[wine] Field guid to sparkling

Save you tracking the link. A field guide to sparkling wines from around the world Jon BonnéChronicle Wine Editor Friday, November 30, 2007 A selection of sparkling wines from around the world. Chr... 2004 Steininger Cabernet Sauvignon RoséChronicle photo ... NV Gran Sarao Cava Brut. Chronicle photo by Craig Lee NV Caves Carod Freres Clairette de Die. Chronicle photo b... More... Consider it a strange affect of the human condition: Wherever in the world wine is made, someone will try to add bubbles. This manifests itself most obviously in Champagne, where climate and history conspired to make nearly all the local grapes into a pale beverage infused with natural fizz. Yet there's a similar drive almost everywhere - not only to make wine, but to make wine sparkle. In places as far-flung as India and Chile, tiny bubbles are the order of the day. With few exceptions, they are capped by the same ubiquitous Champagne cork and placed in the same shape of bottle, with its graceful slope and thick walls. Wine buyers have taken notice. Once the sparkling portion of a wine list could be parsed simply by identifying the same familiar Champagnes, plus a domestic sparkler thrown in as a sign of local pride. Then Cava and Prosecco joined the roster. Now, these choices have become as complex as the rest of the wine list, and in the Bay Area it's no longer surprising to find, say, a Cremant du Jura at San Francisco's Slanted Door or a Scheurebe Sekt at Oakland's A Cote. Successfully spotting these lesser-known wines has mostly been a task for the skilled bubbly-hunter (identified by the worn stem on his Champagne flute). It need not be so. The rest of us deserve a quick reference to identify these creatures. Therefore, we offer a handy field guide to bubbly beyond Champagne. Cremant Location: Throughout France Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, plus local substitutions. French fizz hardly starts or ends with Champagne. In all points you can find reasonable facsimiles marked by the word "cremant," which is simply the moniker given any French Champagne-like wine after the term "methode champenoise" was outlawed. Directly south of Champagne, there's Cremant de Bourgogne, no surprise since Burgundy and Champagne share the same roster of grapes and damp climate. To the east, Cremant d'Alsace hails from that slice of land once held by Germany and still enjoying residual sauerkraut benefits. Similar grapes are used as in Champagne, though Alsace has a fondness for Noir's Pinot cousins, Gris and Blanc. Perhaps the most interesting of the Cremants comes from the Jura, off the chilly mountain slopes that face Burgundy's Cote d'Or and share some of its limestone soils. Jura still wines are unlike anything else in France (its famous vin jaune is akin to an Alpine sherry), and its sparkling wines - harnessing local varieties like Saviginin and Poulsard - have many of the same stoic mineral qualities that enliven some harder-edged Champagnes. Cremant de Loire, Vouvray brut and other Loire bubbles Location: Loire Valley, France Grapes: Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, other varieties. Champenois grapes can be found in this fertile valley, but more than elsewhere they are trumped by local varieties, with Chenin Blanc as a dominant force and Cabernet Franc in a strong supporting role. The real beauty comes from towns like Vouvray, Saumur and Montlouis, well known to Chenin Blanc lovers. Wine merchant Alexis Lichine once called sparkling Vouvray "a Frenchman's substitute for Champagne," but one taste of a good Vouvray Brut reveals the flaws in that comparison. It is marked by Chenin's telltale smells of dry apple and pinecone, recast into a crisp, lively wonder. While sweet Vouvray tends to get all the fanfare, respected vintners like S.A. Huet take great pride in their sparkling wines. Blanquette de Limoux Location: Southern France Grapes: Mauzac (aka Blanquette), Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc. In the northern foothills of the Pyrenees mountains lies one of two French locales that claim a sparkling tradition predating Champagne. Documents detail the 1531 discovery of a sparkling wine method by a monk at the Benedictine abbey in nearby Saint-Hilaire. (One apocryphal claim places Dom Perignon here prior to his assignment in the north.) The resulting wine, made primarily from Mauzac with increasingly prevalent Chardonnay, is refreshingly austere, though sometimes rustic. There's also an "ancestral" version bottled each March according to the phases of the moon. Bugey Cerdon Location: France's Jura mountains, west of Geneva Grapes: Gamay, Poulsard. This rosés made with the methode ancestrale, in which wine with some sugar goes into the bottle to naturally finish its fermentation. The result is naturally sweet and light, with pretty berry flavors and alcohol well under 10 percent. Clairette de Die Location: Eastern Central