(Note: This is adapted from my first post as a regular contributor on The Vines’ Blog, where I will now be posting as well - hopefully at least weekly. There may be thematic similarities, but here you’ll find more of me, more geeky wine info, and less sales pitches. The adaptation, this time around, got pretty long…)

Well boys and girls, it’s that time of year again: time to listen to the moving sound of Champagne corks popping. Bubbly, time for bubbly! At least, that’s how most people see it; more sparkling wine sells in the United States in the month of December than almost all of the other months of the year combined. Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, Spumanti… each one sparkles. And, come the end of the year, each one sells.

As such, I thought this a timely opportunity to explore the differences between all of the above, and more importantly to talk about how they can be enjoyed the rest of the year. For me, it’s always time for bubbly - I’ve even been told recently that nobody likes sparkling wine as much as I do. While that’s certainly not true in the circles I move in, maybe I’ll be able to convince some of you to join us in continuing the party into January - and through the rest of the year.

It seems I cannot order sparkling wine in a restaurant anywhere in the US without being asked what it is that I’m celebrating. Can’t one just celebrate a love for bubbly, is that not enough? Pay homage to the best way of starting a meal? There is also a common mindset that there’s no place for sparklers at the table - another misconception I’d like to address. Have you ever tried a dry sparkling wine with spicy Thai food, for example? No better way to cleanse the palate. Bubbly with pizza? Beer is good, but try that one! Then of course there’s seafood - almost nothing is better than a bone-dry sparkler with shellfish. Mollusks and bubbles: YUM.

Now, let me be clear: there is certainly a place in every party for a bottle of bubbly (or a case or two, depending on the crowd). Who doesn’t like to celebrate to the sound of corks flying through the air? One of my greatest challenges when I started learning formal wine service was remembering to open the bottle silently. Where’s the fun in that?? In Madrid, where I once celebrated New Year’s Eve, they like to take it one step further - not only do they send the corks flying at midnight, but the wine as well. Never have I been so wet at the beginning of a New Year… good thing I started drinking (long) before they started spraying!

As much as sparkling wine is festive, however, it’s also wine - there’s a great deal of variety at every level of the category, and it can fit in with many meals. White or Rose, sweet or dry, there is a time and place for everything, and subtleties among each of the above categories. One can even learn from tasting it after the bubbles have gone: you’ll find that the good stuff is still good, and that which is not, well you can actually identify the flaws. (The same goes for tasting still white wine at room temperature, by the way.) When given the chance, it’s always fascinating to taste the same blend produced as a still wine and a sparkler side by side, although not many producers offer that.

So, what’s the difference between Champagne and Cava, anyway? Prosecco and Spumanti? Why do some of us get so defensive if you use ‘champagne’ to describe wine from California, or Mendoza? These are questions I’ve gotten many times over the years, and and the answers comprise one of my favorite oeno-diatribes. Some of you have probably heard it - maybe even while sharing a bottle of bubbly with me.

First, and most simply, Champagne is actually the name of a political region in the northeast corner of France, from whence the real stuff comes. It shares a border with Belgium, is only a couple of hours from Paris, and grows primarily the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes. It is there that the “traditional” (or “champagne…”) method of making sparkling wine was born.

When talking about different methods of making sparkling wine, really what we’re talking about is where the bubbles come from, and there are basically three different processes used. Many inexpensive sparklers are made in the “tank” method: still wine is produced, placed in a steel tank that is able to withstand high amounts of pressure, and CO2 is pumped in. Simple. I like to call this the “soda” method - it doesn’t mean the wine will be bad, but it does mean that the bubbles won’t last very long.

Next in the hierarchy of bubbly comes the “Metodo Italiano,” or “Charmat Process,” which was created in Italy by Eugene Charmat in 1907 (thanks, Wikipedia) and is most commonly used in the production of Prosecco - a sparkling wine made in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy from the grape of the same name. This process is something of a compromise; the bubbles are born in a tank, but naturally, as carbon dioxide is released during a secondary fermentation. This creates a natural effervescence, with longer lasting bubbles, and the wine is bottled under pressure to conserve them. Asti Spumanti, a sweet sparkler made in Piedmont in Northwestern Italy, is also typically produced this way.

But Champagne, the real stuff, shines above all. It can make your mouth tingle with pleasure even after several glasses, mesmerize you indefinitely… Soft yet structured, there is truly nothing like it - and this comes from somebody who loves ALL sparkling wine! It’s easy to pass off Champagne-centricity as mere snobbishness, but I assure you: not all bubbles are alike. Just for the record.

Champagne is made from various blends of the three grapes I mentioned above: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. A “Blanc des Blancs” is made from all Chardonnay, and a “Blanc des Noirs” is made from Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier, both of which are red grapes. However, as the wine spends no time with the skins, which contain all the color, the wine is white. (The exceptions to the color rule are few, and esoteric). When unspecified, as is the case with most Non Vintage, Brut Champagnes that you see on the shelf, the wine can be any combination of the above. Rose can be made either from brief contact with the skins of red grapes, or by blending a small amount of red wine (usually Pinot Noir) into a white wine.

During the Champagne Method, the wine is placed in a bottle with a small amount of yeast, which initiates a secondary fermentation. It is closed with a “crown cap,” which is what we’re used to seeing on a bottle of beer - there’s no cork yet, and this is probably the same bottle you are pouring it from. And then it starts to get pretty cool.

As the fermentation is carried out, and CO2 released, the bottles go through a process called riddling, which was invented by a certain Dom Perignon at the beginning of the 18th century. The bottles are placed in a rack (or a machine, nowadays) where they are slowly (and I mean slowly - the process can take 6-8 weeks) angled downwards, until eventually the bottles are upside down and all of the sediment is settled in the neck. The neck is then passed through a cooling solution, so the sediment solidifies into one piece; the cap is removed, and…. it is all pushed out by the natural force of the CO2 within the bottle. I’d love to hear the sound that makes - you think popping corks is fun! Although I don’t think you’d want to get hit with that one.

This process is called disgorging, and it obviously this leaves some empty space in the bottle. What this space is filled with determines how sweet the wine will be - the bottle is topped off with the “dosage,” which is wine made from the same blend as what’s in the rest of the bottle. This contains various levels of sugar (or none at all). “Brut” means dry, with only a minimal amount, “Brut Zero,” or “Brut Nature” means there is none. From there it goes on to be “extra sec,” “sec,” “demi-sec,” or “doux,” from driest to sweetest. (”Sec” in French means “dry;” “doux,” means “sweet”). There are actual numbers and sugar levels associated with each of these terms, but I don’t know them and I wouldn’t bore you with them if I did. As it is, I’m wondering if anybody made it this far in their reading.

So, this New Years, however and wherever your bubbly was made, I hope you enjoy it. And hey - remember that you don’t have to wait until next December to try another one. Send those corks flying.

December 16th, 2007 | vino