Enjoy summer with 12 sparkling wines
Most good Champagnes these days start at roughly $40. So I picked 12 sparkling wines other than Champagne, up to roughly the $40 point at which good Champagne starts to be available.
The world may not offer much to celebrate right now. Nonetheless, it’s a great time to drink sparkling wine.
Champagne, of course, sets the standard with its capacity for elegance, grace, subtlety and depth. But many other types of sparkling wine are available now as well, from unexpected places and a diversity of styles, making this summer a great time for a joyous exploration of the sparkling repertory.
I recently scoured the online selections of Manhattan wine shops, looking for moderately priced bottles of sparkling wines other than Champagne.
Why omit Champagne? Mostly because of its price. While it’s possible to find bottles as cheap as $25 or $30, most good Champagnes these days start at roughly $40.
I decided that I wanted to both look for less expensive bottles and explore the rest of the sparkling wine world. So I picked 12 sparkling wines other than Champagne, up to roughly the $40 point at which good Champagne starts to be available. The most expensive bottle among my 12 cost $41.
These bottles are not at all intended as Champagne replacements. Each offers its own personality and pleasure, which can be enjoyed without reference to that overpowering presence among sparklers. Here, then, are a dozen excellent summer sparklers, arranged in order of ascending price.
AT Roca Clàssic Penedès Reserva Brut Nature 2016 $22.50
AT Roca makes cava but does not use the official designation, believing that it has become an indication of mass production rather than of good quality. Instead, AT Roca uses the “Clàssic Penedès,” an identification for sparkling wines with strict regulations, including a requirement for organic viticulture.
This new producer, founded in 2013, uses the classic trio of cava grapes, macabeu, parellada and xarello. The wine is lively, fine and maybe too austere to drink alone, so serve it with ham, oysters or, as they do everywhere in Catalonia, with pan con tomate.
Terres Dorées de JeanPaul Brun FRV100 Rosé Sparkling Wine NV $22.99
Jean-Paul Brun is one of my favorite Beaujolais producers, rigorous in his methods yet playful in his manner. He’s got a light hand with sparkling wines as well. This pet-nat is made entirely out of gamay.
As the label says in the fine print, it’s “mediumdry,” meaning gently sweet, and just 7.5% alcohol. It’s well-balanced and perfectly refreshing, a joyful wine for a summer lunch out of doors. The name FRV100? If you give the individual letters and the number 100 their French pronunciations, it comes out “effervescent.”
Raventós I Blanc Conca del Riu Anoia de Nit 2017 $23.99
Rosé sparkling wine is not that easy to make. Balance is hard to achieve and, as I was reminded in the course of selecting these 12 bottles, rosé sparklers can often seem overpowering, dull or fatiguing. But Raventós I
Blanc manages, year after year, to nail it with its elegant, graceful de Nit, which offers just a hint of color and floral fruit to remind you it is a rosé.
The wine is made with xarello, macabeu and parellada, with the addition of monastrell, also known as mourvèdre, which accounts for the color.
La Taille aux Loups Montlouis Brut Tradition NV $24.99
Jacky Blot has been making great wines in the Loire Valley for years. His whites and sparkling wines are bottled under the Taille aux Loups label, and his reds under Domaine de la Butte. They are all serious, superb wines.
This one is pure chenin blanc, made using the Champagne method and fermented in older barrels. It’s creamy, elegant, precise and lovely, one of the best sparkling chenin blancs. Blot also makes an excellent chenin blanc pétillant naturel, Triple Zéro.
Aphros Phaunus Portugal Pet-Nat Rosé 2018 $25.99
The definition of rosé is expansive, yet if this wine were not labeled as such, I never would have guessed it. It’s pale gold in color, the result of a brief maceration of the juice of red grapes with their skins. This process qualifies it as a rosé even if the color suggests otherwise. Regardless, it’s fresh, vibrant, dry and peachy. Aphros, an excellent small producer, uses roughly equal amounts of alvarelhão and vinhão, two Portuguese red grapes that are little known outside the country.
Arnaud Lambert Brezé Crémant de Loire NV $25.99
Arnaud Lambert is one of a new generation of vignerons who have revitalized the Saumur region of the Loire Valley. This bottle is made from organic grapes grown in silt and clay over limestone bedrock. It’s 75% chenin blanc and 25% chardonnay, but the chenin dominates with its characteristic rich texture and floral, citrus and slightly honeyed flavor.
J. Brix Cobolorum Santa Barbara County Kick On Ranch Riesling Pétillant Naturel 2019 $26.99
J. Brix offers specific instructions for opening this bottle of unfiltered pet-nat: Stand it upright until the sediment collects on the bottom and chill at least 12 hours before opening. Let me add an additional caution: Open carefully outdoors or over a sink because even after you follow the directions, the exuberant bubbles still want to escape in a foamy gush. When the wine does finally calm down, you have a tangy, spicy, citrusy delight.
Domaine de Montbourgeau Crémant du Jura Brut Zéro NV $26.99
The Jura region of France is a reliable source of Champagne-style sparkling wines that are subtly different from Champagne. This one, from the excellent Domaine de Montbourgeau, is a fine example. It’s rich and creamy, yet precise — bone dry and still rounded and lush. In most Champagnestyle wines, producers add a dose of sweetness just before sealing the bottle to balance the often searing acidity. But if the wine is balanced without the dosage, as this one is, it can be omitted. Hence the designation, Brut Zéro.
Von Winning Pfalz Riesling Sekt Extra Brut NV $27.99
I’ve never had much luck with German sparkling wines, often finding them overly tart and acidic. But Anne Krebiehl, author of “The Wines of Germany,” an excellent book published in 2019, believes the category has great potential, especially those sparklers made of riesling, like this one.
Von Winning often ferments its wines in small oak barrels, unusual with riesling, and it wouldn’t surprise me if barrels were used for this sparkler. It’s toasty, creamy and substantial, yet dry, refreshing and balanced.
Chepika Finger Lakes Catawba Rosé Pétillant Naturel 2019 $33
Beginning with the 2016 vintage, Nathan Kendall, a Finger Lakes winemaker, and Pascaline Lepeltier, one of the world’s top sommeliers, have been producing naturally made pétillant naturels in the Finger Lakes. Their project, Chepika, explores the region’s heritage, making wines of native American grapes, like Catawba, on which the region’s wine industry was initially built. Each year, the wines have gotten better and better. This one is the best I’ve tried yet, both fruity and stony with a deliciously tart berry flavor.
Ferrando Erbaluce di Caluso Spumante 2012 $38.99
Erbaluce di Caluso comes from extreme northwestern Italy, right about where the Piedmont region borders on the Valle d’Aosta. Ferrando is a superb producer best known for its Carema wines, which are essentially Alpine nebbiolos. This dry white, made of the erbaluce grape, is spicy and complex, with lingering flavors of apricot. The bit of age mellows the power of the effervescence.
Cruse Napa Valley Deming Sparkling Valdiguié 2019 $41
If you cannot imagine a wine tasting like watermelon (with a touch of refreshing bitterness), try this one. Michael Cruse makes superb sparklers. His Champagne-style wine, bottled under the Ultramarine label, is one of California’s best. This pétillant naturel is a rosé, a salmonorange color, made of the red valdiguié grape. Valdiguié is originally from southwestern France but has a long history in California, where it was long referred to as Napa gamay, causing confusion with actual gamay, the grape of Beaujolais. Valdiguié can make pretty good wines in its own right.