Professional Wine Consultants - Milwaukee Wine - Sommeliers

A huge pet peeve of mine is going to a restaurant and never being offered some kind of sparkling wine as an aperitif or with appetizers. It is just about the easiest way for a waiter of waitress to add a couple of drinks to a bill. I can’t believe how rare this is, even casual places can step it up and bring their bubble game to the table. Why not?

When isn’t it a time to celebrate? Frequently people are out to eat to rejoice for one reason or another, besides that point rarely do I need an excuse to tip back a few bubbles. I think it should be illegal for anyplace that has a valid liquor license and serves any food above pretzels and popcorn to not offer some kind of sparkling wine.

I live three blocks away from an area of town that looks like the Mad Max movie set, yet my neighborhood bar offers two great sparklers by the glass, one domestic, and a Cremant d’ Alsace Rose. I love it, beautiful young women and haggered hipsters alike enjoying bubbly in one of the cities most working class neighborhoods at all hours of the night. A fine example of liberty. I only wish every bar in the land would follow suit.

Don’t forget that sparkling wine goes with evrything except dessert, and even in that catergory there are a few exceptions.

Favorites Sparrkling wines/ Chaampagnes currently:

Duval Leroy NV Brut Champagne $35-$40 a bottle

This is the only Champange that made the Wine Spectators top 100 list this year. Super toasty and rich with loads of pear and baked apple flavors.

Gruet (The whole line up of this stuff is an awesome value) This is a sparkling wine producer from New Mexico founded by a French family in the 1980’s, almost sounds like a TV drama waiting to happen. These cost between $14-$18 a bottle. The Blanc de Noir is probably my personal favorite. THe best deal is the Rose!

For those into the sweet stuff ask your local wine shop about Brachetto d’ Acqui. This is a sweet red bubbly from Piedmont in northern Italy. It is the wien for chocolate, and a low alcohol crowd pleaser. look for the Marenco brand if possible.

Tags: Bubbles, Champagne, Duval, Duval-Leroy, Gruet, milwaukee, Milwaukee Champagne, Milwaukee wine, Milwaukee wine events, milwaukee wine evnets, Nate Norfolk, Nathan Norfolk, Nessun Dorma, Sparkling, Sparkling Wine, Toni johnson

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under Nate's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.