25 TOP SPARKLING BUYS
It’s got to be done: crack open the bubbly to add a spritz to your end-of-year occasion. And beyond Champagne, there’s a world of excellent and fascinating alternative styles you can choose from, as our expert’s eclectic selection of 25 shows…
We live in a truly effervescent world and my pick of 25 sparkling wines from around the globe proves it – and not one of them is from Champagne. They show that compelling bubbles can be made outside the world’s foremost fizz region. My aim in selecting these wines was simple: to provide inspiration for joyful bubbles that are just a little off the beaten track. I also wanted a global span and to include a few wines that stray from the usual grape varieties of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, even though these stalwarts show their mettle in numerous spots here and score highly – above all, Chardonnay.
SETTING THE BAR
In terms of traditional-method fizz, we have to admit that Champagne continues to be the yardstick against which all others are measured. By the same token, Champagne and the methods used in its production are what everyone looks to when they aspire to make high-quality, bottlefermented sparkling wine. This means careful site and vine selection, viticulture aimed at the different acidity and ripeness parameters required of base wines for sparkling rather than still wines. It also means different regimes for pressing grapes and, in many cases, blending across grape varieties, sites and vintages.
Why all this technical stuff? The production of fine fizz is a very involved process, and really the opposite of the much-vaunted ‘low-intervention winemaking’ so many now ascribe to. Making fine sparkling wine is the result of an infinite matrix of decisions – and requires immense expertise and experience, as well as intuition and creativity. The wines on the pages that follow show how well this process is being mastered by so many.
The most beautiful thing is that in place of Champagne’s defining and celebrated Cretaceousera chalk soils, the wines here are expressions of their place – of oceanic briskness, of Alpine altitudes, of luminous sunshine; but also of indigenous varieties. When fine sparkling wine is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, it remains comparable to Champagne. But what if Chenin Blanc is used? Or, as I was thrilled to taste, Baga from Portugal, or Zweigelt from Austria (see p36 for both)? Then the rules of the game change again and, depending on intention, site and grape variety, wildly different styles appear that are harder to compare but just as wonderful to explore and appreciate.
LIGHTEN THE MOOD
So what to look for? For me, the greatest virtue of traditional-method sparkling wine is lightness. When you pop that cork you want refreshment and uplift – heaviness has no place. Let me be clear:
