Creative Writing | Guide to Wine | Genealogy

Sparkling Wine

Although many people regard fizzy wine as a treat there's no doubt that bubbles can mask some pretty tawdry, hangover-inducing wines.

If there is a gene that determines selfbelief there must be a great deal of it swilling around in the gene pool of the Champenois.

But these masters of the art of blowing one's own trumpet are curiously quiet when it comes to the question of why their ancestors were so keen to fill their wines with bubbles. Though it might be a very impressive feat of oenological skill, there isn't an obvious reason to do it. Or is there? Maybe all those bubbles served as a good distraction from the sharp, unripe character of the wines produced in the chilly climes of northern France. The problem is that many people forget that sparkling wine - and Champagne in particular - for all the fancy foil and livery is nothing more than a wine and its success or failure depends not on the bubbles but on the wine used to make it.

For proof you simply need to keep a glass of leftover sparkling wine or Champagne in a fridge until it is flat. Stripped of its bubbles what does it taste like when compared with your favourite white? The answers to this question will not only provide an insight into the quality of the wine but also help to deepen your understanding of sparkling wines.

However tempting it might be to denigrate sparkling wines from Champagne, in my own experience the sparkling wines that taste best when flat have all been from its hallowed soil. That said, the region is also the birthplace of an equal number of unutterably disgusting wines.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

So successfully have the Champenois marketed their wares - and guarded their name - that many people regard Champagne and sparkling wine as two completely different drinks. In fact Champagne is simply a sparkling wine - albeit a rather fancy one.

TASTE TEST 1

Expensive vintage Champagne
Grand Marque Champagne
Cheap Champagne (the cheapest you can find in a supermarket)
Mid-price Australian sparkling wine
Proscecco

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

This should prove to be a fascinating tasting. First, serve all the wines together and record your observations, especially on the differences between the various wines. You could also give marks out of ten for flavour and aroma. Take your time with this and remember that what you are tasting is a wine. Don't be distracted by either the bubbles or your preconceptions. Next, reveal the wines' identities and prices and compare them with your marks. It would also be a very useful exercise to put all the wines in the fridge for a couple of days and try them again when they are flat.

THE ORIGINS OF CHAMPAGNE

Because the Champagne region is so cold fermentation of wine often stopped in the winter and didn't restart again until the spring, causing wines to become highly carbonated. The market for Champagne was kickstarted in the eighteenth century when stronger bottles and reinforced corks allowed the fizziness to be marketed as a virtue rather than a vice.

STYLE GUIDE

Non-vintage. Most of the Champagne we drink is non-vintage which is made from a blend of wines from two or more years. The fact that it is blended allows the wine to have a consistent style.
Vintage. A Champagne made from wines from just one very good year. Vintage status is no guarantee of quality, since what constitutes a 'good year' is debatable.
Blanc de blanc. Champagne made from Chardonnay.
Blanc de noirs. Champagne made from Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.
Rosé. Pink Champagne made from black grapes, or ordinary Champagne coloured with red wine.

TASTE TEST 2

Quite simple this one. Buy an example of each Champagne listed above and compare them blind.


Custom Search