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Wine Video: My Personal Sabering Experiment
If you remember my Father’s day post, I mentioned successful experiment in Sabering of the Champagne bottle. Okay, not really a Champagne – it was Cava Rose ( a very tasty one, Marques de Gelida Cava Brut Reserva). As I promised, here is the video for you:
To tell you the truth, once you open a sparkler this way, it is hard to go back to the traditional bottle twisting…
So…yes, you can try it at home! Have fun! Cheers!
Wine Videos: Big League Sparklers Showdown
Continuing the “sparklers” theme, I want to offer you three commercials from the big league Champagne.
First, a commercial for Veuve Clicquot:
I’m not sure if the next video is really a commercial, it looks more as a tribute by Dom Perginon to Andy Warhol – but in any case it is a wine video:
And last but not least is a commercial for my all times favorite Champagne – Krug:
What the verdict is going to be? Any preferences? Cheers!
What Is In The Bubbles? – 2011 Version
Yesterday I shared with you my perspective on sparkling wine from 5 years ago. What happened in the past 5 years in the world of bubbly? Champagne is still a Champagne, as invented hundreds years ago, right? I would like to summarize the differences in two words: diversity and abundance.
Of course nobody invented Cava, Prosecco, Sekt or Cremant in the past five years – those sparkling wines had been around for hundreds of years. But never before were sparkling wines so abundantly available in United States – lots of them of a great quality and finesse, rivaling Champagne in taste and even more certainly, in price (average price of Champagne increased by about $5-$10 per bottle, depending on the brand and the actual wine store).
Diversity is another phenomenon in the world of sparkling wines – each and every category of the sparkling wines, including Champagne, has a lot more brands and styles widely available in many wine stores. Talking about Champagne, have you heard of Growers Champagne five years ago? I’m sure you did, if you are in the wine trade, but very unlikely if you are not. As we discussed before, majority of the Champagnes is produced by few big Champagne houses. For the most cases, those Champagne houses are not growing their own grapes, they are buying them from the growers. Some of the growers are also started making Champagne, which can be very distinctive and of a very good quality – I mentioned my experiences with Growers Champagnes a number of times before (you can find old posts here and here). Also increasingly available French sparkling wines made outside of Champagne appellation – they are often called Cremant and you can easily find Cremant de Alsace, Cremant de Bordeaux, Cremant de Bourgogne, Cremant de Jura, Cremant de Loire in many wine stores around you.
Going outside of France, more and more sparkling wines are made all over the world. While Italy, Spain, Germany and US where always on the bubbly’s map, during the last couple of years I was able to taste sparkling wines from Argentina, Australia, Georgia (Georgian Sparkling wine, called Bagrationi, was our favorite wine during blind tasting, beating out classic Champagne and many other – you can read about it here), South Africa, Switzerland and Uruguay. Next to this geographic diversity is number of grapes used nowadays for production of the sparkling wines. Traditional Champagne, as well as many of the Cremant wines and sparkling wines made in US and Italy, are made out of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – however, in addition to this short list I tried sparkling wines made out of Chasselas, Chinebuli, Gamay, Malbec, Shiraz and Vidal (here is the post). A number of sparkling wines were also made using natural and biodynamic methods – I had a number of outstanding French sparkling wines made from Gamay (here is the post). If you are interested in this particular category ( natural Sparkling wines), I would highly recommend checking PJ Wine web site, which boasts excellent selection.
No matter what you are celebrating, there is always a special bottle of sparkling wine waiting for you. There is also nothing wrong with celebrating just another day. But considering that tomorrow is a New Year, make sure you have a good supply of the bubbly – no matter where it is from or what grape it is made out of, it is guaranteed to make your moment special. Happy New Year! Cheers!
What Is In The Bubbles? – 2006 version
In the past, I wrote a few wine articles for one of the local newspapers here in Stamford – Stamford Times. As right now it is a champagne times all over the place, I thought this post about bubbly, written in 2006, still make sense. So here it is in its entirety, and I will give you 2011 perspective in the next post. Happy reading!
What is in the bubbles?