France Grapes: Muscat Blanc, Clairette Blanche. The other place with a claim to predate Champagne sits along a remote 30-kilometer stretch of the Drome tributary of the Rhone river, between the northern and southern Rhone Valley. In 77 A.D., Pliny the Elder described sparkling wine from the area made by leaving vessels of still wine in the river all winter. Come spring, it had acquired a fizz. Nowadays, grape must is chilled below freezing in steel tanks and fermented to about 3 percent alcohol, then bottled and allowed to continue fermentation. Unlike most sparkling wines, there's no added dosage at the end. The result, with about 7 percent alcohol, is like a refined sweet Moscato. Cava Location: Spain, mostly Catalonia Grapes: Macabeo (aka Viura), Parellada, Xarel-lo, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir. Spain's contribution to bubbly has taken on such a popular identity of its own that its 1970 decision to abandon the term "Champañcan be judged a wise one. Cava means "cellar" in Catalan, and if inexpensive fizz like Prosecco is made quick and cheap in a closed tank, Cava signals a Spanish commitment to do things the hard way - retaining traditional Champagne-style winemaking for a wine that rarely tops $15. Though Cava hinges on its own unique trio of grapes - Macabeo, Parellada, Xarel-lo - Chardonnay joined the ranks in 1986 and Pinot Noir is now allowed as well. Beyond the biggest names, Freixenet and Cordoniu, lies a proliferation of smaller producers making distinctive wines. Prosecco Location: Veneto, Italy Grapes: Prosecco. This tart, wan grape has found fame in bubbles as the Veneto's sparkling wine and has gained worldwide favor. The Bellini cocktail, and Prosecco's supporting role in it, are no doubt a partial cause, as is its carefree image and price. Most Prosecco is made in bulk using the Charmat method (see Bubbly Glossary, Page F7), unencumbered by pretense and meant as a casual, refreshing drink. Having fully exploited the Prosecco market, some producers like Mionetto have turned to other formulas, like its Sergio Roséfrom red Lagrein and Raboso grapes. Italian brut Location: Mostly northern Italy (Lombardy, Veneto) but also in the south Grapes: Everything under the sun. Oceans of Prosecco and Asti Spumante have left an impression that Italian bubbly is cheap stuff. For evidence this isn't so, look no further than Franciacorta, the Lombardy appellation for fine traditionally made sparklers from the same range of grapes found in Alsace and Burgundy - Chardonnay, plus Pinots Noir, Gris and Blanc. Ambitiously, they often fetch as much as good Champagne as do the long-aged reserve bruts from Trentino-based winemaking giant Cavit. Similar wines have pervaded Italy. In Sicily, bruts hail from Tasca d'Almerita and Murgo, while in the Veneto, Prosecco firm Carpene Malvolti makes brut from Kerner (a cross of Riesling and Schiava). Should you ever spy the brut made by Barbaresco maestro Bruno Giacosa, grab it immediately. Sekt Location: Germany and Austria Grapes: Whatever grows. Beer is still the bubbly drink of choice, but in 2005, 8.5 percent of German households' beverage budgets went to sparkling wine, which explains why author Frank Schoonmaker once called it "a national drink." Sekt really just describes any fizzy wine, and in Germany at least, much sekt is made in tanks from French or Italian grapes and sold cheaply. But diligent vintners now strive to create great sekt (often labeled brut) using Champagne-style methods. Dry Riesling sekt can be dramatically refreshing - highlighting that grape's high-acid nature, with the merest dab of sweetness and a lean, stony texture not often found in Champagne. Spatburgunder (German Pinot Noir) and Scheurebe have made inroads. Across the border in Austria, considering that as Liesl was denied her first taste of Champagne in "The Sound of Music," perhaps she should have asked for something closer to home. The Austrians will seemingly add bubbles to virtually anything. Gruner Veltliner and Riesling are merely a departure point. Schloss Gobelsburg harnesses both of those and adds Pinot Noir. Willi Brundlmayer employs Chardonnay and three flavors of Pinot (Noir, Gris, Blanc). Austria's beloved Zweigelt gets the occasional cameo. A Cabernet Rosérut was spotted not long ago. American sparkling wines (the other guys) Location: United States Grapes: Mostly Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, some Pinot Meunier, with variations. The major players - California's French transplants at Domaines Carneros and Chandon, Mumm Napa and Roederer Estate, plus Schramsberg, Iron Horse and so on - have long been a familiar sight. But many smaller wineries across the land have joined the bubbly parade. In California, look no further than Point Reyes Vineyards, whose Blanc de Noirs hails from its own tiny Marin County plot. In Napa, winemaking wizard Dick Peterson crafts his Richard Grant Blanc de Noirs with Pinot