Champagne and Other 'Champagnes'

...the girls' faces brighter than roses and the sparkle...
the hiss of sparkling wine-glasses...
- Aleksandr Pushkin

In just a few short days, 2010 will be here as the Old Year will replace the New. Typically, we celebrate this changing of the guard with kisses at midnight and the wines that sparkle. But as both Miguel Cervantes and Robert Frost once remarked, all that glitters is not gold, and if we think of wine, the same can almost also be said: all that sparkles is not Champagne.

TRADITIONAL CHAMPAGNE AND THE TRADITIONAL METHOD

For as long as I’ve known, Champagne will always be the by-word for sparkling wines the way that Kleenex has become synonymous with facial tissue. It’s here to stay. EU laws states that a wine must be from Champagne, in Northern France for it to be sold as Champagne. But when people say they are drinking Champagne when it's actually sparkling wine, they’re actually not that far off the mark.

Champagne, like many other sparkling wines is made using the traditional method (or méthod champenoise). The steps are as follows:

FIRST FERMENTATION: like every other wine, the producer has to make a still wine. So there's a harvest (in Champagne, there are three main varieties used: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay), the varieties ferment separately and wine is made. 

BLENDING:Each Champagne house has its own distinct style and taste so the blender will  work accordingly, aiming to stay consistent with the brand (some use just a bit of Pinot Meunier, the majority of the blend being Pinot Noir and Chardonnay).


Typically, the different wines will be non-vintage, meaning the wines for Champagne can be from any number of years. (If the vintage is stated, the wine must be 100% from that year.) Other things to keep in mind:

Blanc de Blanc – a wine made from white grapes only (i.e. just Chardonnay).

Blanc de Noirs – a white wine made from red grapes (i.e. Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier).

Veuve Cliquot - famous Champagne House - example of vintage Champagne

SECOND FERMENTATION: Before bottling, a small amount of liquer de tirage (a wine containing sugar, yeast nutrients and a clarifying agent) will be added to the now blended wine. Once in the bottles,  the second fermentation gets going. A temporary seal is then used as a closure and the wines are laid to rest horizontally.

In Champagne, the cellars where the bottles are placed are traditionally fairly cold - 
EQUATION : lower temperature equals slower fermentation equals complexity of the flavours.


The yeasts in the bottle work and eat away at the sugar, creating three important things: alcohol, CO2, and a final deposit (wait: why is the deposit important? wait and see).


While the wine slowly ferments, the gas is unable to escape from the bottle and slowly dissolves into the wine, thus giving us the bubbles when we pop the cork.

MATURATION: As the dead yeast cells break down and their enzymes interact with the wine (a process called yeast autolysis), the wine takes on new characteristics and the result is a ‘bready, biscuit, toasty’ taste. This is because Non-vintage Champagne has to be aged a minimum of 15 months and vintage, at least thee years giving the dead yeast cells time to intermingle with the other flavours of the wine.

RIDDLING: So now we have this wine with a deposit in it. How do we get rid of it?

Riddling is the answer. The bottle has been lying horizontally (sur latte) with the deposit on the side in a rack called a pupitre. The holes in the pupitre allows for the bottle to be placed at different angles. Over time, a skilled remueur (or I guess Riddler… if you wanted to be silly) will come along and skillfully, gradually, every so carefully give each bottle a gentle shake and twist and incline the bottle toward the vertical position.                                                            Pupitres in Champagne wine cellar

DISGORGEMENT: We’re almost done. Almost there.


Once this sediment has slid towards the cork and the bottle is nearly vertical, the neck of the bottle is frozen in a brine solution. From there, the bottles are placed upright on a conveyor belt, the ice holding the solid solution. The temporary cork is removed, the plug of ice with the deposit is ejected under pressure.

DOSAGE: Of course during the disgorgement stage, some wine is lost. As I mentioned, each Champagne house is different and some want their wines sweeter than others. It is fair to say, the majority of Champagne is dry (it used to be sweet, the Russian Tzars drank sweet Champagne by the bucket-load) but during the dosage stage, the kind of wine used to top up the bottle can be high in sugar. Here are a few terms to consider when buying Champagne:

Brut Nature – absolutely dry (as dry as dry can be).