What is one type of wine a lot of people will be reaching for very shortly? If you said “champagne” – you are right. If you said “sparkling wine” – you are right too. As New Year rapidly approaching, one of the traditions of celebration is having a glass of “bubbly” with the toast to the health and happiness in the arriving year. Where this tradition is coming from is hard to tell, as ever since champagne was invented, it very quickly became a symbol of celebration – a new ship, a new house, a wedding and all other significant events all call for champagne on the table.
Let’s take a look at the history – what is champagne and where did it come from? As many other prominent discoveries of the past, the discovery of champagne is largely a result of an accident. Champagne as we know it came from France, and as majority of other French wines, the name of the region where the wine is produced became the name of the wine. Champagne region is located in the northern part of France. One of the characteristics of that region is cool weather – the mean annual temperature is only slightly above 50°F, just a minimum necessary to allow grapes to ripen.
At the same time, the advantage of the cooler climate is that it allows grapes to ripen slowly, thus gaining more flavor and adding complexity. When grape juice is becoming a wine through the process called fermentation (by adding yeast to the grape juice), constant temperature is very important for the overall success. If the temperature drops too low, the fermentation would stop. Once the temperature rises, if there is any residual yeast left, fermentation will start again. If the wine is already bottled, this so called secondary fermentation will take place inside the bottle. Those wonderful refreshing bubbles, which we adore so much in our champagne, is nothing but carbon dioxide, which is a normal byproduct of fermentation process. If takes place during first fermentation, all carbon dioxide will go out in the air. At the same time, when secondary fermentation takes place in the closed bottle, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go, thus it stays in the bottle and becomes a wonderful fizz we all enjoy. Thus thanks to the Champagne’s weather helping to “spoil” bottled wine, and someone’s imagination, we received a gift of great taste called champagne. Who was that “someone”?
History often calls a French monk, Dom Perignon, an inventor of the champagne. In the late 17th century, Dom Perignon was a cellarer at the abbey of Hautvillers, near Epernay in Champagne. Dom Perignon also was a great winemaker, who mastered making practically a white wine from the black grape ( Pinot Noir). He also advanced the art of blending ( mixing wines from different vineyards and/or vintages) to produce wine of consistent qualities. Blending is one of the cornerstone processes in making of the champagne. Interestingly enough, Dom Perignon worked hard to prevent the fizz in wine, which was at a time considered a sign of the poor winemaking. Nevertheless, the name Dom Perignon literally became a synonym of the great champagne. It is also suggested that there is a famous phrase which belongs to him – “Come quickly! I am tasting stars! – he said at the first sip of champagne.
Let’s talk about some of the characteristics of the champagne. First, there are 3 types of grapes used in champagne’s production – chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Next, there are 2 main categories of champagne – non-vintage (usually the letters NV are added to the name) – blend of wines from the different vintages, and vintage, when only wine of single vintage is used. There are usually only few vintage years in a decade, so the majority of the champagne consumed is a non-vintage ( NV) variety. One more classification is based on the types of grape used in the blend – most of the champagne are a blend of different grapes, but if only Chardonnay grapes had being used, the champagne will be called Blanc de Blancs, and if only Pinot Noir is used, the champagne is called Blanc de Noir. Lastly, there are different levels of sweetness found in champagne, which is also put on the label: if the label says “Brut”, it is very dry, Extra Dry – less dry, Sec – sweeter, Demi Sec – medium sweet, Doux – sweet. Interestingly enough, most of the champagne produced before 1850 was sweet. Majority of champagne produced today falls into brut or extra dry categories.
Similar to the other wines from France, there are thousands producers making champagne. At the same time there are currently 26 Champagne Houses, known as Grand Marques – they are making most of well known champagne in the world. Some of the most popular names from that group include Bollinger, Charles Heidsieck, Krug, Moet & Chandon, Mumm, Perrier-Jouet, Salon, Tattinger and Veuve Clicqout. Is there champagne made outside of France? Of course, but it is not called champagne. In majority of the cases, only the wines produced in the Champagne region in France are called champagne. Sparkling wines, which are produced using the same winemaking techniques, are made in the different parts of the world – Cava in Spain, Sekt in Germany, Spumante in Italy, Sparkling wines in California. Some of the well known sparkling wines producers in California include Korbel, Schramsberg, Iron Horse, Mumm Cuvee Napa.
