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There's a popular fund raising game where you guess the number of candies or coins that are in a large jar. For an interesting variation, guess the number of bubbles in a bottle of sparkling wine. The winning guess will be the one closest to 56,000,000. Of course sparklers have traditionally been used as a celebration beverage. But it's time to remove the special occasion/Valentine's Day label from sparkling wine and serve it more often. Tasty sparkling wines are now available from all over the world and good choices can be found for under $20.00. Also, sparkling wines have an affinity for foods notoriously hard to match with wines - spicy Asian cuisine from Thailand, India and China, as well as the increasingly popular sushi.
It is best to buy sparkling wine by the producer's name. Some producers make sparkling wine by the traditional method, others by the charmat method - this will be indicated on the label. The traditional "methode champenoise" production requires that the second fermentation - when the bubbles are created - occur in the bottle. The "charmat" method is a faster way to produce sparkling wine as the second fermentation occurs in large tanks before bottling. These sparkling wines will be relatively inexpensive and less complex as they require less labor and will be sold younger. Besides indicating the method, the producer's name will indicate the wine's style. Sparkling wine is a blend of up to 5 different types of grapes, and can involve up to 60 different batches of grapes from different harvests, vineyards, etc. Vintage champagne only means that all the grapes were produced in the same year. Each producer tries to reproduce the same style each year - from light to full body. So once you've found a producer you like, you'll have a pretty good idea of what each bottle will taste like. |
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