Sparkling Niagara! A journey through our best bubbles

By Victoria Gilbert

Popping a bottle of bubbles is one of the great delights of life, is it not? From Napoleon to Scarlett Johansson, if it isn’t a famed person raving about Sparkling Wine, it’s you and your favourite people, smacking their lips after a delicious sip together.

In Niagara, Canada, grapes for Sparkling Wines are grown all over and because of the cooler climate these grapes have the opportunity to become fantastic Sparkling Wines. The original superstar was born in Champagne in northern France and it is the only place where Sparkling Wines are allowed to be called “Champagne.”

There are many choices when it comes to selecting your bubbles - the most popular being of course, the granddaddy, Champagne from France, then Prosecco from Italy, Cava from Spain, and Sparkling Wine from Canada, Australia, the USA and other wine producing countries in the world.

A typical Sparkling wine from Canada is most often made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.

The terroir and the climate of the Niagara region lend themselves beautifully to growing the grapes necessary to produce the quality of effervescence which in many ways captures the spirit of Champagne.

Photo courtesy of Victoria Gilbert

BEST SPARKLING WINES OF NIAGARA REGION:

Henry of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Brut & Rosé: $32.95, find at LCBO or at Henry of Pelham Winery: 1469 Pelham Rd, St. Catharines, Ontario

Ravine Brut: $38.00, available at Ravine Winery: 1366 York Road, St. Davids, Ontario

“Sparkling wine is all about elegance and style and good acidity,” says Paul Speck who has been producing Sparkling Wines for decades, as President of Henry of Pelham Winery in St. Catharines.

“I think first of all it makes perfect viticulture sense to grow grapes for Sparkling Wines in Ontario,” says Speck. “It’s a cool area. In Champagne, France, it is colder than it is here season wise. It makes sense to make these wines here. It’s consistent. We get classic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir flavours, yet they have a Niagara spin to it – the crisp, clean freshness is our style, especially in the Brut.”

There are a few ways to make wine bubbly. The most common and the method used most frequently in the Niagara region is called the “traditional method.”

SPARKLING 101

Champagne can only be called “Champagne” when it is from the region of Champagne in Northern France. All other Sparkling Wines have names based on where they are from (e.g. Prosecco from Italy, Cava from Spain, or Sparkling Wine from Canada and other countries)

There are a few ways to make Sparkling Wines sparkling but the most popular are:

Champagne or Traditional or Classic Method: These are all the same and involve a second fermentation which occurs in the bottle.

Charmat Method: The fermentation of the wine occurs in a large sealed pressure tank.

If you see a Champagne or sparkling wine with Blanc de Blancs on the label, the wine is made from all Chardonnay grapes and if you spot a Blanc de Noirs, the delicate grape, Pinot Noir, lies exclusively within.

When to drink: Now! Sparkling Wines are great to drink right away. While they can be aged, they are at their peak when they are young.

Trius Brut Rosé: $32.95 & Trius Showcase Blanc de Blancs: $55.20 found at LCBO or at Trius Winery: 1249 Niagara Stone Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Speck, the quintessential down-to-earth Canadian vintner, explains the process in his easy manner; “When you are looking at traditional method, it’s done naturally in the bottle and that’s how the bubbles are created. The bubbles are important in Sparkling Wines. They are elegant, there’s more of them, they carry the flavours up the flute. It’s overall just a nicer experience,” says Speck over a glass of his Cuvée Catharine Brut.

Sparkling Wines pick up their flavours and complexities from being in contact with yeast particles called lees. Wineries keep their Sparkling Wine bottles sealed with a metal cap to hold the wine as it ferments for up to four years until the yeast is removed or disgorged.

“We gently remove it through ‘riddling’ which means we have a machine going 24 hours a day, slightly moving the bottle so the yeast ends up sitting at the neck of the bottle,” says Speck. “While the yeast is all gathered there, we freeze that part of the wine, just a ¼ inch of the bottle, that’s called the plug. Then we pop the beer cap off and that goes shooting out and we stop it and add the dosage in to put back the volume.”

The dosage is about an ounce of wine to top up the bottle and it’s the last chance winemakers have to tweak the blend. Traditionally, barrel aged Chardonnay is used from previous years.

“What you are looking for here is that green apple on the nose, that crisp apple, maybe a granny smith apple which is very typical of Sparkling Wine done in this style. A little bit of toastiness from the yeast. That’s classical Brut,” says Speck.

