that represents grape growers and champagne producers.
If the bottles survive and the CIVC approves the change, we'll be seeing these new, thinner champagne bottles around 2010. The question is, if Mumm gets CIVC approval, will other champagne bottlers will be quick to follow?
We can change the way we make eggs -- scrambled, poached, fried -- but what about changing the eggs themselves? Mix up your scrambling routine with quail eggs.
If you've ever tried to toast with one of those wide-mouthed coupe-style Champagne glasses, you know how woefully inefficient they are for actually drinking bubbly. Legend has it that that particular shape of glass was modeled after Marie Antoinette's breasts, and now Karl Lagerfeld has designed an updated version for Dom Perignon based on Claudia Schiffer's decolletage. 
Sometimes, it has to be done. Maybe you're celebrating something. Maybe you're entertaining a client. Maybe your editor just chopped up your interview and you want to kill everyone. What am I talking about? Drinking at lunch.
As with everything else these days, the price of glass is going up. Some wine and beer bottlers have already switched to less glass-intensive bottles and a French champagne maker is experimenting with the same idea.
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