Noir cuttings originally from England (see below). Up north, Oregon's familiar Argyle brand has been joined by Domaine Meriwether and California expat Tony Soter. In Washington state, Spokane's Mountain Dome makes its long-aging vintage bruts. And of course there's New Mexico's Gruet (see page F5). There's progress, too, on the other side of the Mississippi, though Eastern bubbly rarely travels far from to its native habitat. New York has transcended its reputation for mass-market plonk (Taylor, anyone?) to produce outstanding fizzy drinks in both of its winegrowing regions (Look for Lenz, from Long Island's North Fork.) Rhode Island's Sakonnet Vineyards makes its own "Champagne," while Michigan's Larry Mawby dedicated his L. Mawby winery to the stuff. Rare is the American winery that makes 10 types of sparkling wine, much less one on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay. Australian sparkling wine Location: Australia Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, some Pinot Meunier Australian bubbles were once largely confined to bargain brands like Seaview (a long-ago favorite in my house) or to the puzzlingly popular sparkling Shiraz, which served primarily to further deepen Australia's image as red-wine haven. But cooler sites in Victoria and Tasmania have been home to a thriving fine-bubbly sector for more than 20 years. Moet & Chandon chose Victoria's Yarra Valley as home to its Australian project in 1985, while vineyards in Victoria's Pyrenees mountains and in Tasmanian Pinot Noir regions like Pipers River are growing fruit for refined, small-production sparklers in a style faithful to Champagne. English sparkling wine Location: England Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. After centuries of shipping vast amounts of bubbly across the English Channel, the British finally acknowledged that the same block of Kimmeridgian limestone under Champagne also covers a good chunk of southern Britain. Fledgling vineyards have cropped up across the South Downs, south of London, with a helping boost from global warming, the most famous being Nyetimber (actually founded by two Americans), plus Chapel Down and Ridgeview. Wine expert Steven Spurrier was even planning a vineyard on his Dorset property. The reward of tasting English bubbly is matched by the challenge of finding it. I spent two years on the hunt before persuading a Dallas liquor store to sell me a few bottles. Soviet Champagne (Sovetskoe Shampanskoe) Location: Russia and the former Soviet states Grapes: Chardonnay, Aligote, other. The Russian taste for Champagne has been legendary since the armies chasing Napoleon occupied Reims and Epernay in 1814. In 1876, Louis Roederer, hearing of Czar Alexander II's love of the fizz, commissioned a special clear bottle and created Cristal. Catering to the sweet "gout rousse," Champagne houses left far more sugar in bottles destined for Russia. Later, in the Soviet era, with crippling import tariffs, the state chose to produce its own knockoffs from primarily Ukrainian or Georgian grapes. With the fall of Communism, Western fizz returned but the thirst for Shampanskoe hardly slaked. Now private firms now churn out surprisingly decent semisweet sparkling wine that can be found on these shores for about $10. Surprisingly, it's easier to find than English bubbly. Bubbly tasting notes Given the relative obscurity of many of these wines, it's impressive how many are available at Bay Area retailers and restaurants - a sign that bubbly lovers are becoming more adventurous. A few were obtained from farther afield, but all are available within California. NV Boslita Sovietskoe Shampanskoe Semi-Sweet Sparkling Wine ($9) This "Soviet Champagne" actually hails from Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city. An acquired taste to be sure, but with more eloquence than some of the Ukrainian versions often found here. Up-front notes of apple juice and porcini, and palpably sweet, with a curt ending but it remains approachable. A peppery bite wraps up the package. NV Caves Carod Freres Clairette de Die ($17) Brothers Alain and Marcel Carod took charge of their family's winery in 1973, working just over 120 acres from their facility in Vercheny, where France's Drome river curves northward from its eastern track. About 75 percent Muscat, with Clairette making up the rest. Offers up soapstone and fresh blossoms, with lifted scents of sweet orange and mulberry, then vanilla roundness and a lean, sunny ending to balance its natural sweetness. It's surprisingly versatile, like a nuanced Moscato. NV Francois Pinon Vouvray Petillant Brut ($19) The limestone and slate soils on Pinon's estate, and his farming without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, give many of his wines a purity of flavor that's increasingly hard to find in Vouvray. Here, solid crisp apple flavors infuse a fully dry effort that lingers on the palate, with the bubbles adding