Rosé is becoming increasingly popular around the world and a Sparkling Rosé is a special treat.

“Everybody loves rosé!” says Linda Ridgway, Retail and Experience Manager at Trius Winery in Niagara-On-The-Lake. With the largest Sparkling Wine cellar in Canada (1/2 million bottles), Ridgway says Trius’s winemaker, Craig McDonald, has a strong focus on bubbles.

The tasting room is bustling as Ridgway presents a Brut, a Blanc de Blancs and a beautiful pink Sparkling Rosé. She points out a panel of white light built into the tasting bar.

“You can compare the colour, the clarity, the depth of colour. Our customers really enjoy it because it is all about the education when it comes to understanding wine. You want to see the clarity, you want to see it’s clear first and foremost. Whether it’s been fermented in stainless or wood, it really represents differently in the colour,” she half yells as a gaggle of girls laugh and chatter over their flutes. After all, bubbles mean you are celebrating something, in this case a bride-to-be.

Which Sparkling Wine you select, a fruity Rosé, a crisp Brut or a complex and rich Blanc de Blancs, depends on what you are celebrating or what you are eating. Pairing Sparkling Wine with food is a trend which is picking up speed. Most wine-people will tell you oysters and other shell-fish pair best with Sparkling, but Martin Werner, former winemaker and current General Manager of Ravine Vineyard and Estate Winery in St. David’s, Ontario, has some modern notions on how to enjoy bubbles.

“There are two things that I really enjoy with Sparkling Wine which some people might think are outlandish, but I actually like things that are deep friend, like fish and chips, because the acidity in the Sparkling really cuts the grease. The other one I enjoy is a cigar because it cleans your mouth out completely and Sparkling really does that,” says Werner.

How you drink your bubbles is also something of importance to wine lovers and the traditional Champagne flute which is narrow and deep to allow for more bubbles to add texture, aroma and taste is most often presented when a bottle of bubbly is popped, although a resurgence to the champagne “coupe” or wider glass is happening. The romantic story of the shape of the coupe modelled after the breast of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI (16th) of France might make you blush, but having a wider glass may very well elevate your tasting experience.

“For me drinking Sparkling Wine out of a regular white wine glass allows the bouquet to open up more. Visually it looks better in a flute because the length for the bubbles is longer but it’s difficult when you try to get your nose in there to smell the wine,” says Werner as we sip on Ravine’s Brut. “The old saying is drinking out of a champagne flute is like going to a rock concert and putting in ear plugs. You don’t get to enjoy it fully, so putting Sparkling in a normal glass allows you to experience the fruit better.”

You’ll want to experience the fruit of these fine Ontario Sparkling Wines – they are hand-picked a little earlier than the normal harvest to ensure higher acidity which makes Sparkling Wine so fresh, crisp and exciting on the tongue.

“You pick the Sparkling grapes very early so it’s very clean and linear and has lots of citrus fruit and you fatten it out while it’s aging for five years,” says Werner.

Using the best grapes and the best part of the grape is also why Sparkling Wines in Ontario carry a higher price-tag than regular wines.

“It’s an expensive process, but nothing can replicate it so it’s all worth it,” says Speck from Henry of Pelham’s quiet tasting room.

“You press it a little bit, so you get the juice closest to the skin. We separate that - it’s called the heads. Then we press it a little

more and you get the juice from the middle of the grape. That’s the best juice, and that’s what we make this Sparkling Wine from. Then you press it again and it’s called the tails and that’s the juice closest to the seeds. So the heads and the tails we discard and we only use the middle part of the grape,” Speck explains.

Sparkling wine also carries a history of romance and culture which adds to its beauty and enjoyment. At Trius, whisking off the top of a bottle of Sparkling with a curved sword called a saber is practiced daily.

“There is a tradition of sabering Sparkling Wines which goes back to Napoleonic days in France,” says Ridgway, who wields one of the many sabers at Trius.“There was always a need for Sparkling Wine. When you’re up on your horse and you don’t have your hands free, you have your sword and you have your bottle and your saber, and you drink from the bottle as a celebration or it’s there for you if you faced defeat. So we saber it still here because it’s a beautiful way to celebrate this wine.”

Even if you don’t have a saber handy, go ahead and peel the cap, twist the metal wire and pop free the sparkling pleasure which lies within your next bottle of Ontario Sparkling - it was surely made with attention, time and delicacy - all you can ask for in a bottle of fine wine.

Santé! TM