How champagne is served? It is served cold, best temperature being in the range of 43°F – 48°F. Most appropriate glasses for champagne are flute- or tulip-shaped. Do not serve champagne in the wide open glasses – this only leads to champagne going flat in no time, losing all of it’s refreshing fizz.
What is champagne served with? First, champagne makes great aperitif – great way to start an evening with friends. When it comes to food, similar rules apply as for matching any other wine and food. Champagne represents light and refreshing wine, thus it would be best paired with similar type of food, meaning being light. Shellfish, oysters, seafood, poached salmon all would do great. Also sushi is definitely not to be forgotten. And, yes, of course, the classic combination – Champagne and Caviar.
As John Maynard Keynes said, “my only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne” – let’s not make this mistake! Get the friends together, open the bottle of bubbly, and celebrate – New Year, new child, a new beginning! Happy New Year! Cheers!
Champagne Blind Tasting – Don’t Try That At Home?
The idea was born – blind champagne tasting. It’s going to be fun! Well, blind sparkling wine tasting, to be more precise. The date was set, menu decided upon. Everybody have to bring a bottle of sparkling wine, which is expected to be of reasonable quality. No, it doesn’t have to be from Champagne only, anywhere in the world is good – with some notable exceptions. For instance, sparkling Shiraz was not welcomed.
All precautions had being taken to ensure that tasting will be blind. All bottles placed into the paper bags, and taped on top. We ended up with 9 different sparkling wines (mistake number 1 – too many). The simplest challenge was to have enough glasses as we adamantly resisted the idea of plastic, so we had to split tasting into two groups, 5 and 4 wines – mistake number 2 stemming from mistake number 1 – all wines should have equal time to breathe, even sparkling.
There we went with the tasting. Wine #1, #2, #3… Break after #5 to move glasses, open 4 more bottles, pour and continue. I think the biggest challenge was the fact that differences between sparkling wines (in general) are often very subtle, and it requires highly trained and sophisticated palate to pick them up. For most of us, we would probably stand at least some chance if we would take extended time to assess the quality of the sparkling wine. Typically white or red wine is “in your face” from the moment you smell the wine. Sparkling wine usually is not. Therefore, you need to reflect on each sip of sparkling wine a lot longer to assess its qualities. If you are moving too quickly, those sparkling wines are becoming almost “all the same”.
Anyway, here is the list of sparkling wines we had at the tasting, in the exact order as we tried them:
- 2006 Bodegas Carrau Sust Brut Nature Vintage, Uruguay
- Franciacorta Bellavista Cuvee Brut, Italy
- 2006 Jacques Germanier Blanc de Blancs Brut Millesime Grande Reserve, Switzerland
- Champagne Gosset Brut Excellence, France
- Champagne Thierry Triolet Brut, France
- 2007 Bagrationi Royal Cuvee Brut Vintage, Georgia
- 2007 Graham Beck Brut Blanc de Blancs Premier Cuvee, South Africa
- J Cuvee 20 Brut, California
- 1998 Champagne Gosset Celebris Brut
Can you guess the winning wine? I would be surprised if you do (no, it was not the one from Uruguay if you went with the most odd choice). Actually, at the first vote we had a tie with 3 wines getting the same number of points, so we had to re-taste that group and then vote again to come up with the winning wine. And the winner was…wine #6, 2007 Bagrationi Royal Cuvee Brut Vintage from Georgia (yes, we were also very surprised).
This wine was the most interesting of the pack with unusual zesty citrus notes, good acidity and good balance. J Cuvee 20 and 2007 Graham Beck (California and South Africa!) were close runner-ups (they were in the group we had to re-taste), and it is interesting to note that all three were more fruit forward than the other wines in the tasting.
Now, from the prospective of “mistakes” I mentioned before, here are few of my personal disappointments:
Wine #5, Champagne Thierry Triolet Brut, is a Growers Champagne. I had a pleasure of tasting that wine on the second day, and it opened up a lot more, showing fruit and creaminess. It probably wouldn’t be the winner of the tasting, but I’m sure it would fare better given enough consideration.