Extra Brut – very dry

Brut – very dry to reasonably dry

Extra Sec or Extra Dry – off-dry to medium dry (just a bit of sweet in other words).

Sec/Dry/Secco/Seco/Trocken – medium dry (a bit more sweet)

Demi-Sec/Semi-Dulce/Abbocato/Halbtrocken – a bit on the sweet

Doux/Sweet/Dolce/Dulce/Doce – really sweet…lush…

WHEN IT’S NOT CHAMPAGNE, IT MIGHT BE…

Crémant – besides Champagne, other French regions such as Burgundy, Alsace and the Loire also make traditional method sparkling wine. On the label you’ll often see Crémant de Bourgogne, etc… These wines can be made with other white wines such as Pinot Blanc, Riesling and Chenin Blanc.

Cava – Spanish sparkling wine is perhaps the closest you can get to the real thing (I swear by Cava and love it and some wine lovers can distinguish between them). The majority of the wine comes from the vineyards of Penedés in Catalonia (northeast Spain), the wine can be produced in other regions such as Rioja and Navarra.

For Cava to be truly Cava, it must spend a minimum of nine months in bottle before disgorgement (also the cork must have a four-pointed star on its base). It’s dry, easy to drink, low in acid and very similar to Champagne with that bready, yeasty taste. The main grapes, however are different and include Maccabeo (aka, Viura in Rioja), Xarel-lo and Parellada. Some producers are also using Chardonnay but unlike Champagne, Cava is rarely made for aging. 

New World – outside Europe, you can find some excellent sparkling wines made in the traditional method in New Zealand, California, Australia and South America. But you have to keep an eye out for the real deal. Some New World wines are made using other methods (Tank, Carbonation) and won’t have the same charisma and characteristics of Champagne. Be cautious and look for labels that explain the method (i.e. Made Using the Traditional Method, etc..).

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Wine and Food Pairing for the Holidays

 Christmas time, Christmas time, I drink.... all my wine...

Back in Grade 9 History class, my geography teacher would sing the above little ditty. And usually it was when he was handing out tests (his version of merry fun I suppose).

Recently I was at a networking event and the master of ceremonies asked everyone to stand up, talk about who they were, what they did and what they looked forward to for the holidays. Most of them said 'drinking wine'. By the end, the MC suggested we all check ourselves into AA.

But what better way to indulge ourselves than with wine, goodies and gifts. I know, I know, the recession is haunting everyone but I figure we only live once. So this Sunday afternoon, I've decided to write about wine and food pairing for the holidays.

CHRISTMAS TREATS AND WINE

Christmas means cookies and pastries for me. I love cookies, it must be the Dutch blood. So basically what I have to do is always get a wine sweeter than my treats. A dry wine tastes sour with anything sugary.

But a great wine with pastries then, with cookies? I highly recommend  Pillitteri's 2008 'Fusion' ($13.00 available from the winery) a blend of Gewurztraminer and Riesling with a dash of Icewine. Just imagine apricots, mangoes and pineapple on your palate then add some Christmas cake or better yet, white chocolate macademia nut cookies. In October I discovered that Gewurztraminer (the sweeter ones) and cookies can be good friends.

For die-hard chocoholics, Port wine, a fortified wine from Portugal is ideally suite for dark chocolate. Port is a fortified wine from Portugal made and imported by British wine makers. When it was discovered that wine could survive the trip from the Iberian Pennisula to England by adding extra alcohol, the Brits jumped all over it. It was sweet, it was great with conversation and lo and behold it matched perfectly with chocolates.

I highly recommend this: pick up a bottle of  Taylor Fladgate Late Vintage Port ($16.99) and invite a group of friends over. Have them bring chocolates, various kinds – nutty, fruity, Belgium, Swiss, German, Dutch, whatever kind they like. Pour your guests about two ounces each – the wine is potent at 20% alcohol – and try the various chocolates with the port. You’ll get some great food and wine matches here. Your palette, your tongue and your senses will die of chocolate/port ecstasy. Expect mind orgasms. Not for the faint of heart. And of course, pace yourself – a port hangover can be nasty if you go too far. (It’s like waking up with a tub of heavy syrup sloshing around in your brain…and the nausea is pretty bad…trust me….)

