The history, culture, and perfect pairings of sparkling wine

It’s the time of year when people start reaching for bubbles, shorthand for sparkling wine. We’ve got things to celebrate, right?! A new year, new promises to self and others, new opportunities. This month we’ll explore a bit of wine history and culture to understand why we associate bubbles with celebration and then get into some wines you should absolutely seek out.

If you know one name for sparkling wine, you know the famous monk–Dom Perignon. But I bet you didn’t know that old Dom’s single purpose in life was to make a clear and still wine from Pinot Noir. He would be devastated to join us in 2024 and find that Champagne is celebrated for being sparkling and a blend of (principally) Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. That the only Champagne that is celebrated today for being a single variety is Chardonnay — he’d gasp!

See at this time in wine history, wines that sparkled were considered to be faulted, and winemakers did not know the cause of wines that sparkled. The world was a much colder place then. And it just so happened that in the Champagne region, where the weather even today is dicey, the weather would inevitably turn cold shortly after harvest. Fermentation vessels would stop bubbling, and fermentation would eventually stop altogether. Dom and his pals did not understand that this effect was because yeasts would become dormant in cold temperatures. The wines would be bottled and put in the cellar. A few months later, spring would arrive. The cellar would begin to warm by a few degrees — just enough to reactivate the yeasts. Having failed to ferment all the sugars to alcohol before their winter’s sleep, the yeasts would begin to feast. Fermentation would begin to occur in the bottle. Being capped, the bubbles had nowhere to go except to integrate into the wine, bursting into activity upon the bottle’s being opened. Celebrate!

Not so fast.

The wines made in Champagne prior to the 19th century were an embarrassment to the French! They were this ugly shade of pink, painfully acidic, and sparkled. So why on earth were they associated with celebration? Ah.

Every French king since Hugh Capet in the 900s was coronated at the cathedral in Reims, the capital of Champagne. It was custom that the local wines of a region were used in celebrations. And so, the wines of the Champagne region, embarrassing to the French as they were, were used to celebrate royal crownings from the 900s until the end of the French monarchy. The tradition of celebrating with bubbles still persists.

So, I encourage you to celebrate all of your occasions with bubbles. I certainly do.

But please (PUH-LEASE!) do not confine your ingesting of carbon dioxide to celebratory events. Sparkling wine as a category may just be the single best to pair with food. And there are really good reasons for this. On the one hand, it’s a near universal that sparkling wines have high acidity. High acid wines love food with them … and food loves high acid wines. You salivate more, the acidity clears your palate, the food dampens the wine’s acidity and makes it more enjoyable. It’s a win, win, win! Sparkling wines tend to be picked early (partly to preserve the acid) so that flavors in the grapes never fully develop. This is because we want neutral grape flavors in sparkling wine so that the flavors and aromas from fermentation (aging on lees, barrel fermentation, etc.) and winemaking showoff. Neutral grape flavors can make for excellent wine pairings because the food will bring out flavors in the wine that were not accessible without the contribution of the food’s fat, protein, and starch and because the wine’s flavors will not overpower the flavor of even delicate foods.

I highly recommend the following styles of sparkling wine — and a couple specific bottles, too!

I am currently obsessed with English sparkling wine. England is making sparkling wine the way that Champagne used to. It’s so much warmer in Champagne than even 20-25 years ago that the style of sparkling wine is changing, and the Champenois are making more and more still wine these days — they see the sea change coming! But the good news for us bubbles lovers is that England is warming just enough to consistently make excellent vintage sparkling wine! My very favorite is Gusbourne. Craft’d carries it. I hope it remains as good as it’s always been after another producer poached their winemaker a couple of years ago.

Champagne is still wonderful — and the benchmark. My favorites, and which Craft’d carries, are the wines made by Laurent-Perrier, Moncuit, and Jacquesson. The Laurent-Perrier roses is one of my favorite wines on the planet, as is the Moncuit Blanc de Blanc grand cru!

The Italians are making some really exciting sparklers these days — from really good Prosecco to the traditional styles of sparkling wine made in Trentodoc and the Franciacorta wines made near Milan. These are wonderful wines to be on the lookout for — and Craft’d can get them in your hands easily. They offer fantastic value!

For a deep dive or refresher, head over to The Paper’s archives for the December 2023 edition of the wine column.