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Champagne: Can we Talk? There are different ways wine can sparkle resulting in a luxurious concoction. By Anthony Giglio
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Years later, my aunt told me it wasn’t actually Champagne, but rather Asti Spumante. And that got me thinking about how often we’re handed coupes or flutes of sparkling wine at parties and weddings and told it’s Champagne. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s almost never Champagne, usually because of costs, but also because few people understand the differences between Traditional Method (a.k.a. Champagne) and ‘Charmat method’ (a.k.a. Prosecco) sparkling wines. With the toasty holidays upon us, there’ll be lots of bubbly poured. Let’s break down which is which.
henever I’m asked how I got into writing about The Traditional Method: Where Champagne Got Its Name wine, spirits and cocktails Champagne is a region in France that lends professionally, I answer its name to sparkling wines made only in this truthfully: I took my first region. Everything else made like Champagne sip in utero! I even have (I’m getting to the how next) is either Crémant proof (no pun intended) if it’s from elsewhere in France, or Traditional by way of a Technicolor Super 8 home movie Method sparkling wine everywhere else. In from a New Year’s Eve party my grandparents Champagne, the holy threw in 1966. When the trinity of Chardonnay, clock strikes midnight, Pinot Noir and Pinot my mom, dressed in Meunier reign supreme. a ballgown, holding a The grapes are Parliament in one hand, handpicked and carefully and a Manhattan in the sorted to ensure only other, shouts “Happy New the best make the Year!” takes a gulp of her cut. Once the grapes cocktail, followed by a are pressed (typically puff of her cigarette, as without skin contact), the camera pulls back to the juice goes through reveal she’s eight months its first fermentation, pregnant with me. creating a still wine that You see, I grew up in an big gulp I gulped my very first is pale and clear—all Italian American family Champagne down quickly. It was a wine is born white until that had absolutely no prescient moment, the author says. skin touches juice, which discomfort with alcohol whatsoever. In fact, my is why most Champagnes siblings and cousins were given wine are white, even though they’re made with during Sunday lunches when we were kids, both red and white grapes. Got that? a tumbler of ice-cold red wine with a cream Next is the second fermentation. The still soda floater (to dilute it for us). We called it wine (a blend of several different barrels) is a Spaghetti Spritzer. However, a memory transferred into bottles, and a mixture of that stands out from my childhood is my sugar and yeast is added, causing a secondary first sip of Champagne. When I was seven fermentation in the bottle. As the yeast years old, my godfather got remarried and I consumes the sugar, it produces carbon was the ring bearer at his wedding, sporting dioxide, which has nowhere to escape, a black crushed velvet tuxedo with a white infusing the wine with effervescence. ruffled shirt and a giant black bowtie. As my The wine is left to rest on its lees, those dad was making the best man’s speech, we spent yeast cells, for an extended period, were poured coupes of Champagne, which often years, which imparts a complexity and was so sweet and delicious I gulped it down toasty, creamy, brioche-like character. This quickly. It was truly a prescient moment. lengthy aging process is where the wine’s
