Tasting Your Wine |
For this column, I am focusing on Champagnes and sparkling wines. Champagnes are often associated with celebrations of one sort or another. The year-end holidays are often the time of increased Champagne consumption. For this reason, I am focusing on them, with the hope that I might help you to choose a sparkling wine to enhance your celebrations.
Legally, champagne can only be produced in France, in the Department of Champagne. Sparking wine produced in other areas of the world are not, technically, Champagne, although they are all made from the same types of grapes and in a similar manner.
Champagne can be produced by one of several ways, but real Champagne and other top quality sparkling wines are made in the same way. And that is by being fermented in the very bottle that you purchased. Sparkling wine produced in this manner is labor intensive, and thus why it tends to be more expensive. There is some automation being deployed in the higher volume wineries, but the small producer often still does it by hand. Another reason for the higher cost is the fact that these wines tend to be held in the production and aging stream much longer than many other wines. The production of Champagne and sparkling wines is a topic that can take many volumes to document.
Usually I taste wines with the bottles in front of me in full view. This is because I usually am not contrasting those wines against one another. This time, it’s different. I am doing a blind tasting in which I will not know which is which until after I have reached my conclusions. I am tasting four wines on this occasion: one from France, one from Spain, and one each from California and Washington State. I had intended to include one from Germany and Italy as well, but just couldn't locate any in the local markets. I wanted to include an offering from Iron Horse Winery in California as well, but again, could not locate any locally. Oh, the foibles of finding wines in the smaller markets (MMA-metropolitan marketing areas) of America.
The wines were in brown paper bags, hidden from my view. The corks were removed so that I could not see them, nor their medallions that cover the top of the cork. They were all chilled to the same temperature, and poured into identical flutes. Champagne should be served in tall, narrow stemware, to help preserve the effervescence. Champagne should NEVER be served in the wide shallow bowls so often seen in the movies, as this encourages the bubbles to disperse without benefiting the wine.
The first wine is a pale yellow, straw. The bubbles are very fine, but soon quiet in the glass. This one has a very small aroma. It has a very mild flavor, with some acid, and almost no finish. It has almost no tartness, little sugar detectable but balances what tartness there is. There seems to be very little spritz on the palate. Of the four, the cork on this one expanded the least, almost none was visible; one could have reinserted it into the bottle.
The second wine is also a pale yellow straw color. It has a few bubbles after the initial swell of the carbonation on the pour, and what bubbles there are, are few and smaller than wine number one. This one has a yeasty aroma -- it does not smell fresh, but smells aged. Don't misunderstand, its not an unpleasant aroma, its just that it smells older. This one has a sharper taste, with some acid to the finish. There is some small petulance on the palate. It has a medium length finish. This is not extremely tart, but has no overt sweetness. This one is not a real grabber for me. This cork barely expanded, and could have been reinserted without too much trouble.
The third wine is a pale, pale straw color. It has a long bubble production, with very small bubbles. The aroma has some grape components to it, but also some yeast is detectable as well. This is tart, with lots of bubbles on the palate. Not much sugar. Some acid, longer finish than the first two. This cork expanded a great deal and could not even be put back if I had wanted to.
The last offering is also a pale straw. It has a long bubble production. These too, are also very small. There is some yeast aroma, but no grape comes through. This one has a lot of bubbles on the tongue. In comparison, this one is rather sweet, but on its own, it would not be considered sweet. There is some grape on the taste. There is some acid, and has a longer finish than the first three. The cork on this one expanded the most.
In general, there was not much difference in color among all four wines. All corks are composite corks; the upper portion being made up of glued cork particles, with two cork disks on the wine end of the stopper.
My personal choice is number three. Number four would be a good one for people first learning to appreciate sparkling wines to be exposed. I liked number two wine the least and was mostly neutral on number one.
When I exposed the bottles I was in for a surprise. I had expected the French offering to be head and shoulders above the rest. It wasn't. Number one was the French offering. It was Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, Epernay, France. It is non-vintage, at 12%. Imported by Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Co., New York City. About $38.
Number two was Castellblanch Brut Zero, 1994 vintage, 11.5%. Brut Reserva, Saint Sadurni D'Anola, Spain. Imported by Freixenet, USA, Sonoma, CA. About $10.
Number three was Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut, Sonoma County Sparkling Wine. NV, 12%. Gloria Ferrer Champagne Caves, Sonoma Carneros, CA. Freixenet Sonoma Caves, Sonoma, CA. About $18.
Number four was Domaine Ste. Michelle, Extra Dry Premium Cuvee, Columbia Valley sparkling wine. Domaine Ste. Michelle, Paterson, WA. NV, 12%. About $10. Méthode Champenoise.
All four samples were produced in their bottles.
Mr Nagy is a wine aficionado who has graduated from the German Wine Academy. In his professional career, he has been a Data Base Consultant for nearly 20 years. He earned his BS and MBA degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He's currently working on several projects, among them creating specialized software for the private wine collector, and developing a comprehensive management system for commercial wineries. He makes his home in suburban Portland, OR (a member of Oregon Mensa), where he frequently visits the numerous wineries in the region. He welcomes suggestions for future tastings and questions on wines and wineries. He may be reached at alexmn@ix.netcom.com.