Champagne by any other name tastes just as sweet

Sparkling wines go by many names around the world: Champagne from the Champagne region of France, mousseux in the rest of France, spumante in Italy, cava in Spain and Sekt in Germany. Whatever the name, they have one thing in common: They’re fun, fizzy and make people smile. Or, as the famed writer Art Buchwald said, “I like Champagne because it always tastes as though my foot’s asleep.” True Champagne is from only the specific piece of real estate known as Champagne, which is about an hour’s drive east of Paris. Although the most famous and most expensive bubbles in the world are from Champagne, there are great Champagne wannabes worldwide. Spumante from Italy is not necessarily sweet, as many would expect from the name so closely associated with Asti Spumante. Actually, “spumante” means sparkling and has nothing to do with sweetness, while Asti is the town in Piedmont where the sweet sparkling wine originates. Cava from Spain is bottle-fermented and made exactly the same way the French Champagne is made (known as the méthode champenoise). Cava is one of the great wine values in the world, as it’s generally cheaper than $10. Sekt from Germany can be bulk- or bottle-fermented and usually is made from Germany’s great Riesling grape. The international standard for dry sparkling wine is brut. If a sparkler has “brut” on the label, you can be fairly certain that the wine will be dry. Although Champagne is highly regulated by the French, in other places – particularly the United States – sparkling wine is not. French Champagne must be from the region and made only from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (OK, a little Pinot Meunier makes its way in sometimes but not in significant amounts). Champagne must be bottle-fermented, meaning that the secondary fermentation that gives us those beautiful bubbles is actually induced and takes place in the very same bottle that eventually makes its way to our tables. Other types of sparkling wine can actually be produced in large tanks with limited success and a definite lowering of quality. This method is known as the Charmat process, and this technique is generally used on lower-priced wines, particularly from California. Now that you have a bit of the history of international bubbles, let’s come back home. Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, though one of the early leaders in sparkling Missouri wine, does not use the traditional Champagne method and instead carbonates its bubbly in tanks. Mount Pleasant’s Brut Imperial is dry and crisp and made mostly from the Vidal grape with a bit of St. Vincent (red grape) added. This is a very traditional type of white-and-red-grape blend in the style of French Champagne. The winery also makes a very popular Ten Bucks carbonated wine from a blend of several white grapes. It has a residual sugar level of 10 percent. Mount Pleasant’s sparkling wines have proved their worth to me on many occasions, but none were as unforgettable as the 1987 National League playoffs when the Cardinals played and eventually beat the San Francisco Giants for the pennant. It was at a Les Amis Du Vin tasting during the playoffs that Lucian Dressel, then owner of Mount Pleasant, brought two cases of cold bubbles to the tasting. All bottles were wrapped in paper bags to disguise the identity of the wines. The group of nearly 100 tasted two wines with only Dressel knowing the identity of either wine. When votes were cast, Mount Pleasant’s was the favorite by nearly 2-to-1 over the highly regarded Domaine Chandon Brut from the Napa Valley, metaphorically representing the Giants. It was a surprise to some but certainly no shocker to me, as I had been a fan of that wine for quite some time. One of the most interesting sparkling libations made in Missouri is the Sparkling Mead from the Pirtle Winery in Weston, just a bit north of Kansas City. Mead is honey wine and traditionally served during the first month (moon) of a new marriage, which also gives the name “honeymoon” to the first few weeks of matrimony. Typically mead is nonsparkling, but Pirtle makes a sparkling version, which is very fun and adds more festivity to any celebration. St. James Winery has a Sparkling Blush, which is sweet, carbonated and good for parties. Stone Hill Winery makes a similar wine known as Spumante Blush, which is also accompanied by Golden Spumante – sweet, fizzy and white. There are carbonated juices that are very tasty also. St. James makes nonalcoholic Sparkling Raspberry Spumante, Sparkling Cherry Spumante and Sparkling Peach Spumante as well as sparkling white and red grape juices. Phyllis Meagher, at Meramec Vineyards in St. James, might have been the first to focus on sparkling (as well as still) grape juices. Her Sparkling Niagara and Sparkling Catawba have been popular for many years. Stone Hill’s sparkling grape and raspberry juices are delicious alternatives to wine for times when wine is not appropriate. Now to personal favorites. There are two bottle-fermented, traditional Champagne-method wines made in Missouri that are totally world class. Stone Hill’s brut-style Missouri Champagne is 100 percent Vidal Blanc and, at the recent Best of the Bunch Missouri wine tasting, was probably the first wine to disappear. The other is the amazing Hermannhof Brut Reserve, currently the 2001 vintage. Hermannhof gives long-term aging to this great wine, and it is as good as almost any sparkling wine in the world. It is also 100 percent Vidal Blanc and a real overachiever. Missouri is truly at the forefront of sparkling wine quality and character. The next time you want to celebrate, even if it is only a Saturday night, don’t go very far.