Bubbles make it all better
We don’t drink a lot of sparkling wine here at chez snark. I’ll be the first to admit that we’re not the most educated sparkling drinkers – after all we’re mostly self-taught and we don’t drink a lot of bubbly – vicious cycle anyone? It’s not that we don’t like these wines, however. In fact, I’d love to be drinking more of them. The main reason we drink so little sparkling wine is because there are only 2 of us drinking it (unless we’re entertaining), and we don’t typically finish a bottle in an evening. Still wines will normally hold up for a few days with proper care, but a sparkling is good for little more than cooking by day 2. Since we’re buying these wines, we’re unwilling to open them when we won’t be able to finish them.
I was craving some bubbles, however, and we had a bottle of cava that we picked up as an impulse purchase during a winter visit to Corcoran Vineyards because the bottle was so darn pretty. (Speaking of which, we’re now trying to figure out what to do with the bottle since it’s far to pretty to recycle. If you’ve got an idea, please let us know.) I typically prefer the yeastier, French-style sparklings to Spanish cavas, but I was craving the fun of bubbles after a really bad week.
The Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Heredad had a really fruity nose – lots of apples and pears. There was a hint of yeastiness on the palate, but the fruit flavors of apple and citrus were definitely dominant. There was also a bit of creamy chalkiness that came out towards the finish. This wouldn’t be the first sparkling I’d reach for (give me more yeast!), but it was definitely enjoyable.
In addition to craving bubbles, I was also craving sushi. I’ve heard that sparkling wines go well with sushi – something to do with the salt and spice I think. I was a skeptic, but it worked a lot better than I expected. I think I’d prefer the pairing with one of those less fruity/more yeasty wines, but it was a fun experiment. As another positive, this wine helped us knock off 2 more on our quest to join the century club since the wine is 67% Macabeo and 33% Parellada.
What sparklings (from within or outside of Virgina) would you recommend we try?
The Bubbles make it all better by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
It had been one of those meat grinder weeks when VA Wine Diva floated the idea of sushi and sparkling by me, so when it came with the caveat that we’d have to at least try to finish a bottle in one evening, I was game. Always willing to take that bullet for you, Dear Reader. Besides, she’s been moon-eyed over the idea of the pairing since she first heard about it, and I was curious.
Know what? It works! The sushi and the sparkling paired really well together. Now, I’m not saying that this was my fav sparkling wine. The flavors were ok- super smooth and apple-y- but it wasn’t rockstar. Still, it played well with fish (I found Nemo! Gulp!) and made a tasty takeout treat feel pretty darn luxurious.
My wife and I turn our cute/fancy/important bottles into lamps:
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Lamp-Turns-Bottle-Instant/dp/B000BNJHDW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1280327240&sr=8-1
As far as Virginia Sparklers, we like the Barboursville sparkler for an ‘everyday’ sparkling wine, but for special occasions we like the sparkler from Thibault-Jannison in Virginia, nearly twice the price of Barboursville, but delicious and wonderful in all senses.
We have a bottle that someone bought us with Christmas lights in them. You could drill a small hole in the back, and thread the lights through. It makes for a nice knickknack.
If you HAVE to drink wine from outside Virginia I have two suggestions. Gruet of New Mexico of all places, makes excellent sparkling wine and prices are good. Another surprise is Barefoot. You can find Barefoot around $10 so if you don’t finish, no big financial loss.
Chris & mgp- sounds like some great stuff to do with bottles! We were at a winery this weekend where someone had basically filled a bottle with xmas lights and it was pretty awesome. For the more complex ideas, I get to buy a Dremel and I couldn’t be more stoked!
Doug, Thanks for the sparkling suggestions. I’ve actually heard good things about the Gruet offerings from NM, so I may have to keep an eye open for them.