Ice carver Aaron Costic chisels into the ice to create a dinosaur as the crowd watches during a previous Lake James Ice Festival. This year’s event is Jan. 10.
Aaron Costic at Lake James Ice Festival
Ice carver Aaron Costic chisels into the ice to create a dinosaur as the crowd watches during a previous Lake James Ice Festival. This year’s event is Jan. 10.
Aaron Costic at Lake James Ice Festival
A friend of mine recently recommended “Champagne Problems” on Netflix to me for a good giggle. The opening cut features the famed monk Dom Pérignon and his adding yeast and sugar to a wine, getting instant bubbles, and proclaiming “Venez vite, je gout les étoiles.”
Alas, it’s not true.
Perignon died having never achieved his goals of making a clear, still wine from Pinot Noir. It takes months, not moments, for yeasts to make a wine sparkle. As I’ve written here before, the Champenois (that word is as fun to type as to say: Shamp-en-WAH) were embarrassed by, and afraid of, their wines. Those wood-fired bottles filled with sparkling wine killed people. The wines of Champagne only became world famous because they were the wines served at the coronation of every French monarch beginning in 987 with Hugh Capet at Reims, the capital of the Champagne region.
Really the Champenois only became proud of their wines into the 18th century after the English, during a wood-burning ban, learned how to coal-fire glass, preventing its breaking under pressure, and developed a thirst for entrapped CO2. It’s no coincidence that “tasting the stars” came into Champagne’s marketing media in the mid-19th century. They have always been the master branders of the French wine scene!
Now that winemakers know how to make wine that sparkles intentionally, the world is our oyster — which, of course, are excellent bedfellows with bubbles! This year I have tasted gorgeous sparkling wines from every significant wine-producing country (and most regions!) in the world.
We think of Champagne when we think of French sparkling wines but let me remind you that every single region in France makes sparkling wine under the labeling nomenclature of “Cremant”: Cremant de Bourgogne, Cremant de Loire, Cremant de Alsace (be still, my heart, all three!) Cremant de Bordeaux, Cremant de Jura (if you like old, oxidative Champagne, buy Cremant de Jura!), among others. Cremants live under very similar laws to Champagne, but because they are not Champagne, their price points are often fractional. And because their price points begin so much lower than Champagne, they have been less impacted by tariffs this year and are still good buys.
I must confess, however, that France’s Champagne no longer holds my heart for bubbles. It’s true, I’ll always drink a glass of Champagne. But other countries like Italy, England, and Australia’s Tasmania are making truly stunning wines, and at better price points than Champagne — and which I have more than once been convinced were Champagne in blind tastings.
Italy’s sparkling wine scene is being driven by twin trains right now: extremely high-quality traditional method wines in the style of Champagne beside a renaissance of indigenous grapes and methods. Seek out Alta Langa wines from the Piedmont region, which is famous for its Barolo and Barbaresco, red wines from Nebbiolo. And Trento DOC: Trento is the region; DOC is the legal regulation under which the wine is made, but it’s pronounced as one word: Trentodoc. It can only be made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and is legally always a vintage wine. I feel like Franciacorta had its moment several years ago and fell to the back burner, but they are still making gorgeous bubbles. Just a friendly reminder.
But the real gem on the Italian scene for me right now is Lambrusco. Y’all. Lambrusco has never been better. Or at least, the Lambrusco we have access to in the U.S. has never been better. And it’s inexpensive! Chris Curtis, a very knowledgeable rep from Winebow, and I were chatting at Craft’d’s bubbles event pre-pouring the other day and both remarked that if Americans could get past their biases against Lambrusco, they’d find that it fits the American food palate so well and is fun wine to drink. In fact, I am going to go buy some today! I’m thirsty just writing about it!
It’s still mega expensive because production remains quite small and exports are smaller still, but the best sparkling wine in the world now comes from England. There. I said it. And it’s true! Seek out Nyetimber and Gusbourne for gorgeous splurges. I mean, gorgeous. If you find yourself in the UK, have as much as you can. They’re much cheaper there!
What’s not, on the main, expensive though is Tassie bubbles. And I am obsessed with them. I’ve been drinking the Jansz like they’re going out of style. If there’s a bottle around, I’m going to open it. I can’t resist!
When I sat the Diploma Sparkling Wine exam, I nosed through the wines in the blind tasting. I was convinced one wine was a high-level Champagne and concluded so after tasting it. When I finished the exam, I confidently walked to the bottles and poured myself a glass of the Champagne to drink while the other candidates finished writing. “I’m going to drink this,” I said to myself. I smiled the next day when I found out it was Tassie.
This year, I’m recommending the following bottles, all of which can be found in Morganton or ordered in town, for your upcoming celebrations.
