Beating The High Cost of Bubbles

November 30, 2007

Holiday Season is a time of Good Cheer and Festive Gatherings. And those family, friends, co-workers, social group, church, or whatever get-togethers are usually fun (not always unfortunately), laden with sweet treats, trays of cheeses and meats, candies, and all manner of food you have avoided for 11 months.

Drinking?? Yes, thank you. Nothing is more festive than a cold, bubbly glass of wine with bubbles. Champagne or Sparkling Wine is a “natural” during the Season.

But have you checked out the tariffs on Champagne these days. Wow, talk about sticker shock!

Our pathetic dollars are no match for just about any currency on the planet, and we seem to be particularly weak as compared to the Euro. Unfortunately, for us, the Euro is the legal currency for France, and the exchange rate is not just mind-blowing, it’s starting to be embarrassing.

So your favorite Champagnes have dramatically increased in price due to: 1) Everyone around the world wants this beverage, making supply tight and demand high. Which gives Champagne producers the economic right to raise prices a bit, and they have; and 2) Champagne is priced in Euros in the Champagne region, and we have to give them more dollars to meet the price since the value of the dollar is in free-fall in that market.

What to do?  You can, of course, determine the price is worth it and go forward, putting on a brave face and convincing yourself, “It’s the Holidays. Let’s not worry about this now.” That’s fine until the cold slap of Visa and Mastercard reality hits you in January.

Or you can find substitutes. What?? Substitutes? Who knew there were substitutes for Champagne?

Well, there are, and, while they do not possess the finesse and quality of Champagne, sparkling wines from other areas do a pretty good job at a lower cost. Not a bad thing.

First, a rule of thumb:  be certain that the sparkling wine you are considering is made in the classic Methode Champenoise style.  Any bottle not noted with this designation, or the methode traditionelle  notation,  I suggest you look away. Other methods include the Charmat process, which means the wine is converted to sparkling wine in bulk. The results are fine if you are mixing fruit juices or other liquers into the sparkling wine. Otherwise look at other bottles on the shelf.

One other point, look for Brut on the label, or its equivalent. Dry is really not the term you may think it is in sparkling wines. Dry really means Sweet, and Sweet really means very, very sweet. Other terms such as Seco, Sec, Demi-Sec, Demi-Seco are really measures of sugar, and they are all sweeter, higher in sugar than Brut. 

Okay, what else is out there as a Chamagne-equivalent? In France, not too far from the Champagne region lies the Loire Valley. Known for excellent white wines, several sparkling wines eminate from this area, mostly from around the community of Saumur.

Moving a bit west and to the south is the Spanish sparkling wine producing area of Penedès, just outside of Barcelona. Here Spanish winemakers produce cavas, their sparkling wines made in the Champagne method.

These are good values, and have excellent structure and acid. Good to drink by themselves, or as an accompaniment to food.

Germany is producing a lot of sparkling wine, but they seem to keep it for themselves. These wines are called Sekt or Sekte. Germans love these wines and drink them by the case. No special occasion required.

Instead of utilizing the traditional Chardonnay or Pinot Noir grapes that are used by most producers around the world, the Germans, due to their cooler climate, use Riesling, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), and rulander (pinot gris).

The Italians have been in the sparkling wine business for a long, long time. For awhile, certain American wine producers were making simply awful wines with a slight fizz, known as frizzante, and ripping-off the good names of the Lambrusco and Prosecco areas. Those wines were of minimal quality, tasted flabby, and were just an amalgamation of whatever grapes were left over from the crush and a ton of sugar. Bleccch!

Real Lambrusco, from the Emilia-Romagna area, and Prosecco, from the Veneto, are terrific beverages. They are laden with character, excellent fruit, and are good values. In these areas, be certain to enforce the Brut-rule, buy wines that note this designation. Otherwise you will end up with a very sweet, not so structured wine.

You may also want to explore sparkling wines from California and Washington State, as well as some excellent wines from Australia and New Zealand.

My experience is that wines from these areas are not particularly inexpensive, and I find myself wondering if I am going to spend that money, why not just go for real Champagne?

In Champagne and Sparkling Wines, as we have noted before, price can be an excellent measure of quality. Unfortunately in this wine category, you do get what you pay for. If the wine is too inexpensive, it is probably not that good.

Enjoy the Bubbles, and maybe save a little bit of money over the high-end drink. Then go buy yourself something nice. You deserve it.
 
Sparkling Wines from the Loire
Bouvet-Ladubay
Gratien
St. Germain
Langlois-Chateau

Spanish Cavas from the Penedes
Codorniu
Huguet
Miro
Segura Viudas
Freixenet

German Sekte Wines
Kurt Darting
Pfeffingen
Burklin-Wolf
Hubert Ganz
Diel
Kerpen

Italian Lambrusco and Prosecco
Fattoria Paradiso
Ferruci
Adriano Adami
Nino Franco
Ferrari, sparkling rosé wine from the Trentino