November Round-up

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I've been so busy lately I have actually been drinking less champagne than I ordinarily would because I know I won't have time to blog about it and I hate seeing the bottles lined up on the counter waiting for their reports.

For the month of November (so far) I have three bottles to report on:

The first is a British sparkler, Avonleigh Brut. My husband brought this one home, I'm not sure what caught his eye, other than it is organic. This wine is a pinot noir and chardonnay blend, with the back of the bottle saying that it has hints of elderflower. I couldn't find them. We liked this wine, but it's nothing like the label describes, nor anything like a champagne. It has such heavy and rich apple flavours, it tastes like a sparkling cider. Even though I enjoyed it, it's not what I look for in a sparkling wine.

The second was another British wine, Denbies Sparkling Rose 2007. I had high hopes for this wine, as I really like Denbies still rose wines. This didn't live up to expectations. It was terribly bitter, and even drinking it with food couldn't mask the harsh finish.

So back to France for the last bottle...Ocado was running a special, so I bought a bottle of Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut, a blend of the three traditional champagne grapes, pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier. This was so much better than the other two bottles - plentiful bubbles, crisp, biscuity flavour. A reminder of why champagne is champagne. That said, I've had just as good champagnes for a better price than this one (usually in the high £30's, I bought it in the high £20's). So while it was a refreshing change from the British bubbles I had drunk this month, it's still not something I'd buy again.

It hasn't been all disappointing in November...we're also working our way through our latest order of Billecart-Salmon, although since I've reported on it all before, I'm not writing up the repeat bottles. There's still not much that compares to this brand though, for bubbles, flavour, and quality at price point. It's a sure-thing, always nice to have on hand when a never-before-tried bottle of something else disappoints.

Two Very Different Pinot Noirs

We had two bottles of bubbles during the week. The first was part of my Fizz Club case from the Champagne Warehouse, the latest release of 1+1=3 brut nature pinot noir. This was a juicy, berry-flavoured cava with a gorgeous, deep pink colour. Very yummy, although the bubbles weren't quite as good as the last batch of this cava that we drank.

The second bottle that we opened was the 2006 Cubitt Reserve from Denbies. This was also a pinot noir-based sparkler, but couldn't have been more different from the cava. To start, it wasn't a rose. Where the cava was full of berries, this was grape-y, like the kind of grape flavour you get in lollipops and bubble gum as a kid. The grape turns into grapefruit on the finish, with a nice acidity.

The only similarity came in the bubbles, which provided lots of fizz on opening, but didn't last through the glass. Disappointing for me, as I do love my bubbles.

More from Britain

We spent Saturday afternoon touring the British 'countryside' (actually, 15 minutes away from Zone 6 of London) with a friend of mine. It was lovely and lush from all of the rain. I am always amazed at how quickly the terrain changes from city to country around London! Knowing my penchant for bubbles, my friend suggested that we meet at Denbies vineyard, a very wise idea. We came home with several bottles of wine, both sparkling and still.

The first bottle that we tried, Denbies Whitedowns, had really intrigued me, as it was made from seyval blanc grapes, a new variety for me. It was an unusual sparkler, with OK fizz and a very green flavour, almost like under-ripe melon. It had a good enough balance that it didn't taste tart or bitter, it just had no sweetness to it whatsoever. I was borderline on whether or not I really liked it, it was interesting to me rather than enjoyable. The green-ness was too much for my husband, though, he would pass on this one again.

The Whitedowns wasn't the best-known or the most highly-rated of the Denbies sparklers, so hopefully the next ones we try will be more impressive.