Festive celebrations call for sparkling wine. From inimitable Champagne to budget-friendly alternatives, here are favorite picks from top sommeliers for all your holiday toasting needs. Domaine du Moulin Methode Ancestrale Brut (Courtesy of Domaine du Moulin) Domaine du Moulin Methode Ancestrale Brut, Gaillac, France Pétillant naturel wines (roughly translates to natural sparkling) have the best…
Pop the Cork! Toast to the Season With These Celebration-Ready Sparklers
Celebratory Wines for Special Occasions
Public-relations people around the world are always thinking up “clever” ideas to “help” magazine and newspaper writers—although the main reason is that such articles will help the promoters sell the products they’re hired to hawk. This year the PR folks who are hardest at work know that the end-of-year holidays are imminent, so the pitches…
First Pick
It’s harvest time in many U.S. wine areas, and the first grapes to be picked annually, almost everywhere vines grow, are those that make sparkling wines. Wine with bubbles, a most celebratory beverage, is almost always made from grapes that are earlier harvested, mainly because the best of these wines call for higher acidity. And…
Champagne Season Has Only Just Begun
It’s Champagne season—a line you might think indicates that this article is being published two weeks too late. And sure, sparkling wines usually are reserved for toasting at Christmas and New Year’s. Once those holidays have passed, most people believe the season for them is over. For me, it’s just beginning, and it lasts all…
EU Records First Drop in Sparkling Wine Exports in Decade as Champagne Loses Its Fizz
BRUSSELS—The European Union’s exports of sparkling wine to the rest of the world fell last year for the first time in a decade, Eurostat said on Friday, largely because of a massive drop in champagne sales, though prosecco and cava sold well. The COVID-19 pandemic dampened wine trade globally in 2020, the latest year for…
Wine Talk: Why Champagne Dominates
Given a choice between a bottle of Champagne or a sparkling wine from any other corner of the world, most reasonably sane wine enthusiasts would opt for the Champagne. Of course, they would. It’s more expensive than other bubblies, so it must be better. That’s what the smart crowd thinks. Champagne’s unique station in the…
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