sparkling

The gold standard of sparkling wine is Champagne, but Champagne is expensive!  A great substitute is Crémant.  Crémant is a high quality sparkling wine from France made using the same process that Champagne uses, and it's always associated with a region.  So, there's Crémant d'Alsace, Crémant de Jura, Crémant de Bordeaux, etc.  However, my favorite is Crémant de Bourgogne.  Burgundy is geographically close to Champagne, and the climates are similar.  These two Crémants de Bourgogne are both from Trader Joe's, and they are excellent values.

Chandon was founded in 1973 in California by Moët et Chandon, the house that makes Dom Pérignon.  Chandon makes a number of excellent sparkling wines, but my favorite is their blanc de pinot noir.  Blanc de Noir is a white wine make from black grapes.

Sparkling wine was not invented in Champagne!  The invention of sparkling wine was a happy accident that started in the fall of 1530 and was discovered in the spring of 1531 at the Abbey of Saint Hilaire in Limoux, France.  The monks were making wine using a local grape, Mauzac, which is a late ripening grape.  The grapes were harvested in the fall, they were pressed, and the juice was fermented.  Since carbon dioxide is a product of fermentation, the liquid bubbles while it is undergoing fermentation.  Seeing that the wine had stopped bubbling, the monks bottled and sealed their wine.  They stored it in their cave for the winter.  When they went to drink their wine in the spring, they found that the wine had bubbles in it.  They had accidentally created sparkling wine!    So....what happened?  Becuase Mauzac is a late ripening grape, the temperature had started to drop by the time they fermented the juice.  The bubbling stopped because the cool temperatures stopped the fermentation process.  However, there was still sugar and yeast in the wine.  After the wine was bottled and sealed, temperatures rose in the spring and fermentation continued in the individual bottles.  Because the bottles were sealed, the carbon dioxide was forced to mix in with the wine, thus creating sparkling wine.  This method of creating sparkling wine is now called the ancestral method. 

We all want a little splurge sometimes, and these are two Champagnes that I love.  The existence of both houses is due to women.  Women are increidbly important to the history of Champagne.