Wine #9, 1998 Champagne Gosset Celebris Brut was the only Vintage Champagne in the tasting. It definitely didn’t get enough time to show off all its beauty. By the end of the evening it opened up enough to show off typical yeasty flavors of the vintage champagne, and it became a lot more appealing, at least to my taste.
Oh well, it was definitely a fun exercise! Should you do the champagne blind tasting? May be not. Should you enjoy a glass of champagne instead? Absolutely. Don’t wait for a special occasion, simply celebrate life as it happens. Any day is a good day for a glass of champagne. Cheers!
Of Course You Know Miami Beaches, Let’s Talk About Miami Restaurants
One of the virtues of the business travel is opportunity to try new foods. We’ve got to eat every day, don’t we – but we can go into many ways about it. One option is to stay only within familiar territory, eat at few places you already know and don’t take any risks. Another option is to explore and experience. Depending on the place I’m traveling to, I might go different routes myself – of course, when you are in Miami Beach, the “explore and experience” model sounds (and looks) very appealing.
I don’t think Miami’s food scene requires any introductions. As Miami itself if a tight blend of many different cultures, so are the restaurants in Miami. I’m not trying turn into a restaurant critic by all means, so this here is short (mostly in pictures) report on a few places I had an opportunity to visit recently – except one place, Sra. Martinez, which stood out of the crowd immensely, so it will be a subject of separate blog post.
Without further ado, here we go.
Maya Tapas and Grille restaurant, located on Lincoln Road (Lincoln Road is one of the main tourist attractions in South Miami Beach). First, we had a very good bottle of Malbec. As restaurants compete for attention on Lincoln Road, we took the advantage of “all wines half price”, so this Luigi Bosca Gala 1 (actually, Malbec blend) at $35 was definitely a bargain. Still a young wine, it had initial layer of sweetness, which freed the way to spiciness and balance as wine had time to breathe.
In the tapas restaurants, my favorite dish is of course … tapas – the best way to experience wide variety of flavors.
We ordered a number of tapas, both cold and hot, and all the food tasted very good (grouper seviche, charcuterie and chorizo are highly recommended). Below is a picture of grouper seviche:
Aura restaurant, also on Lincoln Road, is more of an Italian flare with simple menu. We mostly went there for cocktails and pizza, and both were good. Here is Long Island Iced Tea and Mojito:
Thin crust pizza (European style) with goat cheese and vegetables was very tasty (no picture though).
PAUL. You got to eat breakfast too, right? Paul is a French bakery, part of an international chain. It is fully French, starting from the menu and appetizing baguettes all over the place, to the “french style” service. Service is an interesting part of the place – it is purposefully disrespectful to the customers, kind of “I’m not here to serve you”. In my honest opinion, though, they got this “French” concept upside down – 9 times out of 10, I had an outstanding service in France, despite any language barriers. I also think it costs PAUL in terms of lost clientele, and it shows up in the reviews on Yelp. But the food is good. Baguette with butter and jam is pure pleasure, so is Eggs Benedict ( I had both smoked salmon and Canadian bacon versions) – probably the best Eggs Benedict ever, definitely the best sauce. And pressed Focaccia sandwiches were not too shabby as well.
Last place to discuss in this post is Marker 88, located in a middle of Florida Keys (on island called Islamorada). This place was recommended – and it disappointed, unfortunately. The food was interesting in concept – but completely lacked soul in execution, or had simply technical mistakes, like lobster and mango guacamole having no mango – and of course guacamole completely overpowered the lobster. But the dish does look good on picture, doesn’t it:
And here is crab cake sandwich:
Again, looks good – but crab cake was missing any flavor… Well, may be we were out of luck with substitute chef?
