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Wine & Spirits magazine throws one heck of a party.  The annual “Top 100 Wines” soiree was on Wednesday night in San Francisco.  You do not want to miss it.  Quite simply, where else are you going to taste a 1988 Veuve Cliquot Champagne, Shafer’s Hillside Select or see a bottle of bubbly opened and disgorged under water.

That’s right.  Not just opening the bottle.  Disgorging it too (expelling the yeast sediment), all under water, right before you drink it.

Movia is a winery in Slovenia, — gaining more and more media attention, and not just from Wine & Spirits. [profile in Food & Wine] Movia brought their 2002 “Puro” rose sparkling wine to show along with the top rated Ribolla, a varietal common to Slovenia. Puro stole the show.

The bottle is turned upside down, and the neck submerged in water.  The cage is removed.  After a few minutes, the pressure builds up, and all of a sudden, the cork pops out, along with the yeast plug.  It’s really quite amazing.  The wine is ready to pour and enjoy.

Notice the cork pops out on its own.  I’ve seen other videos of Puro where someone twists the cork out of the bottle, still under water.

Why do they do this?  I was told the wine tastes fresher, a little more creamy due to the extra time spent on the yeast lees (sur lie).  Movia also feels that disgorging at time of corking versus right before opening the bottle to drink robs the wine of rich flavor.

Sure enough, the wine is clear and yeast sediment free.  No complaints on the taste, it’s a mighty fine sparkler.

Give it a try?  You can find Movia sparkling rose online, prices I’ve seen are in the $39-$49 range.

Disgorging is the step, in making Champagne, or sparkling wine the traditional way, where yeast sediment is removed just before corking, putting the cage on and wrapping the neck in foil.  The yeast is captured in a small plastic cup that’s right under the crown cap on the bottle.  The bottles are dipped in a solution to freeze the yeast plug, then it is removed, or disgorged, under high pressure.  The frozen yeast plug flies out, then the wine is topped off, corked and the wire cage and foil is put on.

Hanukkah has begun. It’s time for lighting the menora, 8 nights of gifts and best of all latkes and jelly donuts.  But the wine? Manishevitz doesn’t do it. My pick is bubbly. Sparkling wine pairs terrifically with crisp latkes (fried potato cakes) or sufganiyot(fried donuts filled with jelly) which are traditional Hanukkah foods.  Actually bubbles go with ANY fried food and this is a holiday that celebrates oil.  Go ahead, try a glass with French fries or potato chips.  Why sparkling?  The bubbles help cut through the oil and refresh the palate.  Plus sparkling wine is versatile and goes with both sweet and savory dishes, so you only need one wine.

Yes, French Champagne is expensive, but the American sparkling wines are more affordable and equally fantastic, if not better in some cases. For every day value you can’t go wrong with Domaine Ste. Michelle, a producer in Washington state. You’ll find bottles of their blanc de blancs for $10 – $12. Another good one is Mumm Napa’s brut prestige that goes for about $15 – $18.

For a little splurge – it is the holidays – two of my favorites. Iron Horse makes a wonderful classic vintage brut ($33) and Schramsberg’s blanc de blancs ($36) is a nice choice too.

What about kosher sparkling wine? I haven’t had it, but Baron Herzog offers a brut. I’d love to know if you’ve had a kosher bubbly and what you think of it.

Wine is made in all 50 states of the USA, in Mexico, in Canada, South America, Europe, China, Africa. And now you can add Georgia to that list, although we’re 7000 years behind in recognizing this country as a wine producer. One winery wants to change that and held a debut party of sorts in San Francisco.

Bagrationi is a sparkling wine producer, making bubbly since 1882 when they became the first winery to do so in the Georgia region. The winery’s representatives in the US were pouring 4 wines.

Two of them, the classic brut and classic extra dry are made in the methode Charmat, from three grape varieties I’m pretty sure you’ve not heard of: Chiuri, Mstsvane and Tsitska. Methode Charmat means the wine goes through the 2nd fermentation — which is responsible for the bubbles — in big tanks. If you drink Prosecco then you’ve had a sparkling wine made the same way. I prefered the classic brut, which was crisp and light.

Bubblies made in the methode Champenoise have a second fermantation that happens in the bottle. Bagrationi was also pouring two wines made in the methode Champenoise, a reserve and royal cuvee. Both are 2007 vintage wines, while the brut and extra dry are both non-vintage. I really liked the reserve, also made with the same three grapes. The royal cuvee grew on me, especially after tasting it paired to a hamachi appetizer. Both were fruity and crisp with a nice complexity in the nose and on the palate.

Where can you get a taste?  Right now these wines are available at a handful of restaurants and retailers in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Angeles area.  Online you can go t0 www.barclayswine.com

I usually get assigned the task of bringing the wine for holiday events. For Thanksgiving you always see wine experts recommending a good Pinot Noir or Riesling to pair with the meal. Not for me this year. I’m serving bubbly. If you think about it, Champagne or sparkling wine goes with just about any food, and the bubbles help cut through some of the rich foods that are part of the Thanksgiving meal.

Best of all, I got a deal. Seguras Viudas makes terrific Cava, the sparkling wine of Spain. It’s refreshing and lively. I picked up this magnum for only $9.97. Yes that’s right, $9.97 at Cost Plus markets. There were still plenty of bottles when I got mine yesterday. So a magnum is 1.5L which equals 2 standard bottles of wine. The funny thing is Cost Plus has the 750 ml standard bottle of the same Cava for the same price. Go figure. But go get some of this bubbly for the December holiday season. You’ve got an instant party in a bottle.

If you want a bottle that impresses, look for the Seguras Viudas bottle with the silver base — it’s only about 5 or 6 bucks more for a 750 ml bottle.

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!

I went to a tasting of the base wine components that go into the sparkling wine, J Schram, made by Schramsberg Vineyards in Napa Valley.  What’s a base wine?  Champagne and sparkling wines are usually blends of many many base wines, 50 to 60 in some cases.  Each component comes from a particular lot – say a block of a vineyard.  These base wines are fermented alone, and spend time either in stainless steel tanks or oak barrels before they are tasted by the winemakers to create the final blend.  By having so many base wines, or elements, the winemaker can ensure the consistency of the “house style.”

The lineup had six base wines in it:  stainless-steel fermented Chardonnays; a Chard with no malolactic fermentation and a Chard with ML; a stainless steel fermented Pinot Noir and a barrel fermented Pinot. All bases wines are single vineyard designate.

You don’t want to drink these wines!  They are very acidic — really sour.  You think the enamel on your teeth is being eaten away.  What you can taste is the fruit, green apple and citrus.  The ML Chard and Pinot are definitely richer and creamier.  Each of the wine contributes a desired characteristic to the final blend. 

Winemaker Keith Hock says they start with over 200 base wines, and after tasting through them all narrow it down to around 40-50 base wines to be considered for the blend.  

I have to say this really showed how winemaking is an art.  To be able to taste these young wines and find “the bones” that will make a great bubbly is impressive.

We also tasted finished sparklers.  We tried the J. Schram 2001 before bottling and after bottling.  The before bottling was tart but fuller on the palate while the bottled versiion was lively and full of citrus.  Interesting how the wine changes over time, and with the addition of the dosage.  Then we tried the 1997 and 1992 bottles.  The ’97 still has lots of berries and brioche and vanilla.  The ’92 has some tropical notes along with caramel.  What’s not to like?

The ’09 J. Schram won’t be out until 2016, because it will also spend 6-7 years of bottle aging on the yeast.  I’ll mark my calendar to buy a bottle and see if I can remember how the base wines tasted.