Tag: wine

Try French Crémant As A Budget-Friendly Alternative To Champagne

Linda sipping
Linda sipping at wine tasting

Crémant has been around for ages, but now it appears to be having a moment. Sparkling wine’s popularity continues unabated and consumers are finding Crémant to be a terrific budget-friendly option that offers complexity and finesse [ . . . ]

Continue at FORBES: Try French Crémant As A Budget-Friendly Alternative To Champagne

Below are top selections of Cremant that won’t disappoint:

Robitaille’s Recommendations:

André et Mirielle Tissot, Crémant du Jura Rosé Extra Brut: This is a delicious wine from the Jura made by a very conscientious family of farmers. The blend of Pinot Noir, Trousseau, and Poulsard is a pure expression of the people and the place. Fresh, crisp, balanced with an almost ethereal texture, this wine is just heavenly.

Domaine Belluard, Les Perles du Mont Blanc: From the town of Ayse in the Savoie, this is a beautiful wine that absolutely shows the potential for Crémant wines in the French Alps. Dominique Belluard has been running the domaine since 1988, and nearly single-handedly rescued the Gringet grape from extinction. Gringet, an old indigenous varietal of the Alps, has very high natural acidity, making it perfect for crisp, bright sparkling wine. I always find a deep mineral core in this, and something beautifully aromatic, like preserved Meyer lemon.

Victoria James’ Recommendations:

Domaine François Mikulski and Jean-Noël Gagnard, Brut Grand Lys (2014) Both of these Crémant de Bourgogne selections are cult favorites and make great bubblies.

Domaine Mittnacht Freres Crémant d’Alsace

André & Michel Quenard, Vin de Savoie Crémant Extra Brut (NV)

Château de Brézé, (NV) and Château de Brézé, Rosé (NV) Crémant de Loire: Both the rosé and white Crémant that are search-worthy.

Other Excellent Selections:

Gratien & Meyer Brut and Rose: Founded by Champagne producer Alfred Gratien (of Champagne Alfred Gratien) in 1864. Winemaker Florence Hayes strives to craft sparkling wines with freshness and finesse.

Jaillance Cremant de Bordeaux, Cuvee de l’Abbaye: Bright and crisp. Made from merlot; it is wonderfully juicy and fresh with raspberry and cherry notes. Just delightful.

Pierre Sparr, Brut Reserve Cremant d’Alsace: Winemaker Alexandra Boudrot is careful to note that all fruit is handpicked, then gently pressed and left on the lees for a year minimum. Crisp and lemony with ripe apple notes.

9 Big Bottles of Impressively Good Rosé 

9 Big Bottles of Impressively Good Rosé

Has rosé had its day? Well, in short, no. Sales continued to skyrocket last summer, Instagram is awash in selfies of rosé-wielding partyers, and, what the heck, a chilled glass of dry pink wine is incredibly refreshing. But when I heard that the latest de rigueur accessory for superyacht buyers along the Mediterranean coast of France is a supersized wine refrigerator to accommodate supersized bottles of rosé, I did wonder whether we’d reached a rosé point of no return. (Hey, is that a shark? Should we … jump it?)

But, also, I get it. Rosé is a party wine; it’s fun in a bottle. The bigger the bottle, the more the fun. Plus, it’s one of the most aesthetically appealing wines, with its multifarious shades of pink, and a magnum (or bigger) only serves to show off its light-catching pizzazz. Statistics bear this out: In France, sales of magnums of rosé from Provence alone more than quintupled from 2005 to 2016, according to data from the Wines of Provence Council and IRI. (A related trend is the seaside Côte d’Azur penchant for serving a piscine de rosé. The term basically means “a swimming pool of rosé,” and that’s what it is: rosé poured into a goblet full of ice.)

A magnum, by the way, is the equivalent of two regular bottles. Not every winery contributing to the ocean of rosé now in the market has caught onto this trend, but more and more have. And even larger bottles are sometimes 
available: three-liter (usually called a Jeroboam), six-liter (Methuselah), or even 15-liter (Nebuchadnezzar—the equivalent of 20 regular bottles). You won’t have much luck finding them at the supermarket, but if you go to a good wine shop, ask; often they can be ordered.

Here are nine rosés that are both impressively good and nationally available in magnums. Seek them out. Throw a party. Why not? Summer is here.

NV Naveran Cava Brut Rosé ($35) 

The family behind this lively Spanish sparkler has been growing grapes for over a century. It’s made from Pinot Noir plus the local variety Parellada, grown in organically farmed vineyards high up in Spain’s Penedès region. [ . . . ]

Continue to read at FOOD & WINE: 9 Big Bottles of Impressively Good Rosé | Food & Wine

Wine quiz will pair you with a wine you’ll love

You probably remember a while back my post about the Boston based subscription company called Bright Cellars, a wine subscription company, my favorite of all of the monthly subscription boxes I receive. They sent me a complimentary box to review for the blog which I loved & we decided to partner up again (no brainer, I know)!  I will be the first to admit, I LOVE (red) wine but know very little about it – besides red/white and a little about the stereotypes of each kind (from my bar-tending career).This is where Bright Cellars comes in, it’s a company launched by two MIT graduates whose goal was to introduce “hidden gems” (non mainstream wines) to you each month, they know you will love them because they created a “quiz” which matches your taste preferences using a bright points algorithm GENIUS I know… I tell you these MIT kids think of everything! | Take the Quiz |

Bordeaux Wine Firm Found Guilty of Fraud

A leading Bordeaux négociant firm has been found guilty of fraud for passing off table wine as more lucrative appellation wine, and for illegally mixing appellations, vintages and châteaus to the extent that the labels no longer represented what was in the bottle. Bordeaux’s Criminal Tribunal handed down the guilty verdict April 5 against Grands Vins de Gironde (GVG), fining the company nearly $500,000 (with half the fine suspended).”It is a substantial offense,” said Judge Caroline Baret, telling the courtroom that the victims were both supermarket shoppers, who were being unfairly duped, and the image of French wine, which risked being tarnished in foreign markets.Eric Marin, GVG’s former director of purchasing and cellar manager, was also found guilty and given an $18,000 suspended fine. Charges related to a period when he was no longer in his post were dropped [ . . . ]

More at: Bordeaux Wine Firm Found Guilty of Fraud | News | News & Features | Wine Spectator

The Best Defense for French Wine Growers? Bats!

Wine, for when you want to party but still feel classy about it. Like all edible alcohol, wine comes from fermentation, and for millennia artisans have honed their craft at turning humble grapes into the drink of the gods. So suffice it to say growing good grapes is crucial to making good wine.

That’s why French wine growers have such a beef with moths. These thirsty bootleg butterfly bugs love swooping down and eating grapes right off the vine. They have the nerve to get between us and our wine! But fear not, a recent wine industry study revealed that in the War For Wine we have an animal kingdom ally in the fight against moths, an animal we’re already used to associating with superheroics. It turns out bats are the best natural defense wine can get.

It’s really just the food cycle wine growers should be thankful for. Of the 22 local Bordeaux bat species, researchers observed that 19 of them specifically love to feast on moths that target wine grapes. Droppings analysis confirmed that it was these harmful moths being preyed on. Other insects were spared.

With this knowledge, wine growers could use these bats to their advantage. They could act like organic pesticides, clearing the fields of insects while not introducing harmful chemicals into the ecosystem. It would take some effort though. The bats instinctively hunt in wilder regions, so they would have to be somehow funneled towards these domesticated vineyards [ . . . ]

Read morea at GREEK.com: The Best Defense for French Wine Growers? Bats! – Geek.com