champagne

Hm. Surely you have therefore only had bad champagne. ;-)

what is everyone drinking tomorrow? i popped the cork early on some chandon brut. not too sweet, mineral-y and earth-y, and %50 off. thanks ralph's club card!

Resurrecting as I went to a champagne tasting last night, which was very interesting and was my first serious introduction to the stuff beyond a few odd glasses over the years. We had four grower champagnes (Lacourte Godbillon, Geoffroy Purete, Pierre Peters, Paul Dethune) one growers co-operative (Palmer & Co) and one big name to finish, a Dom Perignon 2009, with introductions to each and lots of history and wine-making process info in between.

I don't know that I've quite caught the champagne bug, but I enjoyed them all and it was really interesting to experience such a varied line-up (some sweet and citrusy, some bready, some mineral and austere). My personal favourite from the six was the Lacourte Godbillon Terroir D'Ecueil Premiere Cru, which had lots of toasty, bready notes and maybe a hint of creamy milk chocolate.

How are the ILX champagne drinkers doing after all these years?

Supernova

Someone mentioned above but I like Pierre Gimonet too and you can find it most places. I think the best/most special one I have had recently was Bollinger RD Extra Brut, 1995.

“I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it -- unless I'm thirsty.” Lily Bollinger

If anyone is having a party and you want to serve an champagne parallel without spending too much money, go with Cristalino cava. Also made in the same method, it's pretty nice, most drinkers can't tell, and it's under $10USD a bottle typically.

One thing that makes me sad at bars is when I order a glass of sparkling wine and it is lukewarm instead of nicely chilled. So I am intrigued by Freixenet Ice, the bottle tag recommends serving it on ice.

I would send it back. Or If it's a glass of whatever, I would ask for one ice cube to make it better.

I like most wines colder than the preferred serving temperature (even all my reds), so I have no shame about asking for ice (especially if the wine is average) or asking them to put the bottle in the fridge for 10 minutes.

I didn't know anyone ever had red wine cold. I'm not being judgemental - the nearest I get to champagne is Blue Nun with lemonade!

yeah when I lived in Argentina it was summertime and red wine on ice was absolutely a thing. A delicious, refreshing thing!

I've heard it said that room temperature shouldn't imply warm central-heated rooms as far as reds are concerned, cooler cellar temp is better

this thread is making me want fizz tho

Someone needs to invent winesicles

a cherry bullet popsicle dropped into a glass of champagne is both beautiful and delicious

I've poured out a bottle of Aussie red from the box and stuck it in the fridge, I'm quite into this idea now!

It depends on the red wine; lighter reds like pinot noir, gamay, cinsault, carignan should be served almost as cold as fuller whites. Everything has a recommended temperature that somms follow.

I set my wine fridge to about 75F but it really depends on the day if I will stick a fuller red like a syrah or cab in the fridge to spruce it up.

Whoops, sorry 65F.

Oh and if it is super hot and only average red wine is available I do make red wine spritzers.

is a spritzer - just add sparkling water? I do that sometimes, but to whites or roses.

Yeah, soda water and sometimes a splash of a fruit juice (depending on the wine, if it's more fruit forward).

Make sangria if you have cheap red.

i've been meaning to try rioja and coke since wins told me about it

"meaning to try" is a bit strong, trying not to go out of my way to drink tbh

Was it rioja and coke??? Not fernet and coke?

I just looked this up (rioja and coke). I would try it once I guess (blech, too sweet).

it feels like a good summer outside drink

I was in Rioja/Haro 2-3 weeks ago. I wish I had known about this to make small talk.

I reckon dr pepper and rioja would be worth a try.

don't like Dr Pepper, tho maybe as a mixer

Post-tasting last night we drank the last of the champagne with dashes of heavily peated whisky, which is actually very good.

Ending with heavily peated whisky= the first thing I taste when I wake up.

Big southern Italian reds like Negroamaro Nero d’Avola and Salice Salentino are often drunk chilled in their native land. It really suits them.

The siciian nero d'avola and frappatos are some of my favorites chilled.

I wouldn’t necessarily endorse Rioja & coke, iirc I brought it up as an alternative to drinking warm Rioja in the midday sun during a heatwave! Funny you mention fernet & coke tho as although it’s a common practice in Spain I mainly associate wine & coke with Argentina & the homeless guys in parks who would saw the top off a 2 litre coke bottle & add cheap Malbec

I don’t really fuck with mixers tbh except for tonic water, white port & tonic now there’s an outside summer drink

I'm in Chile and when I was doing some wine stuff and discussing amaros, fernet and coke came up a lot as regional weirdness.

I'd heard of the red wine & coke mix as a Spanish thing called calimocho. Wikipedia pegs it as being of Basque origin under the name Kalimotxo, but Rioja Libre and other regional names/variants are briefly cited too - I've no idea on the accuracy of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalimotxo

I always remember a HG Wells story that describes champagne as 'Weak vinegar mixed with a packet of pins' (Joan and Peter? I don't remember reading that...).

This is a pretty good description. The base, still wines produced before the second fermentation is acidic blech. and if you ever let the bubbles go out of nature or extra brut champagne, it's not super pleasant to drink.

Eh, it's alcoholic. In theory I like a nice scotch, but in practice it's cooking lager and own-brand vodka. I only really ever drink champagne at weddings, and I'm usually trying to take the edge off anxiety, and my friends are usually not big spenders on that kind of stuff anyway. So I'm usually thankful for a couple of swift glasses of champagne.

Fernet and coke << Fernet and Fernet. National drink of Argentina though etc etc.

I've been digging vinho verde as a cheap brunch bubbly lately, as mimosa or alone.

I wouldn’t necessarily endorse Rioja & coke

yeah i knew it wasn't an endorsement it just sounded good

have been drinking Tempranillo over ice all afternoon in honour of this thread the licence this thread gave my head

Everyone should drink their beverages however they prefer, regardless of rules. I get supermad when dudes tell me I can't chill my reds especially when I know they have no clue what they are talking about.

Not mentioned here yet, but Gruet - made in New Mexico - is pretty great for under $20 and made in the Champagne method. Also Roederer Estate, usually around $20-$25.

bought a cremant de bourgogne (methode champenoise) @ tj's a couple weeks ago. was ~$10, wld def buy again.

my fave for special occasions is Laurent Perrier Brut Rose

I usually go for cremant de loire because I am in love with chenin.

My favorite champagne rose of all time is Gatinois Brut Rose, Ay Grand Cru, NV. It's not that expensive either and goes well with a huge range of things.

In America, the slogan “the Champagne of Beers” that decorates cans of Miller High Life is rarely taken literally. But European regulators took it at face value, destroying thousands of cans that were deemed counterfeit Champagne and thus “illicit goods.” https://t.co/ZPsXm0PRMu

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 24, 2023