Lovely Loosen

I took a chance...I bought a bottle of Dr L Sparkling Riesling, a German wine from Loosen Bros. It was a very nice surprise. It tasted of honeyed apples and quince, but with a very dry finish. It had lots of bubbles at the start, settling into a lasting fizz. It was refreshing and fun, not at all sweet or overpowering. I liked it a lot, would definitely drink it again. It's not at all like a champagne, but a very tasty wine with bubbles, good as an aperitif, or perhaps with some cheese and nuts.

August round up - US

My husband and I managed a trip to the US together in August, which of course included some bubbles:

Our favorite was the Jagdschloss Brut 2009, a sparkling riesling from Germany. This was incredibly, mercifully brut, despite smelling of dried pineapple. It tasted of tarragon and other fresh green herbs. The bubbles were petillant, but plentiful. Very refreshing on a hot day. We drank this at the Terroir wine bar at the Highline garden, which I highly recommend for both having a wine list that included NY State wines and for the very good service.

We also had two properly American sparklers. Gruet brut, from New Mexico, a wine maker that we'd tried before and liked as one of the few American wines that wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. This one had a lot of honey and biscuit flavours, lots of richness and depth, and decent bubbles.

The other American wine we had was from NY state, Brotherhood blanc de blancs. This surprised us with its balance, not too acidic and not too sweet, with a very dry finish. It tasted of underripe grapes, with a more floral note as it warmed. Sadly, it just didn't have enough bubbles, being almost flat right from the start. Interesting to note that this vineyard proclaims to be the oldest in America, who knew that would be in NY rather than on the west coast?

The Run-Up to Christmas

December always presents excellent opportunities for drinking bubbles. We had a number of interesting bottles to try, particularly a few that I acquired in my travels this year. I'll start with those:

From my home state of New York in the USA, I purchased a bottle of Chateau Frank 2004 Brut. To be honest, this was not my preferred purchase from this vineyard, as the blanc de noir is supposed to be the best that this maker offers. But I couldn't find this in my local shop, just the brut, which is a blend of the traditional champagne grapes of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. It was only OK, definitely not a classic champagne as it was overwhelmed with apple cider flavour and too much sweetness on the finish, very typical of an American sparkling wine. I'll keep trying this maker, though, both for the still wines they produce and for the elusive blanc de noir, which I'll have to order on-line.

Next were two from Canada - a mixed group. We really liked Gray Monk's Odyssey White Brut 2008, a riesling and chardonnay blend that had a wonderful citrus freshness to it and plenty of tiny bubbles (which was a surprise from all of the flatter Canadian sparkling wines that I'd tried in the past). It was incredibly refreshing, the sort of wine you just want to keep on drinking because it's somehow both so flavourful and so clean on your palate. Less successful was Blue Mountain Brut, a mix of pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot gris grapes. This was just not very memorable, a bit of apple and citrus flavour with a touch of candied apple on the end, and nowhere near enough bubbles. Really not worth writing more about.

Some friends sent us a bottle of proper champagne for the holidays from Bedales - one we hadn't tried before called Jean Milan Blanc de Blancs. This family was originally a grower who first started making champagne for Krug and who now produce their own wines. This was a lovely bottle, with all of the things that make a blanc de blancs delicious - a light yeastiness on the nose, a crisp finish, loads of fruit flavours in the middle, and masses of delicate bubbles. What a fantastic gift - thank you!

I've saved my very favourite for last, though, as my husband bought me an English sparkler from The Wine Pantry. This was Coates & Seely Rose, which on the bottle says is made from pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay grapes (while their website doesn't include the chardonnay). At first, we weren't sure about this wine, as the bottle is done up in knock-off French, claiming to be from 'Britagne' and being made in 'methode britannique'. We weren't sure if they were taking the mickey or trying too hard to confuse the less au fait among us into thinking that they were actually champagne. But we forgive the exterior of the bottle for what was inside - smelling of the freshest summer berries, tasting of pink grapefruit, and leaving a lingering mouthful of tart candied peel. The bubbles matched the explosion of flavour, leaving me in no doubt that I will buy and drink this wine again!

Looking forward to trying some more in the run-up to New Year's...

BC Bubbles

My husband and I spent the weekend in Vancouver. I know, it's a long way from London, and yes, I am feeling it today. But it was a great trip, a really lovely, walkable city, and I was very excited about trying some Canadian sparkling wines. The best part was that both wine shops and restaurants showcased local British Columbian wines. I also really liked that two of the restaurants we visited offered 2-oz 'taster' glasses, making it easy to sample a few different wines with your meal.

