Ask the Wine Geek December 2006

ask the wine geek

Ask the Wine Geek December 2006

Q. I can’t afford true French Champagne. How do I find an admirable stand-in?
A. When looking outside of the hallowed Champagne region of France for your bubblies, reach for labels that say “Méthode Traditionnelle” or “Méthode Champenoise.” This means that the sparkler inside was made with the same intricate, labor-intensive process used to make true French Champagne. This process involves some fermentation in the bottle, which transforms naturally occurring gas into elegant, tiny bubbles. Very often, the result is a complex, aromatic wine with creamy, delicate effervescence.

Less expensive (and some would say less elegant), many sparklers are made using the cost cutting “bulk” or “Charmat” method; here, that bubble-inducing fermentation occurs in large, airtight containers rather than inside the bottle. Bulk-made sparklers tend to be simpler and fruitier and to have noticeably feistier frothiness—a wonderful attribute in soda pop but not necessarily in high-quality sparkling wine.

Charles Smothermon is a wine expert.

Related Stories

If you enjoyed reading this story, Ask the Wine Geek December 2006, then you might enjoy these other stories.
Share This Story With Others:


Discuss this Article

There are no current discussions for this article. Why not be the first?

discuss this article Post your comments on this article

Recipes

Search for recipes. Enter an ingredient or keyword.

 

Recipes by Category

breakfast, lunch, dinner
dessert, snack, healthy

Recipes by Ingredient

beef, chicken, pork, poultry, turkey

newsletter & message boards

Fresh Recipes in your Inbox
Enjoy new meal ideas by signing up for our newsletter and see other recipe ideas in our past newsletters.


Swap Food Ideas
Share your favorite recipe or comment on our latest issue in our food & recipe message boards.

our new cookbook

relish cookbook

where to find relish

Relish magazine is distributed monthly through newspapers across the country. To find a partner paper near you, take a look at our list of newspapers by state. If you local paper does not carry Relish, ask them why not?