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Written by By Beau Jolie/special to the World
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Sunday, 23 December 2007 |
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 “Only those lacking in imagination can find no good reason to drink Champagne.” — Oscar Wilde.
Tis the season to break out the bubbly!
I don’t know about you, but I think everyone should be required to drink French champagne at least once. There are lots of good sparking wines on the market, but it’s only Champagne when it’s French. Tiny, tiny bubbles are the benchmark.
Madame Bollinger, a “grande dames” of French champagne, put it this way: “I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes, I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry, and drink it if I am; otherwise I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.”
If you’re thirsty for the real thing, you can find good French Champagne to fit almost every budget. Here are a few suggestions of champagne you can buy locally for your champagne toast this New Year’s Eve:
Egly-Ouriet. Brut Tradition Grand Cru. Outstanding. Creamy and very complex with layers of flavors — tropical fruits, minerals, caramel and a long, clean finish. Price is $76 and is available at Pour House, in Truckee.
Michel Turgy reserve selection, Grand Cru. Brut, Blanc de Blanc. Very, very good. Rich and layered with flavors of apples, citrus and toast. Finishes with nutty complexity and minerality. Price is $48, available at Pour House.
Henriot 1998. Brut. Reims. Very, very good. Yeasty bread and baked apple flavors nicely balanced with citrus, minerals and a long creamy finish. Price is $68, available at Pour House.
Nicolas Feuillatte Brut. Epernay, France. Very good. Clean, crisp and well balanced with lots of nice fruit and good acidity. The price performer of the group at $30 available at the Village Market, in Incline Village and Pour House. There is a fun Web site, too ... take a look! Visit www.feuillatte.com
Dom Perignon, 1999. Very good, but overpriced. Crisp and nutty with nice smokiness and hints of citrus and green apple. Smooth finish: light, lean and clean. Price is $175 and is available at the Village Market, in Incline Village.
Taltarni Brut Taché, Rosé sparking wine, Australia. Above average. Light sweet fruit, soft and creamy; simple and very pleasant. Great value in a sparkling wine for the novice or connoisseur. $20 at the Village Market.
Bubbly fun
• There are between 44 and 57 million bubbles in a standard 750-ml bottle of Champagne.
• The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.
• Bubbles in Champagne were seen by early wine makers as a highly undesirable defect to be prevented.
• By the law of averages, you are more likely to be killed by a flying Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
• Flying champagne corks cause an average of 250 eye injuries worldwide every year.
• The pressure in a bottle of champagne is about 90 pounds per square inch.
• The speed of a popped Champagne cork ranges between 35 and 100 miles per hour.
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