Overall, I walked away with a very positive feeling about all of the wines we drank. The biggest surprise was a still, aromatic muscat from Joie Vineyards. Ordinarily, I would have avoided this wine because I find muscats to be a bit too much for me, but since I could order a 2-oz taster I thought, "Why not?". I was so pleased that I did, because this was, like the name of the vineyard, pure joy. It had an intensely floral aroma, so much so that I really thought I wouldn't like the wine. But the flavour was a wonderful balance of freesia and grapefuit, the perfect blend of floral and acidity. Next time, I would buy a whole glass of this, if not a whole bottle.

But on to the sparkling wines...

We first tried Sumac Ridge 2006 Stellar's Jay Brut. This wine is a blend of pinot blanc, pinot noir, and chardonnay. It was a very pretty colour, with a tinge of apricot along the rim. The apricot carried on in the flavour, hitting the mid-tongue with just a flash of sweetness. Interestingly, the wine smelled of sawdust, with a clean, dry wood scent. This sparkler was almost as much about what it wasn't - yeasty, toasty, biscuity - than what it was - fruity and tartly rich. It was hard to discern how good the bubbles were in the small quantities that we tried, although a fine stream of small bubbles was present on pouring.

The next wine we tried was Sperling 2009 Sper...itz. As the name indicates, this wine is more of an effervescent wine than a real sparkler - it less has bubbles and more has a texture on your tongue. Those of you who read my blog regularly will be completely dumbfounded when I write that the lack of bubbles totally didn't bother me with this wine, I really, really enjoyed it! The Sper...itz is made from riesling, bacchus, and perle of csaba grapes. On first smell, it was a rose garden in full bloom, but then this dissipated into a tropical island aroma. The flavour was a wonderful Hawaiian salad, with papaya, lime, and pineapple. This was so much fun to drink, and at only 7.5% alcohol, not at all a worry if you have one glass more than you intended!

The last wine we tried was a rose sparkler from 8th Generation Vineyard. This one was not on the wine list at one of the restaurants we visited, but on hearing my interest in BC sparklers, the nice lady who was serving us dug up a taster glass of this for me. Here's the thing, though - she told me it was a sparkling chardonnay, but a visit to 8th Generation's website doesn't show them making a rose sparkling chardonnay. I suspect what I had was actually the Confidence Frizzante, which is a chardonnay/pinot noir blend. The wine smelled like a Sharpie pen, (something that I really liked). It had a very dry, red berry flavour, not just the sweeter berries like strawberries and raspberries, but the richer ones, too, like currants and cranberries. The quantity wasn't enough for me to assess bubbles, but there were a few streaming up in the small glass.

I was encouraged enough by these experiences to find room in my suitcase to bring back to London a couple of bottles from other makers - very much looking forward to trying them!

BYOBB May'10

I have been blessed with a very thoughtful and helpful circle of friends. They're the sort of people who, when you invite them over, always ask what they can bring, and will even call you on the day to make sure there's nothing you missed that they can't pick up on the way over. I always want to tell them something useful to bring, but a lot of the time, I just can't think of anything.

Then I had this idea during the year of bubbles. It was rather forward, really. But I thought, why not invite a group of people over for some fantastic food and ask each family-group, up-front, to bring their own bottle of bubbly that we can open and try during the meal? Thus, the Bring Your Own Bottle Of Bubbly - BYOBB (TM)- event was established.

The ground rule has always been that what you bring doesn't have to be expensive or name brand, just a wine with bubbles that interests or excites you. The first year (2008), we were a group of about 10 people, and tried everything from cava to English sparkling wine to Billecart-Salmon rose. We didn't really rank it, just drank and ate a lot, and had a very nice afternoon.

Last year, we stepped things up a notch. We had about 16 people over, and we decided to blind-taste and rank everything we drank. It was a bit too big, to be honest, and because I didn't blog about it, I shamefully can't remember all of the different wines that we drank. I do remember that the favourites of the day were vintage Krug and Ruinart, with a surprisingly strong showing from Biddenden, an English sparkling wine.

This year, the BYOBB board decided that we needed to get back to a smaller group and do some serious (blind) tasting of non-vintage bubbles. And while we unfortunately were missing two guests due to illness, Mother Nature smiled on the six of us who got together on Sunday as we sat in the garden in the glorious sunshine!!

To start, I had been asked by The Champagne Warehouse to taste a bottle of Charles Ellner Brut Integral, a zero dosage champagne. This was a good aperitif, as the flavour of the wine was not very strong but held up to the mango gazpacho and prosciutto/melon/rocket rolls that I had made. Any stronger food and this champagne would be a bit lost, though. I was a little disappointed with the bubbles of this champagne (a common complaint for me throughout the day). This champagne scored an even mix of 4s and 5s out of 10 (10 being the best you've ever drunk, 1 being undrinkable), with a total score of 27/60.