To sum it up – if you are just looking for a byte to eat, I would definitely recommend all of the places we talked about here (even Marker 88 deserves second chance). However, if you are looking also for experience, please wait for the next blog post…
Wine and Valentine
Wine and holidays… When someone drinks wine every day, is special meaning lost when the holiday comes? It does not. It only gets more interesting, and the reason is simple – it is called Expectations. On an average day, you look in the cellar, and something grabs your attention, so the decision is made on the spot – this Pinot sounds perfect tonight. When it some to the holidays, long ahead, you start planning – and anticipating. You think about how it will feel like when you will open “that bottle”. So in your mind, you open that bottle many times before the actual “bottle opening event” will take place, so your expectations are building. There lies danger – the higher your expectations are, the smaller the gap to disappointment. But if you hit it right – boy, what a great feeling!
Valentine’s Day (unfortunately, hugely commercialized by “pink-hearting” everything possible and impossible) is meant to celebrate love. Wine is an attribute of any celebration, and of course, the celebration of love is a great reason to raise a glass (wedding and champagne are almost synonyms, right?). Is there a right and wrong wine for Valentine’s Day? Of course, there is no such thing as wrong wine – whatever makes you tick is the right wine, even if it is just water. Whatever helps you feel the special moment is the right thing.
So what are my wine preferences for Valentine’s Day? First, it is Amarone – if I happened to have a good bottle, and then it is Champagne. For this Valentine’s Day, it happened to be Champagne (yes, you are correct – I didn’t have a good bottle of Amarone in the cellar). Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial, to be more precise. I had the bottle for a while ( probably 4-5 years), and based on the recent experience with Mumm, I was really looking forward to opening that bottle.
Well, remember what I said about building expectations? Yep, there lies danger. This bottle was actually less than I expected. It was drinkable, but it was not exciting. It was refreshing, it had a bit of complexity – but it was stopping short, without delivering the “umph” which that bottle of Mumm had. Well, maybe next time…I will have a good bottle of Amarone?
Now, please tell me – what wine did you experience on this special day?
Looking For Substance in Cristal
I had an opportunity to try few of Louis Roederer Champagnes last weekend (to be politically correct, the first was California Sparkling Wine, not a Champagne). It was an interesting experience, as I was able to compare three of the well known sparkling wines, side by side.
California version, Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut, was nice and refreshing, with some hints of an apple and balanced acidity. The next wine, Louis Roedered Brut Premier, had more pronounced acidity and probably a touch smaller bubbles. However, I believe that in the blind tasting, it would be extremely difficult to distinguish between the two. Both wines were also priced accordingly to their categories ( California Sparkling and Classic Champagne), at under $20 and about $35, respectively.
These two wines served as a very good prelude to the main point of the tasting – the famed Cristal Champagne. Cristal was created in the 1876, specially for the Russian Tsar Alexander II, who was afraid of possible assassination – so the bottle was made clear, with the flat bottom and therefore required reinforced crystal glass – hence the name Cristal (you can read more here). Of course it was not the first time when the wines were created, labeled and packaged for the special reasons or persons (and of course commanded much higher price) – most recent example was described by Dr. Vino in his Cuvee 88888888 post, talking about special Bordeaux production for China market. While I didn’t have a chance to try that Chateau Lafite-Rothschild masterpiece, I was able to try Cristal.
The wine I tasted was Cristal 2002, vintage Champagne. It was second time for me trying Cristal – I failed to recognize the value for the first time, and was really hoping that trying this wine as part of the tasting flight would help to put things in prospective. Yes, the wine was more interesting than the regular Brut non-vintage – it had a hint of yeast and fresh bread on the nose, and it was more creamy than the non-vintage version. However, this was still not enough to understand the value of this champagne, priced at almost six times the cost of non-vintage version ($196, minimum state-allowed price in Connecticut).
The magic didn’t work this time again – and I will keep trying, but for now, can I please have a glass of Krug…
First [Wine] Discovery of 2011 – Non-Vintage Champagne Can Age (and Improve!)
I like Champagne. I think this is a true statement. However, I wouldn’t say that I love Champagne. What do I mean? Simply put, for my personal taste, there is not much going in Champagne glass. Wine (which I love), typically has a lot happening in the glass – fruits, tannins and acidity, long lasting finish, all changing in a glass as wine breathes, all changes in the bottle over the few days as it was opened. Champagne, once in the glass, can only lose its bubbles and freshness, but will not challenge your palate after a while.
