6 Tips for Preparing your Sparkling Wine

1)      Know what you’re buying

Sparkling wines range from sweet to dry. When you buy a bottle, make sure you understand the flavor differences of a brut, extra-dry, demi-secco, and doux, and purchase according to your taste preferences.

2)      Get the right foods (sweet, salty, spicy)

Strawberries, caviar, spicy eggrolls, and creamy chocolate lava cake: these are just a few options that pair amazingly well with different types of sparkling wines. Here are some fun pairings to try:

• Brut with vegetable tempura or triple cream brie or potato chips
• Extra-Dry with beignets or spicy shrimp
• Demi-Sec with bleu cheese or prosciutto and melon or foie gras
• Doux with strawberries and dark chocolate

3)      Get the temperature right

Sparklings should be served super-cold. Right out of the refrigerator at about 45 degrees is the ideal temperature. Keep it in a bucket of ice if you plan to consume it over time.

4)      Pick your glass

The classic flat champagne glass allows the bubbles to tickle your nose (and is rumored to have been shaped on the breast of Marie Antoinette!). But if you prefer to watch the bubbles be beautiful strings of bubbles, go for a champagne flute (the tall, skinny tulip-shaped glass). Of course, if you have neither, do what the professional wine reviewers do and drink it from a regular old wine glass.

5)      Know how to open the bottle

Oh, the pomp and circumstance of opening a bottle of bubbly!

First, the foil. You’ll find 4 or 5 little sideways folds. Unfold them. If there is no sticker holding it down, you can easily slide the foil covering off the top at this point (if there is a sticker, you might need to use a fingernail to cut the foil.

Next, the cage. Keep a hand on the top of the cork as you untwist the cage. If the pressure is too great, that cork will shoot right out! Remove the cage from the bottle.

Now for the big event: If you’re celebrating, you probably want to hear it go POP! But if you’re just drinking it, it’s actually preferable to the wine that you merely hear a light hiss (also known as an angel’s kiss!). To get the cork out, hold the cork with one hand, and the bottle with the other. Twist the BOTTLE, not the cork. As soon as you feel the cork moving, Push it back in toward the bottle with reverse pressure, only letting it creep out of the bottle ever-so-slowly. Whether it pops or kisses, you can now pour!

6)      Got leftovers? (Tip: try not to...)

If you have one of those lovely champagne savers, go for it. It will preserve the fizz a little bit. If you don’t, never fear! You actually don’t need to cover your sparkling wine at all. Just sit it straight in the fridge. You can cork it with a stopper, or just put some cling wrap and a rubber band over it. It may go flat, but the wine will not go bad for 3-5 days. Old wives tales suggest that you can also drop a silver spoon (stem into the bottle) into the top to keep those bubbles bubbling for another day, but food scientists have proven this to be bogus.  

Stems up!

Liz

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of holiday offerings, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!