As we were waiting for late arrivals, we moved on to the Philizot et Fils numero 2, a surprise entrant that my husband threw into the mix, as he was wondering what other people would make of this champagne. Thankfully, this bottle was nothing like the first one we opened and lacked the strong ground pepper flavour that made it hard to drink. One of our friends liked it more than the rest of the group, saying that it was fresh and flavoursome. Scores ranged from 4 to 7 out of 10, with a total score of 28/60.

The next bottle we opened was the Philizot et Fils numero 1. We served it with a spinach, chorizo, and potato tortilla and whipped salt cod with bread and crackers. Everyone agreed that this was a light, fresh champagne and marks moved up to 6s and 7s out of 10, with a total score of 41/60.

While I was in the kitchen preparing the next dish, a grapefruit, avocado, and pomegranite salad topped with lemon-marinated shrimp, my husband came in with the next glass of champagne, saying "this is just your thing". It turned out to be Billecart-Salmon brut blanc de blancs, a crisp, yeasty, wonderful champagne (even blind-tasting, my husband knows what I'll like). This was the top-scorer of the day, earning all 7s and 8s, with a total score of 47/60.

The final bottle was opened over our dual desserts of apple and rhubarb crumble and chocolate pate with chocolate-hazelnut shortbread. This wine was a puzzler - it was the only one that had enough bubbles for me. It had intense aromas and a depth of flavour. It defintely wasn't French, but none of us could place it, or identify the kind of grapes. It turned out to be a Russian sparkling wine from Abrau-Dyurso, which is a blend of some traditional champagne grapes and other grapes like riesling. Because it was such an unusual and interesting wine, it scored 5s and 6s, with a total score of 34/60.

It was a little surprising to me that our top two bubbles were French blanc de blancs, but I guess nothing beats a well-made and fresh sparkler on a hot summer day!

Along with thanking my friends for bringing their wines and for spending the afternoon drinking, eating, and ranking with us, I do have to thank my 'corporate sponsors':

Billecart-Salmon, for providing glasses, chilling buckets, and aprons and
The Champagne Warehouse for providing the tasting bottle and some tasting notecards.

We'll be repeating this tasting with the same wines later in the year, and it will be interesting to see if and how our opinions of these wines change with time!

Staycation 6

Yesterday we tried our second German wine from The Winery - this one was a perlwine, a semi-sparkling riesling called Trossecco made by Rita and Rudolf Trossen. The Trossens make ecowines, which interested us, and we haven't seen or drunk many sparkling rieslings. Plus, this one had a crown cap, something that amuses us, even though I find the experience of opening the bottle not quite as exciting as popping a cork.

Even though this wine was labelled 'trocken' (dry), we knew the riesling grape would still have some sweetness to it, so we decided to serve the wine with food with Asian-influenced flavours - sesame-coated shrimp, coconut rice, and purple-sprouting broccoli tossed in chilli oil and ginger. The food and wine match was a huge success. The wine had softly-sweet citrus flavours to it, things like lychee and passionfruit and guava, yet still had the creamy roundness of a sparkling wine. The only thing it lacked was bubbles - I could see two or three on first pouring, by the third sip my glass was entirely flat. But the flavour more than made up for it!

This was a fun experiment, and if you're keen on prosecco or cava, I would hunt this wine down and try it for something a little different.

The Other End of the Spectrum

Having tried an expensive-but-not-*that*-impressive champagne on Valentine's Day, a couple of nights ago we popped open the £5 bottle of sparkling wine, a chardonnay, riesling, chenin blanc blend from Vina Maipo in Chile, that we bought at the supermarket. Not for any special reason - two sodas would have cost us almost the same amount, so we just opened it as my husband ate a homemade calzone and I finished off some leftover venison stew.

Drinking this wine after having recently had a champagne from a wonder year was an interesting experience, though. The Vina Maipo had a very nice flavour - a strong grapiness at the start, mellowing to tropical fruits with a hint of pineapple at the finish. But it also had a totally different and very thin mouth-feel - almost like drinking skim milk after being accustomed to drinking full-fat.

In a blind tasting, would you know this wasn't an expensive wine? Yes. Would you care that it wasn't the priciest or the best if you were drinking it in the middle of the week with leftovers for dinner like we did? Absolutely not. You'd enjoy it, and it would give your meal that little bit of something extra that mid-week meals need. That's the beauty of well-made, inexpensive sparkling wines.