Well, to be completely honest, there are Champagnes which I love. Until this New Year day, I was under impression that those were only vintage champagnes, which can become alive in the glass. This New Year day, we happened to open a bottle of G.H Mumm Carte Classique, which was laying at the bottom of the wine cabinet for about four years. We opened that bottle and … it was amazing! It had all the traits of the vintage champagne. Deep golden color, extensive aromas of yeast and fresh bread, full body – everything which I like in Champagne was there. The plan was to compare classic Mumm Champagne with Mumm California sparkling version, Mumm Napa Brut Prestige. Mumm Napa is very good… by itself, but it paled next to the aged G.H Mumm. I’m glad to start New Year with such a great discovery – and hope for many more.
Just I’m writing this, I realized – all the good things have their dark side. Now I need more cellar space and more time – to age my Champagnes appropriately…
Tasting Series At Cost Less Wines – Part 1, Grown Up Champagne (Growers Champagne, It Is)
Holidays are great (hmmm, that’s a deep and original thought, huh). On one side, life gets really hectic – too many things to do, and not enough time. On another side, it is a special time, and people do special things. Wine is important part of any celebration, so holiday times are rich with great wine experiences. Particularly, starting from last Thursday, there were different wine tastings at Cost Less Wines in Stamford, which will continue until the end of this week. And if you are looking for special experiences – you don’t want to miss any of them (I know, it is Monday already – but better to start late than never!).
Thursday was a special day for the Champagnes. Indisputable king of any celebration, and ten times so for the New Year – Champagne requires no introduction. There are many many other similar wines, which are called “sparkling wines” as a group – but this is not the subject of this blog post, as it was not the subject of the wine tasting. Talking about Champagne, a number of familiar names comes to mind – Moët & Chandon (makers of famous Dom Pérignon), Louis Roederer (makers of Cristal), Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot – but we will not be talking about them here.
As wine overall is getting more popular in US, year after year, more of the interesting wines are becoming available here. In regards to Champagne, there is a growing phenomenon called Growers Champagne. All the Champagne names mentioned above belong to so called Champagne Houses. Champagne Houses do not grow their own grapes – they source their grapes from the whole Champagne region, and then blend the grapes to achieve particular taste profile, specific for each individual House. When it comes to the Growers Champagne, all the grapes are by the winery, which then makes the Champagne wine – only 5% of the grapes can come from outside to be eligible for “Growers Champagnes” designation. Growers Champagnes had being around from the beginning of actual commercial Champagnes, but only in the last 5 years or so, such wines became known in the United States. Before we talk about tasting, just one last note – you can recognize Growers Champagne by initials RM, which stands for Récoltant-Manipulant, which can be found on the label. Traditional Champagnes are typically designated as NM, Négociant-Manipulant. If you want to read more on the subject – wikipedia, as usual, provides great wealth of information.
Let’s talk about the tasting. There were 4 Growers Champagnes represented in the tasting: Chateau Aubry, Chateau Chartogne – Taillet Saint-Anne, Champagne Pierre Gimonnet & Fils and Champagne 
Gastone Chiquet 2002. The first one, Chateau Aubry was a bit all over the place – yes, it was sparkling wine, but I didn’t get much pleasure out of it. The next 3 delivered different experience. Chateau Chartogne – Taillet had nice yeasty nose and aromas of brioche and fresh bread. Chateau Pierre Gimonnet had nice clean nose and good refreshing acidity – totally different ffrom the previous one, it was still warmly inviting and asking to take another sip.
The best in tasting, however, was Chateau Gaston Chiquet 2002, the only vintage champagne in this tasting. Light and effervescent, medium to full body wine, showing its pedigree with aromas and taste of apples and fresh bread – definitely very nice bubbly (should we also mention great QPR at $50/bottle?).
Great wines, great experience. It would be very interesting to compare the Growers Champagnes with the other sparkling wines – I’m sure you can see the the blind tasting working its way in here. But don’t wait for me – experiment, try something new – find the bottle of Growers Champagne and tell me if it will brighten your Holidays. And just to give you a hint – we are traveling from France to Scotland with the next post…
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