Bubbles for the New Year

This year’s “holiday season” blog is all about bubbles, just in time for New Year’s. Check out my picks at the end of this post if you are heading out to the LCBO. (Next month we will start discussing the many ways to buy wine without attending at the LCBO.)

So you are looking for something bubbly to drink on New Year’s Eve. I recommend enjoying a nice bottle well before midnight and, if you insist on popping something right at 12am, reserving a less expensive, but totally decent, bottle to ring in the New Year. Most palates will not be at their most refined so late in the night so why waste the good stuff then.

What you your bubbly options? Broadly speaking, there are three categories to choose from: 1) Champagne; 2) Méthode Traditionelle sparking wine that is made using the “Champagne Method” but is not from Champagne; and 3) Other Sparkling Wine.

All but the cheapest sparkling wine gets its bubbles by undergoing a secondary fermentation. Sugar and yeast are added to still wine and the yeast ferments the sugar producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. The gas is trapped and creates bubbles in the wine.

The Méthode Traditionelle (also known as the Méthode Classique and the Méthode Champenois) involves the secondary fermentation taking place in the bottle. This process is labour-intensive and expensive as the dead yeast cells must be disgorged post-fermentation and each bottle topped up with wine and recorked prior to release. The advantages of the Méthode Traditionelle are that it produces finer long-lasting gorgeous bubbles, a rich creaminess and toasty aromas in the wine. Wines made using the Méthode Traditionelle from regions outside Champagne (including right here in Ontario) are often indistinguishable in quality from Champagne.

Champagne is sparking wine from the Champagne region/appellation in France. In order to be called “Champagne,” the wine must not only come from the specific geographical region but must comply with a list of requirements including that it be made from specific grapes (most are made predominantly from Chardonnay and/or Pinot Noir) and using the Méthode Champenois (called the Méthode Traditionelle when made in the same way in other regions).

Champagnes known as “Blanc de Blancs” (White of Whites) are made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes and Champagnes known as “Blanc de Noirs” (White of Reds) are made exclusively from Pinot grapes. White wines made from red-skinned grapes are made without any skin contact during the wine-making process such that the reds of the skins do not infuse the juice.

The marketing for the big Champagne houses – think Veuve Cliquot, Moët & Chandon (leading label Dom Pérignon), Taittinger, Louis Roederer (leading label Cristal), Krug – has been extraordinary successful in cultivating attachment and desire. Unlike most wine, Champagne is usually “non-vintage” meaning each bottle contains a blend of wine from grapes grown in different years. Its goal is year-to-year consistency and to achieve that goal it is often blended from the vast library of wines cellared by the big houses. If you enjoyed a bottle of Veuve on a happy occasion, you can rest assured that when you buy another bottle to mark an anniversary of that occasion, it will be the same.

Shopping Tip: If you want to experience something a little different, try one of the grower-producer Champagnes which are slowly becoming more widely available. These are labeled “RM” for “Récoltant Manipulant” (grower-producer who uses a minimum of 95% fruit from their estate). 

Many regions outside of Champagne use the same method used in Champagne to make sparkling wine. These wines are often more reasonably priced than Champagne as they do not carry the same prestige. Spanish Cava is the most well known and widely available wine that is always made using the Méthode Traditionelle. It is generally not the same quality, but can be excellent value.

There are a number of regions/appellations in France that make sparking wine using the Méthode Traditionelle and they are often my go-tos for good bubbly at reasonable prices. These wines are called “Crémants” and you can usually find Crémant de Bourgogne (the closest geographically to Champagne); Crémant de Limoux; Crémant de Loire and Crémant d’Alsace at the LCBO. The grapes used to make Crémants vary from region to region.

We are doing some fabulous Traditional Method sparking wines right here in Ontario and each year the availability and quality increases. There are also some standouts from Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

There are also a number of Champagne houses that have set up operations in California and are making new world versions of their Champagnes at lower prices (e.g. Roederer and Mumm). These are generally quite tasty and are worth a try.

Shopping Tip: For great value, try a local Ontario bubbly made in the Traditional Method (there are three in my picks below) and a Crémant.

There are plently of cheerful sparking wines that are made using the Tank/Charmat Method, in which the secondary fermentation occurs in a large pressurized tank rather that in the bottle. They tend to be considerably less expensive as they are less expensive to produce.

The most well-known appellation is Prosecco. This wine tastes very fresh and crisp (less creamy than Méthode Traditionelle wines) and the bubbles tend to be bigger and short-lived. (There are also a small subset of wines made using a hybrid method called the Transfer Method in which the secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle but the wines are transferred back to a tank for filtering prior to bottling or the Ancestral Method in which the wines are bottled while continuing to undergo secondary fermentation)

Shopping Tip: Keep a few bottles of Prosecco on hand for Mimosas at brunch or a cheerful Aperitif.