What to Drink for Cheap - Sparkling Wine Part 2

The recent (relative) thaw has gotten me craving the days of warm-weather drinks and one of my favorites is the kir royale - a blend of cassis liqueur and sparkling wine. In my recent post, I recommended Cava as a delicious and cheap alternative to Champagne, but there's another side to the sparkling story, which can serve an equally quaffable purpose.

The technical stuff: What makes sparkling wine sparkling is a secondary fermentation. For the first fermentation, the steps are exactly the same as those for making still wine - sugar (from the grapes) + yeast (indigenous on the skin of the grapes or added by the winemaker) = fermentation and alcohol. This still wine is then held in a pressurized environment while more sugar and yeast are added. This second fermentation under pressure results in CO2, and, thus, bubbles when you open the bottle. Couldn't be easier.

The conditions of the secondary fermentation are a large part of the method that determines how the wine will taste in the end. There are two primary methods of secondary fermentation: The first, or the traditional method (called methode Champenois in Champagne), is the one developed in Champagne that gives the wine its unique characteristics. Long story short, many of the flavor characteristics common to Champagne and other traditional method wines (toasty, brioche-y, biscuity, nutty, etc., flavors) are due to the way in which the secondary fermentation takes place - a long, laborious process that involves prolonged contact of the wine with the spent yeast cells (called lees) in the bottle in which it is sold. Note that Champagne must be made by this method, as must Cava, Cremants, and Franciacorta. This is generally regarded as the most high-quality way to produce sparkling wine (although there are persuasive arguments to the contrary).

The other main way of producing sparkling wine is the charmat, or tank, method. In this style of production, the still wine is put into a pressurized tank, into which the dosage is added and the secondary fermentation takes place. The sparkling wine is then funneled under pressure to the bottle. The result is a sparkling wine that lacks the above mentioned bready, etc. flavors and is instead a clearer expression of the grape within (which can be somewhat obscured by the traditional method - explaining why the relatively aromatically neutral Chardonnay grape is so often favored in these wines), which is why it's fantastic for two of my favorite summertime sparklers.

The first is the gorgeous Moscato d'Asti, produced in the Piedmont region of Italy. Now, in my mind, this is a very stylized wine. It's super-aromatic, showing off the floral, peachy and honeyed aromas that are hallmarks of its Muscat grape. It's also sweet, as a result of its production method which is a twist on the tank method. But I can't imagine a better wine to accompany ripe berries and cream, or just on its own as a light dessert. A bonus is its low alcohol (usually about 5-7%, as opposed to the 12-12.5% in other sparkling wines), which can help it be a great finish (or start) to a meal that doesn't go straight to your head. One person I know terms it "fun juice," and he's not far off. Try pretty much any brand in your wine store. Just don't confuse it with Asti Spumante, which is Italian for "dreck."

The second, light, aromatic, super-summery wine that I love is the one that belongs in my kir royales (or mimosas, or bellinis, or ... well you get the drift) is Prosecco. This wine is produced all over Northern Italy and is named for the grape and is normally described as aromatic and crisp. The wine is vivacious, with bright lemon and lime aromas and is perfect for the hottest summer days, since it doesn't have the richness with which traditional method wines are generally associated. This also makes it great for combining with the fruity mixers of brunch cocktails. An overwhelmingly popular brand is Carpene Malvoti - which also happens to be quite good. Just drink it as young as possible.

Finally, a sparkling wine story that puts all of this into some perspective: I was at an evaluative tasting last year for various sparkling wines. The coordinator saved for last Andre (couldn't help myself, - try this link instead), expecting that all of our educated palates would crush this inferior, inexpensive wine. But, to everyone's surprise, the wine wasn't bad. It wasn't a subtle, refined Champagne, to be sure, but we didn't spit it out in disgust either. Lesson learned - it really is just fermented grape juice.

Champagne - an update

Thanks to Kathryn for pointing out that apparently, the NY Times beat me to the punch somewhat. This article does underscore my point that buying Champagne for less than $30 is a rather futile exercise. Henriot and Roederer remain on my short list for (relative) bargains in really pretty Champagne. Good on them for bringing prices down a bit.

What to Drink for Cheap - Sparkling Wine

So few of us can afford the super-premium brands referenced in the last post. What are we to drink, then? First, a few words on my philosophy on drinking and recommending wines. You can find plenty of blogs/articles out there recommending specific wines that you must simply run out and purchase. I tend to shy away from such pronouncements. I personally remember my frustration - when I knew less about what to choose - when after reading such materials in trying to find the suggested wines and not being able to.

Look, I can recommend plenty of gorgeous, small-production, artisinal wines on offer. These are the ones that I pounce on when I see them in stores or on restaurant wine lists. But sometimes these wines simply aren't available, even in my major metropolitan area. And I'll assume they aren't available in your area either. When I make specific, name-brand suggestions, I'm going to go with the brands that are most likely to be available to the greatest amount of readers. And the caveat always stands that if you can't find a particular name that I've recommended, just go ahead and buy by region. The worst that happens is that you end up with a (fairly cheap) wine that you really can't stand and you pass it off to your friends or cook with it. Experimentation with wine is the most exciting part of learning about it. Keep in mind that most commercially available wines in the U.S. are not undrinkable - they just might not change your life, and that's okay.

So away we go. I'm going to work my way in the style of most restaurant wine lists, which starts us off with sparkling wine - and happens to be a category that I find most overlooked in general. Another caveat: I find often that when I talk to people about Champagne and sparkling wine, they often bring up the terrible hangover experienced after a night of drinking too much bubbly. This blog isn't here to fuel your excessive drinking. 99.9% of people who imbibe responsibly will find no more ill effects from drinking sparkling vs. still wine. So sparkle on - just remember that too much consuption of any alcohol will provide a mean next morning.

Champagne itself (and here I refer - as I will for the rest of this post - to wine produced in the region of Champagne, France only) is expensive. Refer to the pricing post for more information why. It is possible to find cheap Champagne in the stores, but for the most part, I recommend you skip it. Unless you're willing to spring for the expensive stuff (and I'm talking about $30 and up), you can do better by buying from other regions.

Only about half of all sparkling wine made in France comes from Champagne. The rest comes from regions all over the country and are made from local grapes, but often with the addition of Chardonnay even if it's not traditionally grown in the region (for the record, the only three grapes allowed in Champagne are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Petit Meunier). The problem with most French sparkling wines - called cremant - is that they are generally grown in the same vineyards, and are in fact the same grapes, as are used for still wines. Without getting into too, too, too much technical information, let's just say that the wines that producers can't use for quality reasons for still wine often wind up going into their sparkling wine. So cremant, while it can be a worthwhile pursuit, is too dodgy a category for me to really recommend as a whole.

I suppose at this point I have to recommend something, so I will: Cava. Spain's answer to Champagne can be dirt cheap and a very fine substitute. Cava is made in exactly the same way that Champagne is and the reason that it's so cheap is because it's made in a different place from different grapes, neither being as optimal as it is for Champagne, and, thus, the product is cheaper. There is a bucketload of information that backs that statement up, but it will have to be left for another time. Quite simply, when I want to fix my Champagne jones on a beer budget, I reach for Cava.

Producers? Several of the major ones will do you quite nicely. Codorniu, Gramona and Raventos i Blanc are all quite good. Freixenet, in my opinion, is a bit of a step down quality-wise, but is still very commercially acceptable. Most Cava available in the U.S. is at least all right. So drink up.