Seeing 2021 out with a pop, a pour and a fizz
8 sparkling wines, Champagnes to try with the new year
Bubbles go with year’s end as surely as Thanksgiving and turkey, and Valentine’s Day and chocolates. It’s a tradition and an expectation. But why?
Is it the impression of extravagance that comes with a fine bottle of Champagne? The hope and joy in the pop of a cork? The rush of sparkle and froth that connotes celebration?
All of the above, along with a lot of successful marketing. But the pairing would not stick if people didn’t love it. I know I do.
Rising prices may make many reluctant to pop a Champagne cork this year, but it doesn’t mean people will drink less sparkling wine.
Prosecco, cava, crémants, spumantes, frizzantes, sekts and pétillant naturels are just some of the sparklers made outside Champagne. Add in the wines produced using the same grapes and methods as Champagne — from the United States, Italy, England, South America, Australia and more — and consumers have plenty of options if, as some have predicted, a Champagne shortage is looming.
I have my doubts about that, just as I’m never surprised when oil companies claim summer shortages require them to raise gasoline prices just as vacationers hit the road. Not that the same supplychain difficulties impeding the availability of other consumer goods has not affected wine in general. It has, but skepticism is not unwarranted.
After a recent shopping spree for sparkling wines in New York City retail stores, I found some bottles I highly recommend.
I could have selected dozens of other great bottles as well. I tried not to repeat previous end-of-theyear suggestions, although a few of these bottles are old favorites, and among the Champagnes, I stuck with nonvintage and entrylevel bottles.
Here are the bottles, from least to most expensive within each category.
Sparkling wines Le Vigne di Alice Veneto Tajad Frizzante NV, $19:
Cinzia Canzian makes this wine as an homage to her grandmother, who, in the days before the glera grape came to dominate prosecco production, used to blend glera with two other local varieties, boschera (better known by its synonym verdicchio) and verdiso. The wine is dry and flowery, lively and charming. The second, bubble-inducing fermentation occurs in big tanks, as with most proseccos, but Tajad is far better than any standard-issue bottle.
Raventós i Blanc Conca del Riu Anoia de Nit 2018, $22:
Good cava is one of the best deals in sparkling wine. The problem is that a lot more bad cava is made than good. But I’ve been collecting the names of producers to seek out, including Recaredo, Gramona, AT Roca, Mestres, Bohigas, Loxarel, Castellroig, Parés Baltà and Raventós i Blanc, which produces de Nit, a bottle I keep returning to because it’s excellent and a great value. Like many of these I’ve listed, Raventós i Blanc no longer uses the term “cava” in order to avoid its poor connotations. Instead, it uses Conca del Riu Anoia, after a small area in the Penedès, where it has a biodynamically farmed estate. This rosado is made of the three traditional cava grapes, parellada, xarello and macabeu, along with monastrell, or mourvèdre, which accounts for the wine’s pale pink color. It’s dry, nuanced, tangy and delicious.
Domaine Dupasquier Savoie Perles d’Aimavigne Blanc de Blancs NV, $23: I’ve found so much to love about wines from the Savoie region in eastern France. The latest is this sparkling wine, made largely of jacquère and chardonnay, with a little altesse as well. It’s bonedry and lacy-fine, with lightly creamy flavors. The brother-sister team of David and Véronique Dupasquier is the fifth generation of the family to oversee this domaine, which also makes terrific still wines. Fortuitously, as Wink Lorch points out in her excellent book “Wines of the French Alps,” Aimavigne, the town where the estate is based, means “love the vine.”
Ferrari Trento Brut Metodo Classico NV, $26:
This wine is made entirely of chardonnay, one of the three main grapes of Champagne, and it’s made using the same method as Champagne, in which a second fermentation is induced in the bottle to produce the bubbles. So, isn’t it just a knockoff of Champagne? In a vague sense, yes, but one taste of it and you can tell it’s quite different. It’s made in the Trentino-Alto Adige region of Italy, and it feels entirely Italian in spirit, stylish and graceful with a sheer, elegant texture and creamy, herbal flavors. It’s both delicious and an excellent value.
Champagnes
A.R. Lenoble Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Chouilly Brut Mag 14, $54:
Lenoble is an unusual, experimental house run by the brother-sister team of Antoine and Anne Malassagne. For the last decade, they have been storing reserve wines in magnum bottles, believing that it improves the freshness of the older wines. The label on this blanc de blancs, Mag 14, indicates that the base wines were from the 2014 vintage, supplemented by the wines in magnum. The result is a creamy, vivacious, fine-textured blanc de blancs that is stony and resonant.
Huré Frères Champagne Brut Invitation NV, $56:
I first tried Huré a few years ago at Le Coucou in New York and have been intrigued ever since by these rich, energetic Champagnes.
Invitation is the entry-level brut, 40% pinot meunier, 40% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay. It is savory, dry and refreshing, with underlying suggestions of red fruit flavors.
Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Collection 242, $65:
Champagne house Louis Roederer recently changed its entry-level, nonvintage bottle. What used to be called Brut Premier is now Collection 242, with the number appended indicating the number of blends it has produced since the house was founded in 1776. Not only did Roederer change the name, it altered its method for making the wine. In 2012, it established what it calls a perpetual reserve, a little like a sherry solera in which new wine is added to the reserve each year, theoretically growing in complexity over time. To make the Champagne, wine from the perpetual reserve, stored in steel vats, is blended with wine from a base vintage, in this case 2017, along with other reserve wines stored in oak. The result is a lovely, lacy Champagne of great freshness, energy and finesse. It’s a little more expensive than Brut Premier, but it is superb.
Ruppert-Leroy Champagne 11, 12, 13 … Brut Nature NV $67:
Ruppert-Leroy is a tiny husband-and-wife producer of natural Champagnes, also in the Côte des Bar. They farm biodynamically and add nothing to the wine, not even sulfur dioxide, the widely used preservative and antioxidant. Like the Roederer, this Champagne is made using a solera system. It was started in 2011 and wine has been added each year since; hence the name 11, 12, 13 …. This bottle, half pinot noir, half chardonnay, is lean, pure, focused and refreshing, with savory saline, citrus and herbal flavors.