Port also goes well with cheese - cheddar, brie (personal favourite) and stilton - as well as figs and dried fruits. 

Port and Stilton are best friends

If Port isn’t your thing or you’re too worried about suffering from sheer bliss (or a syrup brain), then grab a handful of nuts, raisins, almonds, pecans and walnuts and a glass of sherry. I know what you are thinking. Sherry is the crap your grandmother served you every Christmas for twenty years. The same bottle, the same sickly sweet taste. Forgive grandma and pick up a bottle of  Williams and Humbert Dry Sack Sherry (only $12.85 and give some to grandma, she’s probably been drinking the same gut rot for too long). This is the kind of wine that you don’t expect to match with anything. If you like cheese, try Manchego, the cheese of Spain.

The wine is lush and beautiful to absorb with notes of syrupy fig and overripe pear. Take a swig and you might think almond cake, mango and pineapple. This is the kind of wine to enjoy with Christmas cake or even a warm apple pie. Pumpkin pie as well.

WINE AND DINNERTIME - CHRISTMAS MEALS

What about Turkey dinner? Oh, well, that’s a tougher one. Most critics, food and wine writers have some idea but really, just go to town. Bring what you love to a Christmas dinner and drink it with friends. Turkey doesn’t really have a taste, so as long as you love the wine, drink it.

The right wine, however, can accompany the accoutrements. How does mom or dad prepare the bird? What kind of sauces? What kind of yams and potatoes. If your potatoes are buttery and gooey, then an Inniskillin  Winemaker's Series Three Vineyards Chardonnay ($18.99 - available from the winery) would be perfect, a wine with a vanilla body with touches of toasty nuts and bright butter. 

If you’re going to smother your bird in apple sauce or gravy, try a fantastic  Konzelmann Riesling ($11.95). This wine is apple and pears and just shy of being full-bodied. It won’t overpower your pallet but it might help you digest the dry portion of the bird.

A great wine with the cranberry sauce… well if the sauce is not sweet (and some tend to be sweet) I recommend the Malivoire's Ladybug Rosé ($15.95) - cherries and raspberries and a definite hit with turkey. If you want a red, I recommend a Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel ($17.95). Think stewed  and black fruit, mocha and spices.

NEW YEARS

Well, what are you drinking at New Year’s? Forget the Veuve Clicquot or Mumm’s, all that expensive stuff is just meant for the show-offs (I welcome it though because I'm not paying).


Champagne is great, it’s fine but for some it’s way too expensive and really, if you’re not used to the “bready”, “yeasty” taste of a sixty-dollar bottle, I recommend Asti or Cava.


Asti from Martini & Rossi ($13.75) is made from the muscato grape. It is a sweeter sparkling wine and not high in alcohol (only 7%). If you’re the designated driver and want to toast the New Year’s Eve without getting sauced, this is the ideal sipper. (It also pairs extremely well with sweet crepes.)


If you want a wine that is similar to champagne (Asti is not made in the traditional style of the champenoise), then pick up a bottle of Freixenet Cordon Negron ($13.95) from the Cava region in Spain. The bubbles are frothy and tickling, the acidity high and the wine will remind your palette of apples, lemon and a yeasty taste similar to traditional Champagne. But with Cava, you get quality and you can expect to save at least forty-dollars (and who really remembers who brought what to the New Year’s Party – let the show offs lose their money).Cava is great with oysters, salmon spreads and caviar. Spend your money on the expensive nibblies and save on the wine.

I can’t think of anything else accept don’t kill yourself buying gifts. Christmas is over in a day, as usual. But with the right bottle, a wine can help those good drinking memories last for years. (And no syrup hangovers, alright.)

Poor Charlie, he didn't see it coming...

