Were going to talk about sparkling wine this week and theres no need to be fancy, since drinking bubble is something to be enjoyed any day of the week and for any occasion particularly if your occasion is that theres nothing official to celebrate.
To get it out of the way, let me confirm that sparkling wine can only be called Champagne if its from the Champagne region of France, though the majority of quality sparkling wine made around the world is created using the exact same traditional method as done in Champagne.
To most, the creation of a sparkling wine seems to be overly technical and shrouded in mystery, but it really is quite simple. A quick lesson this week, and then the reward of a couple great bottles. The first step is one most of us know: make some wine. Take a bunch of juice from wine grapes and add yeast, which the natural sugars will consume in the fermentation process, resulting in your by-products being alcohol (hooray!) and carbon dioxide that escapes into the environment. Now that you have wine, youre gonna bottle that wine and want to put it through a second fermentation, but this time you want to trap that naturally occurring CO2 in the bottle which will make the bubbles. To do this, you add a small amount of rock sugar and yeast, which will result in alcohol and C02, then seal the bottle with a crown cap (like beer) before that fermentation takes place. While the reaction occurs, the bottles are placed in racks tilted at a 45 degree angle, almost upside down, and are gently and periodically rotated over a couple weeks, collecting the spent yeast matter in the neck.
This is called riddling, which Im pretty confident is more fun to say than it is to do.
Now, what to do with all those yeast bits that have collected, post-fermentation, in the neck of the bottle? Nothing too high tech just dip the neck of the bottle in an ice and salt bath or other freezing solution, remove the crown cap, and that CO2 is going to pop out the yeasty end of the ice puck, when youll quickly add a splash of the original base wine and maybe a touch of brandy or sugar to adjust sweetness, throw a cork in there and youve made sparkling wine! Nows the best part: celebrate your newfound knowledge and dazzle your friends by popping open a couple bottles of the stuff:
Pares Balta Cava Brut | Penedes, Spain| $20 | BC Liquor Stores
From Penedes, the home of sparkling wine in Spain, comes this killer organic bubble that is the best value sparkling wine in our market today. A little fresh-baked-bread on the nose (the effect of that yeast treatment) gives way to lively notes of grapefruit, lime and a hint of pepper on the bone-dry finish. Great with saltier fare and fried snacks like smoked salmon, prosciutto and sharp cheeses.
Blue Mountain Brut | Okanagan Falls, BC| $24 | Private Wine Stores
A legendary bottle of local bubble that never fails to impress. Toasty and full of character with lemon, peaches, nectarines and a long finish that has some distinct kaffir lime leaf elements. Great with Asian cuisine, seafood and friends on the beach.
