A Taste of Wine
Please raise your glass and join me
in a toast…Here’s to great health and
happiness in the New Year. Clink-
Clink.
Definition of Champagne - Cham-
pagne is a sparkling wine produced
from grapes grown in the Champagne
region of France following rules that demand secondary
fermentation of the wine in the bottle to create carbonation.
Many use the term Champagne as a generic term for spar-
kling wine, but highfalutin drinkers reserve the term exclu-
sively for sparkling wines that come from Champagne and
are produced under the rules of the appellation.
Four Ways to Make Champagne – There are four primary
methods to make champagne: Classic, Charmat, Tank, and
Carbonation. Interestingly, the Classic Method typically
produces the longest lasting bubbles while the Charmat
Method tends to yield bigger bubbles and seemingly more
explosive sparkling wines. Tiny tiny bubbles are likely to
come from the Tank Method. The Carbonation method is
used for those super inexpensive sparkling wines.
Sweetness – A Champagne’s sweetness will vary, but
here are the classifications you’ll want to look for on each
bottle: (1) Ultra Brut/Extra Brut/Brut Zero/Brut Nature/
Brut Sauvage: No added sugar; (2) Brut: Nearly dry, con-
tains no more than 1.5% sugar; (3) Extra Dry/Extra Sec:
Slightly sweeter, can contain up to 2% sugar; (4) Dry/Sec:
Can contain up to 4% sugar; (5) Demi-Sec: Just sweet
enough, can contain up to 8% sugar; and (6) Doux: Sweet,
can contain up to 10% sugar. (Growing up my Italian fam-
ily used to serve dry sparkling wine and then add a sugar
cube to the glass. Since I was the youngest child, I was
assigned the task of dropping in the sugar cubes. That’s a
fun tradition!)
Food Pairing – Champagne and Sparkling Wines are
typically served chilled and tend to taste very crisp. As a
result they can handle being paired with some strong and
unique foods. A few of the common pairings that you may
see at various parties are – oysters rockerfeller, roasted
beet toasts with horseradish cream, crispy potato-and-
sauerkraut cakes with smoked trout, soppressata bundles
with radicchio and goat cheese, and sriracha-and-wasabi
deviled eggs. YUM!
Happy tasting!
– Nancy Biggs, Wine Aficionada
Celebrating 13 Years in the Country Club
~ Thank You!
“When you expect the best”
Joan DeLabio & Annie
14 January 2018 pccnews
Expires: 1-31-18