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The Cheap and the Cheerful for Christmas

This time of year you really have to pick your shopping moments at the LCBO. Sometimes you get in and its just perfect, you pick a bottle or two, fly through the cashier and you're out the door, nothing to it.


But then, if you're unlucky, time pressing down on you, you get stuck behind that one customer who has to buy for the party and you might be standing there for awhile. Some of these shoppers look absolutely exhausted, (my father was telling me the other day that our  modern equivalent to battle fatigue is surviving the holidays - another reason why I can't stand Christmas) and some look excited - not a lot, mind you.


It must be difficult to plan a party or be the one on the liquor run. So I’m writing this blog for those that need some decent, cheap wines to please everybody.

SPAIN

‘Candidato’ Cosecheros Y Criadores – Tempranillo/Garnacha 2006

This is one of my favourite value wines available. The wine, a vino de tierra de Castilla has been sourced from grapes grown throughout the region of Castilla-La Mancha, the endlessly flat landscape of windmills and distant mountains made popular by Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Tasting Note: With six months in barrels, this wine is seductive and spicy, red fruit reminiscent of strawberries bathed in vanilla and nutmeg. A great party-pleaser, easy to drink.

Price: It was the Spanish who said Good wine ruins the purse while bad wine, the stomach. This wine does neither at $7.95.

USA

Beringer ‘California Collection’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Beringer is part of the multi-national corporate Foster Group which owns such famous wineries as (to name a few) Wolf Blass, Lindemans, Penfolds, Rosemount Estate in Australia, Chateau St. Jean, Etude and Stag’s Leap Winery in California and Matua Valley in New Zealand.

The Beringer name has gone back generations with Jacob Beringer leaving his home of Mainz, German in 1868. He met up with his brother in New York and by 1876 had set up a winery in California.

Tasting Note: An easy going character: fresh cherries, red currant with a vanilla blackberry backbone.

Price: For those office Christmas parties, Beringer is a nice fit at $9.95.

BULGARIA

Domaine Boyar – Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Eastern Europe is not what many of us typically associate with vineyards and wine but the former Eastern Bloc countries were known for their value wines. Bulgaria is perhaps the most famous when it comes to making cheap alternatives to French Bordeaux and in the 70’s and 80’s supplied British supermarkets not to mention satisfied the Soviet Union’s taste for wine. When Gorbachev came to power, the anti-alcoholism campaign started up (amongst other things) and Bulgaria felt the hit soon after the fall of communism.

Domaine Boyar is huge and if you visit their website you’ll need to know Russian and be able to read Cyrillic (by the way, the Russian alphabet was devised by a Bulgarian monk).

Tasting Note: This wine is all fruit and fun flavor. Candied strawberries and raspberries with ripe acidity and mellow soft tannins. Easy to love, easy to drink

Price: Incredible value at $7.85. Harasho (Xopoшo) as the Russians might say.

CHILE

Chile, like Spain, is another country known for its value-driven wines. There are many to recommend: Cono Sur 1.5 L ‘Tocornal’ Series (my favourite is the Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend at $13.95 – green pepper and blackberries with dashes of light smoky oak), the Mont Gras Sauvignon Blanc at $9.95 (for those that want a cheap alternative to New Zealand’s Kim Crawford or Babich, this wine offers nice grassy notes with lingering pineapple and citrus).

For those in search of a white that will wow, I recommend the Santa Alicia Reserva Chardonnay 2008. The fruit for this wine was sourced from the Maipo, a wine region just south of Santiago, known for its world-famous Cabernets. Santa Alicia won the 2007 Best Wine Producer in the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

Tasting Note: I know there are numerous ABCers out there (the Anything But Chardonnay crew) who just can't stand the oak flavour of chardonnay (a Nova Scotia woman I once met called it the 'barfy taste') but this wine has just a speck of oak. You'll get lush pineapple, white grapefruit and apples. The label says 'buttery texture' - I would argue more of a soft, fruity creaminess.

Price: Just $10.95 for an excellent Chard.

I know there are others out there but these are my favourites. I'm hoping to get a Canadian Cheap and Cheerful out by next week. I'll see what the lineups are like at the LCBO.

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