New Years' Eve Bubbles from Around the World!
First of all, Happy New Years' Eve everyone! We hope everyone has had a fantastic year and have created some fond memories over the last 365 days. Now it's time to celebrate with family and friends that we have made it through another year together.
One very popular way of celebrating is with Champagne or another sparkling wine. Whether you are just grabbing a bottle to drink or one to give as a gift, picking a good bottle of sparkling wine can be difficult.
Throughout the year we have tried various bottles of sparkling wine from Champagne, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley and Stellenbosch. Take a look below and leave us some comments about your favorite bottles of bubbly.
If you want to skip ahead for:
Within the United States, most sparkling wine is made in either the méthode champenoise or the charmat method. The méthode champenoise requires a secondary fermentation which occurs in the bottle. Check out this website to learn more about traditional method.
As for the charmat method, this is the 'Italian Method' which is a method that forces secondary fermentation to occur within large stainless steel tanks. Check out this website to learn more about Italian method.
All our favorite American sparkling wines this year are made through the traditional method. Here are a few of our favorites:
Champagne is one of those things that as soon as it has "Champagne" on the label, two things can be expected. 1. Higher price. 2. At least a decent quality.
Within Champagne, France they use the méthode champenoise which requires a secondary fermentation which occurs in the bottle. Most of the various villages in Champagne have their own requirements and restrictions. This can vary from which way vines need to face, how much needs to be in the cuvee, etc.
Here are a few of our favorites from Champagne:
Méthode Cap Classique is just the South African version of Champagne, meaning that just like the French, it requires a secondary fermentation in the bottle.
From our latest trip to South Africa, here are a few of our favorite MCCs:
