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Next Sunday night is New
Year’s Eve and that means it’s likely that more Champagne and sparkling wine
will be opened than on any other night of the year, so we’ll be talking about
fizz and tasting a range of bubbly wines today (29/12/06) on the Moncrieff show
on Newstalk 106FM.
Sparkling
wine is strange stuff in that it’s the one wine that we rarely bother to
actually taste very consciously. It is often just a shout of cheers and it’s
knocked back like a shot to celebtrate some event or if you are a racing driver
sprayed all over those around you. It’s also the most strongly branded wine
category and it’s something that most people don’t drink very often. The
result is that taste in these circumstances is rarely the key for most people,
but rather many will ask themselves ‘how flash is the brand being poured’?
Champagne is an expensive drink and so opening a bottle adds a frisson of
excitement or glamour to any occasion, especially if it’s one of the deluxe
brands at well over €100 per bottle.
Sadly few of us can afford
to drink like hip hop stars, so it’s just as well that the cheaper
alternatives still make the same popping sound, although they may not be as
flash. The compensation though is that many
of us will actually prefer their flavours as Champagne can be quite acidic and
lacking in fruit.
What
Prosecco lacks in bling in makes up for by
being the trendiest sparkling wine around. There’s hardly a restaurant list in
Ireland without one, but why? Well, it’s Italian, it’s cool, it’s er? I
don’t know why actually, as it’s always been Italian and that didn’t stop
us ignoring it for years. At any rate it’s usually a perfectly acceptable
drink, that normally seems to taste of pears to me. We’ll be tasting Marks
and Spencer’s take on the fashionable Italian available at €12.49
and they also make a very drinkable pink version too.
Second
wine tasted today is the widely available Jacob’s
Creek Rosé, usually €12.95, but you might spot it on offer in some
supermarkets at €10.95. It may be a big brand so you might expect bland but
you’d be wrong as this offers excellent value and, in fact it was last
year’s Wine Republic sparkling wine of the year. Of all the big brands
from the new World, JC is arguably the most reliable. Production is overseen by
Phil Laffer and he and his team have done a wonderful job for many years
now. If you actually care about
flavour, only a snob can ignore this or its sibling the excellent Pinot Noir -
Chardonnay Sparkling.
The
last wine today is the real McCoy, a Champagne, and this one is from
O’Brien’s. It’s a vintage wine, 1998 Beaumont de
Crayère at €29.99 per bottle. I’ll be tasting it for the first
time in studio but I’m expecting a rich full flavour with biscuit or bready
like flavours derived from long bottle ageing. €30 isn’t cheap but it
is cheaper than the famous big brands which retail at €35-40 per bottle.
You’ll often gain quality and flavour by buying a little known brand that
doesn’t spend a lot on advertising but then you could argue that that would be
missing the point of Champagne. It’s up to you to decide how important bling
is.
If you are looking for a
bargain, many of the supermarkets in Ireland have good own label Champagnes.
Usually reliable are Tesco for their 1er cru own label and Dunnes’ Lanavin
currently reduced by €5 to €19.99 is pretty good. Superquinn are reliable
and even Aldi who have a specialist in the wines of the region advising them on
their wine buying
Finally if you live near the
border nipping across will save you a few quid as taxes are lower in the North
and Sainsburys have Champagne from £11.49 and Cava from £4.49, with Moët at
about £20.
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