the perfect edge. NV Gran Sarao Cava Brut ($9) From the three standard Cava grapes plus 10 percent Chardonnay, this brings a surprising weight to the table. Rustic scents of lemon and damp herbs lead to a zesty kick on first taste that highlight quince and pear, a soft, fine mousse and a subtle, warm finish that reveals its depth. NV Jansz Tasmania Premium Brut Rosé$20) Winemaker Natalie Fryar blended lots from the Heemskerk vineyard in northeastern Tasmania. The result is lean and racy, with more fruit toward the finish and a hit of sweet strawberry cream amid solid mineral notes. The sweetness is restrained and the weight palpable, which takes it beyond refreshing and into more serious territory. NV Point Reyes Vineyards Blanc de Noirs North Coast Sparkling Wine ($24) Steve and Sharon Doughty first established a 2-acre plot off California's Highway 1 in 1990, harnessing the cool coastal influence in Point Reyes Station. This all-Pinot effort is woodsy and quiet, with watermelon candy and slightly sweet overtones. A bit straightforward, but refreshing. NV Renardat-Fache Cerdon du Bugey Rosé$20) Alain Renardat-Fache uses the methode ancestrale for this slightly off-dry petillant (semi-sparkling) wine that's a perennial hit with lovers of the obscure. The latest shipment (from the 2006 vintage) is more forceful and better than ever, with bright citrus accents hovering the layered strawberry and mint leaf. There's a mineral leanness, with unusual nuances from the mix of Gamay and Poulsard. 2004 Solter Spatburgunder Brut Rosé$20) Helmut Solter got training in Champagne, but his sparkling wine house is located in Riesling country - Rudesheim, at the heart of Germany's Rheingau. Its Pinot Noir-based effort offers dusty, mossy strawberry scents, with a distinct spun-sugar sweet spot and a haunting chalky mineral note. It's dry, but a high dosage (from a bit of beerenauslese Riesling) notably softens its edges. 2004 Steininger Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé$27) This family in the major winemaking town of Langenlois, in Austria's Kamptal region, has put its hands to all variety of sparkling wines, including a Gruner Veltliner Sekt and a red Zweigelt Sekt. This creation (found in a Santa Monica wine shop) is a rarity even within the Steininger portfolio. Lovers of Cabernet's herbaceous, woody qualities will be intrigued, as this is packed with them, plus cranberry around the edges, coriander and black mustard seed. Intriguing, if a touch bizarre. The pairing that comes to mind is smoked beef tongue with horseradish; if either food or wine sound appealing, you've found your match. NV Taltarni Vintage Selections Brut Taché$22) From a mix of vineyards in the Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania. A surprisingly fine bead, with sugar cherry scents. The 51 percent Chardonnay takes over as you taste it with lean citrus to offset fresh berry notes. A dose of Pinot Meunier adds freshness and the balance is impressive, with little Champagne-like toastiness but lots of fresh fruit. NV Andre & Mireille Tissot Cremant du Jura ($23) Benedicte and Stephane Tissot biodynamically farm their family's plots around the Jura village of Montigny-les-Arsures. They produce a number of benchmark Jura wines, but this sparkling blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is remarkably dense, gripping the palate with a hard-edged mineral focus and little perceptible sweetness. Austere, but still very versatile. Serving sparkling wine Though tradition once dictated the flat, round coupe being the Champagne glass of choice, it's now widely accepted that the tall, tapered flute best displays the wine's bubbly nature. The narrow opening at the top helps reduce exposed surface area and better holds in the wine's mousse and keeps it fizzy. Champagne flutes highlight the bubbles but somewhat mute the wine's aromas, as they leave little room to swirl the glass or smell the wine. A white wineglass will reduce the fizz somewhat more quickly, but also heightens the aromas, as it allows you to better smell the wine. It can also help smooth out aggressively fizzy wine or enhance an aged one in which the layers of scents are more interesting than the bubbles. Some Champagne hounds prefer their bubbly to be less bubbly with certain dishes and will go so far as to serve it in bowl-like Burgundy glasses. Though sometimes dismissed as a sommelier's parlor trick, the act of decanting a sparkling wine occasionally has its place, especially for an older Champagne that may have already lost some of its fizz but needs exposure to air in order to blossom. Some Champagne makers also endorse the practice if you're opening his or her wine on the young side, as it will help bring out the secondary characteristics. Bubbly glossary Bead: The streams of bubbles themselves are often called the bead, and the size and quantity can help determine the wine's texture and the quality of winemaking. Blanc