Holiday Bubbles
By Sunny Brown
No wine is as well known or loved by all as a glass of champagne. Synonymous with celebration and treasured for centuries, nothing says happy times like toasting a little bubbly with friends and family. But sparkling wines and Champagne need not be luxury items reserved for aristocrats and weddings. The mystique and the mystery of those wonderful little bubbles that tickle the end of your nose can be reduced to just a few easy to understand guidelines: Know your product, know your occasion and know your price range.
Champagne is the most northerly wine growing region in all of France. The still wines produced are tart and simple, never much to write home about. But in the late 1600s a Benedictine monk named Dom Pérignon devised a controlled second fermentation, allowing the wine to gain richness, complexity and those lovely little bubbles. The bubbles, called the mousse, are a good indicator of the quality and care that has gone into the wine. A high quality wine will have small bubbles that seem to last for an eternity in the glass. A poor quality wine will have flabby bubbles, barely spherical in shape that dissipate almost immediately.
Dom Pérignon's famous method is called the classical method, méthode traditionelle or méthode champenoise. The still wine is fermented in large open casks or tanks and as the fermentation slows it is cooled, traditionally by the cold winter air but nowadays by air-conditioning. The wine is aged for a period of time on its lees, or the dregs of the crushed grapes. This adds a toasty, yeasty quality to the wine. The longer the ageing on the lees the better. A mixture of liquid sugar, yeast, tannins and fining agents is added to the wine and a second fermentation process begins. The result is carbon dioxide, alcohol and heat. The heat is controlled by the air-conditioning and any sediment is removed in a small capsule by freezing the neck of the bottle while it is upside down. The carbon dioxide dissolves into the wine creating the bubbles. Use a heavier gauge glass bottle as the contents are under pressure and a wire to keep the cork in place and you are ready to go.
Only wine from the Champagne region of France may be called Champagne. The French take this very seriously and have spent countless hours and funds in international courts to protect their product. The result of their vigilance is an easy to read label. If it says Champagne, it is from Champagne. If it says méthode champenoise, méthode traditionelle or classic method it is from elsewhere but is made in the style of Champagne. There are other ways to make sparkling wine but the classic method is the best. The soda pop method may put bubbles into your bottle, but they won't be there by the time it gets to your lips.
There are a few styles of Champagne to choose from. Non vintage, or N.V. for short, is a blend of many different wines form different years. These wines are created to reflect the "house-style" of each Champagne producer. While this may not create individuality, it is consistency that the houses are looking for. A bottle consumed today will taste the same as a bottle ten years from now. Think of this as the Budweiser of champagne. It may not be the best, but it's good and six million beers later you will know exactly what you are going to get. Vintage Champagne is produced from just one years' crop and thus subject to more irregularity, as the weather affects the grapes. However, most Champagne producers will make a vintage Champagne in only the very best years. Intensive care and extensive aging ensure that a vintage wine will be the most profound expression of Champagne. Some examples will age gracefully for two decades or more. The price may be high, but it can also be worth it for the very best. Rosé Champagnes are in no way related to white zinfandel despite their color. They retain the dry, toasty character of a good Champagne, and can often take on more complexity from extended contact with the skins of the red grapes during production.
Red grapes? Yes, that's correct. The modern version of Champagne is made from Chardonnay (a white grape), Pinot Meunier (a black grape) and Pinot Noir (a black grape). The Chardonnay is used for finesse and richness. Pinot Noir is used for structure and backbone. Pinot Meunier is a country-cousin of Pinot Noir, similar in fruit but lighter and easier to grow. This is used to add fruitiness and liveliness to the wine. Blanc de blanc is a designation on a Champagne label that indicates the wine is made entirely from Chardonnay. Blanc de blancs (literally white from white) tend to be silky and smooth, with touches of green apple or tropical fruits. Blanc de noir (white from black) is usually a much more powerful wine, with greater minerality and a rich structure. N.V. wines are blends of the three, using small amounts of each to achieve the desired style.
There are two other important items on a Champagne label, one easy to find and the other tiny and usually hidden. The first is the level of sweetness. From driest to sweetest the levels are: Brut naturelle (bone dry), Brut (very dry), Sec (medium sweet), Demi-sec (sweet), and Doux (very sweet). This is printed on the label below the name of the producer. The other, harder to find designation is the professional registration code, demarked by two small letters usually on the side of the label. This informs the consumer what style of producer the wine is coming from. The two most significant are NM for Negociant-Manipulant and RM for Recoltant-Manipulant. Negociant-Manipulants are large companies that buy millions of gallons of wine from farmers and produce the wines at separate facilities. Think of these as the Wal-Marts of wine production. The hottest trend in Champagne nowadays is the rise of the Recoltant-Manipulant. Small scale grower-producers of wine that know the grapes, the soil and the wine. These are the farmers who want their Champagne to have individual style and quality, reflective of growing conditions and the terroir they work in everyday. The large houses produce great wine, but the little guys can make it even better and aren't bound by pricing structures that date back decades. These are often the best deals in Champagne.
Champagne is not the only place to get great sparkling wine. Wonderful Proseccos come from Italy. Dry and lively, they are often made from indigenous grapes and represent great values. Italy also makes the ubiquitous Moscato D'Asti, known throughout the world as a light, slightly sweet and effervescent wine. Perfect for a summer afternoon in a Roman Piazza or your backyard, these wines are as refreshing as a sizeable tax return. Not enough to change your life, but enough to restore your faith in the system. Spain also makes wonderful sparklers. The term Cava denotes a Spanish sparkling wine. Many come from Catalonia, near the Mediterranean coastal city Barcelona. These wines are inexpensive, dry and can often compare in quality to other sparkling wines at twice the price. California has seen a resurgence in the last few years from its bubbly wine market. Several traditional Champagne houses have set up shop in the Anderson and Sonoma valleys. Roederer Estates in Anderson valley and Domaine Carneros from the Tattinger family in Carneros are two of the best. From Georgia to Greece and Slovakia to Australia sparkling wine is produced all over the atlas. Don't be afraid to experiment as some of the best bargains and greatest values are found this way.
Now that we know the product, how about the occasion? You might want to splurge on a vintage Champagne like the Bollinger Brut Champagne Grande Année 1996 for a special occasion like sitting in front of a fireplace with that special someone. But what if you want to knock back two bottles or so on New Years? Try an inexpensive Spanish Cava or maybe a domestic Sparkler like the Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut Rosé N.V. Tropical fruits, delicate balance and it's pink. What's not to like?
Champagne and sparkling wines can make for excellent matches with an array of foods as well. The zippy acidity in a quality champagne pairs wonderfully with salty foods like caviar or oysters, but it also works nicely with many other seafood and lighter dishes. Desserts pair very well with heavier styles of bubbly, or a nice demi-sec can be enjoyed as a sweet treat on its own. Cross reference the food and wine matching page on winegeeks for an array of recipes and ideas.
Whatever your plans are for this holiday season there is a sparkling wine out there for you. If you are planning for a special occasion there can be no greater expression of elegance or refinement than a grand cru Champagne. If you are looking for a nice glass of bubbly to ring in the new year there can be no greater value than a nice Prosecco. If you just want a good wine with dinner remember the merits of a nice domestic sparkler. They come in all styles and sizes, from mouth-puckering dry to decadently sweet and from one-glass splits to a nebuchadnezzar which holds fifteen liters of Champagne. You may not need fifteen liters of bubbly, but it's out there for you if you want it.
