Celebrate with Sparkling White

Celebrations are the perfect time to bring out the bubbly! You can hear corks popping around the world on New Year’s Eve, as people ring in the New Year. On any other given day of the year you can hear the cheers of friends and family participating in a champagne toast to celebrate any number of major life events such as weddings, promotions, anniversaries and the list goes on! On July 2^nd 2014 my husband and I welcomed our son Preston Taylor to the world! To celebrate this life moment my husband and I toasted with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot from Champagne France. For this month’s post I thought it was perfect time to put the spotlight on sparkling wine!

People often times refer to all sparkling white wine as Champagne; however, actual champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France. In France and most of Europe, wine is actually classified by its appellation rather than by the varietal of the grape, which is how we typically classify wine in the US. The appellation is defined by the region or terroir where the grape is grown, the varietal, and by a set of rules that govern quality and methods used to produce the wine. It is a complex classification system that is often why people find French wine so hard to understand.

Champagne is made from three primary grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. It can range in sweetness. Here is the scale from driest to sweetest:

• Extra Brut
• Brut
• Extra Dry
• Sec
• Demi-Sec
• Doux

Champagne usually comes with a price tag. There are many other wonderful sparkling whites from all over the world that are just as wonderful and make less of a dent in your wallet. Try:

Prosecco

An Italian sparkling wine primarily made from Glera grapes and is typically Brut or Extra Dry. It is best to drink Prosecco at a young age.

Cava

A Spanish sparkling wine primarily made form macabeu, parellada, and xarel lo grapes. Cava is made with a range of dry to sweet styles.

Sparkling Shiraz

Is a sparkling red from Australia, primarily made from Shiraz grapes and is typically on the sweeter side.

US Sparkling Wine

The US makes a wide variety of sparkling white wines using a wide variety of grape varietals and styles.

What do you have to celebrate this month? Sometimes we just like to celebrate Saturday with our friends and family! Find something to celebrate this weekend and share what bubbles you choose to toast with!