de blancs: White wine from white grapes. In Champagne this denotes an all-Chardonnay wine, though elsewhere it can also represent a blend of white grapes. Blanc de noirs: Two of the three traditional Champagne grapes (Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier) are red, but treated as white grapes in the winemaking process and leave little or no color in the wine. Blends made entirely from red grapes are labeled this way, though the term can be used for any white (or almost white) wine made entirely from red grapes. Should not be confused with roséwhich in sparkling wine often describes a wine made from both white and red grapes, with some still red wine added in later that gives it color. Brut: The common term for a fully dry Champagne or sparkling wine. Typically, it describes a wine with less than 15 grams per liter of sugar left in the final wine. However, a wine with 5 grams per liter is very different than one with 14, much as a recipe with 1 cup of sugar would taste different than one with 3. And other factors in the wine - the acidity level, the blend of fruit, the aging time - can further impact perceived dryness. Charmat: A more industrial method used in making cheaper sparkling wines. Sugar and yeast are added to a tankful of still wine and the second fermentation takes place in bulk, with bottling after the wine is finished. Demi-sec: Actually rather sweet, with 33-50 grams per liter of sugar. This is the realm of wedding-cake wines. Disgorgement: The removal of yeast cells and sediment from the wine just before it is sealed in cork. After riddling is complete (see below), the bottle neck is frozen, creating a plug of solids, which is pushed out by the wine's natural pressure when a bottle cap is removed. The wine then quickly receives dosage and is sealed. Dosage: Part of the Champagne-style process in which a small amount of sweet liquid is added to the wine just before corking. The extra sugar helps balance out the wine and keep a consistent flavor profile across multiple batches and vintages, preserving its specific style. Usually the liquid is a mix of wine and sugar syrup, though not always; a few sekt producers in Germany and Austria use late-harvest sweet wines as their dosage. Extra brut: An even drier style than brut, with 6 or less grams per liter of sugar. If a wine has less than 3 grams per liter, and no sugar was added in the dosage, it can be called brut nature (also brut zero, zero dosage and so on). Extra dry: A slightly sweet style of wine, just above brut. However, extra-dry wines can have from 12-20 grams per liter of sugar, so that some bruts could in fact be slightly sweeter than certain extra dry wines. Frizzante: A semi-sparkling wine, with less carbonation than a Champagne-style effort. The terms petillant (French) and spritzig (German) are similar. SFGC Top 100 Sparkling Wine This year we kept a close eye on value in domestic sparkling wine. It's heartening to see that the quality of nonvintage blends is getting better than ever, though that makes us even more inclined to opt for the blended wines over more expensive vintage bottlings. NV Domaine Carneros Cuvee de la Pompadour Carneros Brut Rosé$36) Though the Domaine Carneros wines can sometimes feel a tad subdued, veteran winemaker Eileen Crane seems to have brought a bit more edge to the winery's fine roséwhich gives it lovely vibrancy. Clean notes of strawberry and peach are highlighted by a chalky mineral tone. Lifted acidity and the weight of 58 percent Pinot Noir fruit yields a wine with significant depth and versatility. 2002 Roederer Estate L'Ermitage Anderson Valley Brut ($45) The latest release of Roederer's top-end vintage effort is in fine form, showing terrific refinement. It opens with aromas of pastry dough, ripe apple, gray mineral and a raspberry tang. Fantastically nuanced on the palate - an appropriately rich texture, not too toasty or yeasty, plenty complex but not sacrificing its fruit. Its higher-acid style will give it years to develop. NV Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut Roséorth Coast Sparkling Wine ($25) Once again the Davies family's Diamond Mountain winery delivers with its nonvintage offering, this time the roséRich strawberry, roasted orange and spun sugar lead to lively, tangy peach flavors. Great tenacity on the palate, thanks in part to 48 percent Pinot Noir that adds depth. NV Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut ($23) It's still hard to believe that this Mendocino offshoot of the Champagne house delivers so much for the money. This widely available bottling is fresh and leesy, with green apple and crushed rock aromas. Buoyant acidity and squeezed orange flavors mix with wild berry, an ever-present edge and a refined bead. Winemaker Arnaud Weyrich uses just a touch of malolactic fermentation, which adds a welcome bit of extra body. . Jon Bonné -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *