Sommelier Tries 12 Sparkling Wines around the World || ($17 - $550) || Wine Tasting

Today we'll be sampling 12 different sparkling wines from throughout the world, ranging in price from $17 to over $500. We'll find out if costly champagne is worth it and where you can purchase wonderful sparkling wine on a budget. I believe the most important message with sparkling wine is that it is a party, and I believe that every day, especially during these times, we have something to celebrate, not just with champagne but with sparkling wine from all over the world.

1.    The Chook Sparkling Shiraz

2.    Via de la Plata Cava Brut Nature

3.    True Wine Connoisseurs Prosecco Treviso Brut

4.    Van Winning Riesling Extra Brut Sekt

5.    Château Deluxe “Rock Pop Naturel”

6.    Black Elephant Vintners & Co. MCC Brut

7.    Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs

8.    Champagne Michel Gonet Grand Cru Mesnil sur Oger

9.    Mouzon-Leroux Champagne Grand Cru Extra Brut L'Incandescent Rosé de Saignée

10. Ridgeview Blanc de Blancs

11. Champagne Philipponnat Clos des Gausses Extra-Brut

12. Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Rosé

 

1.   The Chook Sparkling Shiraz ($17)

We have here is the shook from south Australia this is sparkling shiraz. make sure that the pressure from in the bottle doesn't shoot out the cork they tell you not to take your hand off the cage we want to hold the bottle from the bottom firmly grasping the top and you want to twist the bottle back and forth slowly you start to feel the cork come out let it air come out so you can barely hear it. everything in the bottle pouring the wine you start to see the bubbles start to form that's called a mousse the finer the mousse the more refined the wine is.

A little bit blackberry, blueberry a little bit of cocoa nib. It's pretty rich it's round definitely for people who drink red wine and expect that kind of flavors and tannins and lots of tannins in this wine so this wine is carbonated with a traditional method.

·         What is Traditional method?

This is what all that means it's a wine that goes through two fermentations the first fermentation that actually turns the sugars into alcohol to make it what we call a still wine the secondary fermentation actually happens inside the bottle they add a little bit of sugar and yeast and then they put a crown top on it so the bottle's inverted they put in these wooden racks called a riddling rack and each time over the day the wines are turned a quarter of an inch each so that the dead yeast cells actually collect in the neck of the bottle after that point it's a long drawn-out process the necks are frozen the crown tops are open the pressure through the bottle shoots out all the dead e cells and then the wines are topped off with a little bit of sugar to kind of balance the acid in the wine and then a regular cork top is put on top of it.

2.   Via de la Plata Cava Brut Nature ($17)

We have cava this is Spain’s answers to champagne and this particular producer is via do la Plata so this here is a little sticker guaranteeing the authenticity that it is cava most countries have laws covering how wines are made if you use grapes that aren't from that particular area are those great varietals you can't call it so it's kind of guaranteeing the quality of this particular one.

Pale straw color this is beautiful really aromatic lots of straw hay apple just a little bit of quince there's a little bit of like what I call oxidation the wine just kind of tastes old it's almost like a caramel apple like it almost seems like it's kind of roasted slight a slight a bit.

Same brute natural extra boot those kind of things that really refers to the dryness of the wine the drier the wine means it has less sugar in it and those actually happen after the secondary fermentation at this particular point they top off the bottle with a dosage so it's like a liqueur of sugar and finish wine to kind of balance out the wine and to kind of create the style so this particular wine there's no sugar or anything added to the end of the bottle.

3.   True Wine Connoisseurs Prosecco Treviso Brut ($19)

We have prosecco from true wine connoisseurs and this is from Italy, prosecco is cool climate place; cool climate grapes are really great for sparkling wine.

Wine a little bit of grapefruit just a little bit of fig wow white peach slight bit of nutmeg this is great this is refreshing easy to drink I think you do a disservice by adding anything to it prosecco is used by adding orange juice to make a mimosa.

Prosecco is a protected name place meaning that there's laws and regulations that gives it a standard of quality that I think is great and expensive and I think it's something that everybody can experience.

Experience this is generally made what we like to call the tank method the white wine is made it's gone through the first fermentation but the secondary fermentation happens in a tank this is one way to bring down the cost of something like prosecco because it's done in very large batches.

4.   Château Deluxe “Rock Pop Naturel” ($28)

Château Deluxe this is all from the Willamette valley in Oregon and this is pet nat which is short for petulant naturale an ancient way of making sparkling wine it does have a crown top finish which you find in most beer bottles.

This is a blend of pinot noir some Riesling gamete and I believe a little bit of chardonnay there's a little bit of funk here you know noir funk I like that bright fresh lots of acid raspberries definitely tastes natural.

This wine doesn't go through a secondary fermentation these are all the bubbles that are trapped during the primary fermentation and what you can generally see on the bottom is you start to see a little bit of this sediment here those are all the dead yeast cells that we talked about before natural wine is all made using natural yeast the interesting part about this using this particular method is that you can't really control the fermentation there's variations between each bottle and for a lot of people who enjoy these type of wines that is that's the beauty of the wine.

5.   Van Winning Riesling Extra Brut Sekt ($29)

This is called sec and this is from von winning in Germany this is a Riesling sparkling wine doing research over the years I discovered that Germans were the largest consumers of sparkling wine first was like oh they drink a lot of champagne and that wasn't it they make their own sparkling wine that they use and consume on an everyday basis called sekts.

Pale yellowish color brioche more caramel apple slightly confectionary just a fun way to say and sweet wow that's pretty fascinating a typical characteristic that you get with Riesling is this petrol kind of quality to it; gasoline is not a favorable note but this is definitely something once you experience.

6.   Black Elephant Vintners & Co. MCC Brut ($32)

This sparkling wine is from south Africa called black elephant vintners so this is a chardonnay and pinot noir so straw pair of color yeasty toasted notes i think the first thing i noticed that is the wine is pretty ripe red apples a little bit of pear.

When we talk a lot about like ripe fruit um that does you know indicate like where it's grown this is south Africa but it does have a diverse climate and what we talk about a lot in wine is you know microclimate so a climate within a climate.

The alcohol in the back of this bottle it's 11 and a half percent so it's somewhat low meaning that they're picking earlier that it comes from a really cool climate this particular wine is called mcc method cap Classique and it's their version of traditional method south Africa does have a robust wine industry you know it's something that they've been doing for years I think they made some really great wines from steam to cabernet.

7.   Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs ($48)

Shromsburg Blanca noir 2017 from California this is really beautiful almost kind of like the salmon pink color golden apple a little bit of apricot brioche some toast notes to it a little bit of like mango pineapple really dry, long finish in a blind tasting we could call this champagne.

The phrase Blanco noir means white for black the way that red wine actually gets any of its color a lot of red wine is through the wines kind of soaking on the skins white wine is made a little bit differently all the grapes are put into a press and then it's pressed the wine is pressed the juice comes out everything that's left over is thrown away it's not used anymore so once you press it it's done there is a little bit of skin contact here hence producing this kind of wonderful beautiful salmon color.

8.   Champagne Michel Gonet Grand Cru Mesnil sur Oger ($57)

It's a cool thing to kind of experience this is Michelle Gonet 2012 and this is champagne this is all chardonnay so Blanc de Blanc.

When we see champagne on a bottle our anticipation is that it will be good you can really taste the difference between this and other sparkling wines from around the world there was a movement in champagne that happened called grower champagne where the people who actually grew the grapes actually made the champagne.

One of those wines that is responsible for that very small bubbles you can start to see that here just in the middle of the glass almost like neon green with a little bit of yellow tinge, brioche, white flowers, apple a little bit of boss pear, kind of get that caramelization that means that the wine doesn't bottle maturity; mineral, flint.

That's good champagne is really complicated there's lots of rules and regulations just in order to be able to put champagne on the label the first and most important is that it actually has to be made from the champagne region of France.

French talk about champagne you know the soil like you it can't be replicated there's lots of fossils there there's lots of chalky soil there and that alone adds complexity to wines that you wouldn't find anywhere else there's certain number of grapes that you can use you can only hand harvest you can only hand riddle these are all things that make this wine labor intensive hence therefore the price.

9.   Mouzon-Leroux Champagne Grand Cru Extra Brut L'Incandescent Rosé de Saignée ($90)

The color here rose so it does have some skin contact. if we look in the center of the glass very small stream of really small bubbles this is what you really pay for when you talk about champagne and this is a sign of quality absolutely it makes for a better drinking experience.

On pallet it gets like the elements of like a forest floor, there's leaves, damp earth also smells like meat tenderizer. it smells like kind of more of a candied apple, not sweet a little bit of white peach, nectarine slightly grassy.

This is called rose de saignee and saignee means blood it's bleed off so this is like just basically a light pressing and as the juice runs over the skins it picks up a light color. it makes sense for me that this wine is $90; actually, think that it could be a little bit more expensive this one is grand cru so these come from the top vineyards within the champagne region.

So, in champagne you have champagne and then it's broken down into several different regions and with that the vineyards are ranked from premiere crew to grand cru; grand cru being the best this comes from a particular vineyard that's deemed grand cru so much like real estate it's about location and with that comes the price.

10.                Ridgeview Blanc de Blancs ($116)

Ridgeview, this is from England this is 100% chardonnay so in that term that we use in France bonkers.

Lovely mousse, yellow straw color here, brioche, caramelized apples, very dry, really great acid and then some minerality that follows you think of a place like England that's so far north very cold you wouldn't expect them to make something like this.

Colder it is the problem that you have is that you're getting the grapes to ripen whatever you want to say global warming climate change the earth is just a lot warmer place than it used to be.

It's made in the traditional method; everything's hand harvested, hand-picked and those are all things that lead to a higher quality which ultimately results in a higher price. This wine is the first choice for Buckingham palace, it's one of the most celebrated wines in in that country.

11.                Champagne Philipponnat Clos des Gousses Extra-Brut ($375)

This is 100% pinot noir and this will come in at a 375-dollar price tag.

The color a little bit golden straw, starting to darken that means that the wine has some bottle maturity to it white wine as they start to age they become darker in color it's the opposite for red wine this is pretty beautiful marzipan, quite yeasty really refined almost smoky on the palette and interesting about this particular wine that it will evolve you know over the next 20 to 30 minutes it will change you start to taste more or something and less of something else.

This is a beautiful expression of champagne and that is why people drink old champagne as you can see like there's still really tiny bubbles coming out of the bottom, but as the wine ages you know the bubbles become less and less.

12.                Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Rosé ($550)

Small bubbles, really toasty, tart apple, some strawberries, lots of yeasty, kind of bready kind of qualities pretty long finish, pretty ripe.

Tete de cuvees; their top wines they're only made in the best vintages, if there's the best vintage tete de cuvee will be made, it's not a great vintage they will not make tete de cuvees; so, it is the best of the best.

This champagne house has been around for hundreds of years you know it's been associated with monarchies and kingdoms and the fact that we've might have been introduced to it through popular culture or whatever you might have it. These wines have long-standing traditions as being some of the best in the world.

Louis Riederer was established in 1776. Cristal was first produces at the request of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1876.

We should be drinking sparkling wine every day. Let's pop the top and let's get the party started after all it is called the roaring 20s isn't it!!! Drink more of this you guys should drink this you should fight over this all of you.