Browse Tag

sparkling

Red I

Mionetto “Il” Rosato (Veneto) – Plum, blood orange, strawberry, and old raspberry pushed past its ideal maturity. Heavy and deep. Quite striking, and very much a light red wine more than it is a sparkler. (6/08)

Fiacre & a mule

Chartogne-Taillet 1996 Champagne Brut “Fiacre” (Champagne) – Mushroom and Rainier cherry, which is a combination I’m not sure I like. Crisp and maybe even a bit puckery. This never comes together for me, but following a moscato isn’t the easiest thing in the world. (9/08)

Balbi, ball girl

[vineyard]Balbi Soprani 2006 Moscato d’Asti (Piedmont) – Flowers and powdered apple. Soft…too soft…with more gentility than I’d like; the laughing sweetness of moscato d’Asti needs a little more self-confidence. (9/08)

One dollar

JP Brun Vin Mousseux “FRV100” (Beaujolais) – How can fruit be both concentrated and light? It’s like the essence of something late-summery…strawberries, perhaps, or maybe cloudberries, writ pink, midly frothy, and immensely appealing. This is more “winey” than the similarly-constructed wines of Bugey-Cerdon, and it’s definitely heftier, but it’s no less an interpretation of a fun, quaffing “soda pop’ for adults. (8/08)

The pink

Mionetto “Il Rosé” Rosato del Veneto (Veneto) – This is a strange bird; it’s a little sweet and frothy, but the redness of the fruit is of a darker hue than one expects in a pink sparkler. There are better pink sparklers out there, to be sure, but at a party where there might be red-wine-friendly food, this does better than something more light-minded. (8/08)

Feeling Bouzy

[bottle]Bara Champagne Bouzy “Grand Cru” Brut “Grand” Rosé (Champagne) – From 375 ml. Piercing x-rays of raspberry, crisp apple, and essence of mountain wildflower over a gravel bed. Complex and yearning, but painfully youthful; even if this won’t age (which I think it will), it needs some time to settle into itself. (8/08)

Moore in a moment

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Demi-Sec (Champagne) – As long as you don’t think of it as Champagne, it’s appealing (with the right food; in this case, prune-stuffed gnocchi with a foie gras-based sauce) and clean, seeming like coalesced sunshine in jar of sweet syrup that rests on a midsummer windowsill. (8/08)

Who wants to be a Mesnil-aire?

[press]Pierre Peters Champagne Le Mesnil-sur-Oger “Grand Cru” Brut Blanc de Blancs “Cuvée de Réserve” (L 0931) (Champagne) – This is the version that was available in early 1998, and is thus a ten-year old NV Champagne. And this bottle hasn’t been stored in pristine conditions. That said, it’s holding well, perhaps just a year or two past its best stage for nut fans, with weight and minerality underneath the toasted almonds. My personal preference is to drink chardonnay-based sparklers early, and save the aging for those made from more red grapes, but there are always delicious exceptions. (8/08)

Chiquet fliquet

[bottle]Gaston Chiquet Champagne Brut “Tradition” (22/07/2005) (Champagne) – Dry, dry, dry. Ascetic, almost. Yet it persists, laser-like in its focus, though it chills and then abrades. I come back to it again and again, searching for warmth. There’s none. But maybe it doesn’t need any. (8/08)