Because we’re well into the holiday season, I decided to
highlight beverages that put a little more cheer into your holiday merriment. For
starters, nothing says cheer like Champagne or sparkling wine. After winning
their 2nd championship in 3 years, the Golden State Warriors
supposedly popped 150 magnums (1.5L bottles) of Moet Chandon Imperial Golden
Luminous Champagne at $1200 per bottle. I say supposedly because while they did
spray the locker room with these bottles, the retail cost is closer to $120 per
magnum. Though it’s still a waste that most of it simply adorned the lockers
and weren’t consumed. But bubbly does say CELEBRATION!
Bubbly for all
Budgets
Since it is the holidays, that’s the one time most people
splurge on everything including adult beverages. And yes, you can spend upwards
of $200 to $250 for Dom Perignon, Crystal or Krug but for half (or even less)
of the cost, you can also enjoy Champagnes made from start to finish in a
single house. These Récoltant-Manipulant (RM) or grower-producer Champagnes are
houses where the owner plants the grape vines, tills the field, picks the fruit
AND performs the primary and secondary fermentation along with the final
blending of the finished bottle of Champagne. In orders words, they are as
involved in the final product as an artisanal created Cabernet Sauvignon from
Napa Valley. With most of the large Champagnes houses (Négociant-Manipulant or
NM), they simply purchase fruit from a various growers and simply perform the fermentation
and blending. It’s not that purchasing fruit is a bad thing – I’ll be last
person to turn down a flute of Krug or Crystal – and it does allow the large
houses to release non-vintage Champagne that consistently tastes the same every
year. As local Master Sommelier Roberto Viernes once stated,”Krug may not be
your favorite Champagne but you know it’s Krug when you sip it”. Because
grower-producer houses are limited to their own vineyards, the taste can vary
from year to year which I personally find appealing and because the
grower-producer houses are a lot smaller than the corporate houses like Moet
Chandon, Louis Roederer or Veuve Cliquot, they aren’t as well known and don’t
command the same price which I find even more appealing!
And one of my favorite grower-producers is the house of
J. Lassalle. Jules Lassalle started in 1942 by simply growing grapes with the
winemaking starting in the mid-1950s by his wife, Olga Lassalle. Eventually
their daughter Chantal Decelle-Lassalle took the reins as the 2nd
generation winemaker and since 2005, grandaughter Angéline Templier has been
crafting the Champagne. And as a bonus at this year’s Hawaii Food and Wine
Festival, Angeline Templier brought three of the J. Lassalle Champagnes to
Hawaii and all three were exquisite. If the Halekulani (where the tasting was
held) offered any of these for retail sale, I would have purchased a case of
each!
Short List of
Favorite Bubblies
Vintage Champagne:
1998 Krug – I tasted this at the Hawaii Food and Wine
Festival about 5 years ago and paid the king’s ransom to secure a bottle that’s
still in my cellar
2002 Lanson Gold Label – I’ve sampled this on several
occasions and it’s still as delicious as I first remember
Rose:
J. Lassalle – I’ll never turn down a glass of this
favorite and I can actually afford to purchase this regularly
Jacques Selosse – The master of having his wines express
the earth, unfortunately its price and scarcity means that that first tasting
may also be the last
Blanc de Noir Champagne (only made from Pinot Noir and/or
Pinot Meunier):
Egly Ouriet – Delicious fruit from Pinot Noir with good
acidity and very food friendly
Mousse Fils – Until I tried it, I never heard of this
label but it was very tasty
Blanc de Blanc Champagne (only made with Chardonnay):
Salon – The bubbly chardonnay that all others are
compared to
Pierre Peters – This speaks of the limestone soil
That Other Bubbly
And then there’s Champagne’s cousins, namely Prosecco
from Italy and Cava from Spain. Like Champagne, Cava is primarily made from a
trio of grapes but unlike the Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay in
Champagne, Cava features Macabeo, Xarello and Parellada which are all whites
grapes so technically Cava is a Blanc de Blanc though sometimes houses add a
little Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha or Monastrell to produce a rose sparkler
but it is still produced in the Methode Traditionale like Champagne. Prosecco
on the other hand is produced in the Charmat or bulk process where secondary
fermentation (to produce the bubbles) occurs in large stainless steel tanks
instead of individual bottles. This Charmat process is not as costly and
preserves the fresh, fruity qualities of the Glera grape but it also means that
you’ll never pay a king’s ransom to purchase a bottle of Prosecco with most
bottles less than $20. This lower cost also means you won’t feel as bad adding
mixers to your flute of bubbly like fresh fruit purees or other flavored liqueurs
yet still feel as festive. Try doing that with a flute of Dom Perignon.
Domestic
“Champagne”
Several of the large French Champagne houses have set up
shop in the United States including Domaine Chandon, Mumm Napa, Roederer Estate
and Domaine Carneros and their basic bottles of bubbly can be found in $25 to
$40 range which is a lot less than the French counterparts so once again, you
don’t have to shudder adding to mixer to your bubbly. And these domestic
varieties are produced from the same grapes in the identical Methode
Traditionale.
Napa Valley is also home to purely domestic sparkling
wine like Schramsberg, Iron Horse and En Tirage who also employ the Methode
Traditionale process of creating their sparklers with the same trio of grapes
but their roots are purely rooted in California. And closer to home you also
have Maui Wine’s Rose Ranch Lokelani sparkling wine so along with making merry,
you also support the 50th’s local economy.
Comments