DECEMBER already! I’m sure you’ll agree 2010 was a blur. We have all had a busy year at the coalface and now we are faced with the biggest decision of the year – what to drink this Christmas. Do we stick with the cheap and cheerful Aussie bubbles or have
DECEMBER already! I’m sure you’ll agree 2010 was a blur. We have all had a busy year at the coalface and now we are faced with the biggest decision of the year – what to drink this Christmas. Do we stick with the cheap and cheerful Aussie bubbles or have we worked hard enough to splash out on the French stuff?
French Champagne is synonomous with days of plenty; it’s a statement to the world (or at least the others in the bar) that ‘I deserve this little glass of decadence’. Of course we make a similar product here in Australia, we have to call it ‘sparkling wine’, not ‘Champagne’, as the French seem to have their knickers in a twist over naming rights. The thing is, the Aussie version is, in the most part, less expensive than the French. So why should we spend more on a bottle of pop when less will seemingly do?
Well, the reason bubble gets pricey has to do with how the bubbles get in the bottle. The cheapest versions of festive fizz are made on a large scale, as still white wine in stainless steel tanks. Once this wine is made, carbon dioxide is then pumped in to the solution under pressure to give it bubbles, a process very similar to the production of soft drink. As you can imagine, this is a pretty cheap way of doing things, but the result is often a relatively unbalanced sparkling that is one-dimensional in the flavour stakes.
The other way to make the cork go pop is the traditional way the French have been doing for centuries. It’s called Methode Champenoise. The deal is that the Champagne producers pick their fruit and make a base wine, which is then bottled and a solution or ‘dosage’ is added to the bottle. The dosage contains loads of interesting goodies, including sugar and yeast. These two things are the essential components for fermentation.
So, inside the bottle of wine, a second fermentation happens. Of course one of the by-products of fermentation is alcohol, the other is carbon dioxide. So now we have a slightly more alcoholic bottle of wine that has loads of carbon dioxide that can’t escape as the bottle is a closed system, so it disappears into solution, ready to spring forth when you pop the top and, voila, Champagne.
This is a much more time-consuming and expensive process but the result is worlds apart from the soft drink method mentioned above. Methode Champenoise wines have delicacy and nuance, the flavours are integrated, the bead of the bubbles is fine and languid as they rise through the glass and release in your mouth like little liquid fireworks. More expensive? Yes. Better tasting? Absolutely.
The good news is those grumpy Frenchies haven’t laid claim to this process, so there are a few great Methode Champenoise sparkling wines made in Australia under brands you already know. So the conundrum of what to drink this Christmas is solved – whether its French or Australian, as long as it says Methode Champenoise on the label, your taste buds will thank you.
The best Aussie options are from Domaine Chandon out of the Yarra, they are tightly packed with freshness and vibrancy and luscious fruit sweetness all integrated with this fine framework of effervescence. Excellent Christmas Day festive fizz.
