AN ANNIVERSARY

is a big thing and it’s definitely cause for celebration. Then again, I’m not one to save sparkling wine or champagne just for special occasions.

Sparkling wine is a bit misunderstood, and many of us still call it champagne. Fact is, not all sparkling wine is champagne, but all champagne is sparkling wine.

Unlike champagne, which hails from the region of France with the same name, sparkling wine can be made anywhere — from Brazil to Canada, the United States to England, Spain to Hungary. Every country that makes wine makes a sparkling version of it.

Sparkling wines can be easy to make, as in forced carbonation, or they can involve long, drawn-out processes over five years in bottle on lees in dark caves. Lees are a way to add complexity to a wine; the longer on lees, the greater the complexity.

When it comes to sparkling wine there are those that live off reputation and those that really deliver — and those aren’t always the same.

Yes, champagne is a rarity, and that’s based on the size of the region, which allows only so much bubbly to be made from the grapes they grow, so its price reflects this reality. But there are better and more affordable ways to get your fizz fix.

In fact, you can get quality sparkling wine from somewhere other than Champagne that will fool even the most discerning palate, and you’ll be able to buy three bottles for the price of one.

In honour of Grand’s 10th anniversary, I give you my Top 5 (right now) sparkling wines. The list features currently available sparkling wines from various regions around the world that offer taste for value so you can celebrate in whatever style you like.

Let’s start with the granddaddy of them all, and not because it’s the oldest but because it’s the one most recognized on this list. Bollinger is the champagne of James Bond, and Bond is synonymous with having good taste. It has a lovely biscuit-breadyness that comes from that extended (minimum three years) lees contact in the very bottle you buy it in (known as the traditional method).

You’ll pick up bread crust, biscuits and hints of baked apple. It’s just very complex and delicious, and it keeps giving up aromas and flavours the more time you spend with it. Fine bubbles, acidity … when you think fine champagne, this is what should come to mind.

Now that we’ve gone big, it’s time to, as they say, go home. Here in Ontario we make some pretty awesome bubbly, and one of the newest happens to be from one of our oldest producers, Trius (formerly Hillebrand). The winery has come out with a five-year on lees sparkler, aptly named 5, which really shows what longer aging time adds to a wine. Those typical bready-biscuity characteristics found in multi-year on-lees sparklers also has the addition of mushroom, praline nuts and stale bread crust. It might sound a little funky, but believe me it’s something you won’t soon forget, nor will you want to put your glass down. Available only at the winery.