February 6, 2002

Wine Column

by Bob Senn
 
Champagne For Your Valentine
 
"I drink it 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


What wine will make the heart sing this Valentine's Day? I vote for champagne. Champagne is the one wine that's great for all occasions-before the meal, during, and after. I'm chagrinned to say it took many years for me to acquire a taste for champagne. When I got married on a sailboat in the Santa Barbara harbor in the 70s, my beverage of choice that day was Carlsberg Elephant while everybody else was sucking down champagne. The marriage didn't last, but I still enjoy Elephant. And fortunately, I have also developed a taste for champagne, thanks to the old Mayfare Wines special tastings held by Chris Whitcraft.

Some of the great wines we consume were originally accidents, namely port, sherry and champagne.

In the case of port, when England lost its source of fine French clarets, it turned to Portugal for wine. These Portuguese table wines didn't travel well, and they were generally regarded insipid by English consumers. Shippers tried fortifying the wine. Centuries ago, the higher proof fortified wine traveled better on big sailing ships. And port was born.

In the case of sherry, an odd, and normally unwanted flor yeast would develop on the surface of the wine. This accident resulted in Spain's great gustatory gift to the world we know as sherry.

Champagne, too, was an accident. Bottles of wine that the monk Dom Perignon had produced started to explode. It turns out that the bottled wine was starting to re-ferment. The carbon dioxide by-product would cause the bottles to explode, and the wine had bubbles; hence, champagne was born. When the good monk discovered this frothy, bubbling wine, he said, "Come quickly, I am drinking stars!"

This is the basic process by which true champagne and methode champenoise sparkling wine is made today: a still wine is put into heavy, sturdy bottles with a dosage-mixture of yeast and sugar which causes a second fermentation to occur in the bottle. The CO2 can't escape through the crown cap on the bottle, so the gas stays in solution. That's how you get the bubbles in real champagne. Before putting the actual cork on the bottle, the champagne is disgorged. Disgorging means the spent yeast cells are collected in the neck of the bottle, and freezing the neck with dry ice. The crown cap is removed, and the pressure in the bottle (around six atmospheres) blows the frozen plug out the bottle. Then the bottle is capped with a real cork. Making these wines is a labor intensive process. That's why champagnes and methode champenoise wines are usually more costly.

By the way, only champagne made by the method I have described can be called champagne if it is produced in Champagne, a wine producing region in France. Most quality California producers call it methode champenoise sparkling wine. If American producers opt to call their beverage champagne, by federal law they have to affix location such as California champagne, Napa Valley champagne or Santa Maria Valley champagne.

Some of the best California sparkling wine I have tasted recently is produced right here in our own back yard-the Brewer Clifton Santa Maria Valley Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs. By the way, "blanc de blanc" refers to white from white (made from chardonnay) and "blanc de noir" means white from black as in red wine (made from pinot noir).

French-owned Roederer Estate in Mendocino County and Iron Horse in the Russian River region are also notable domestic producers of methode champenoise sparkling wine.

For real champagne from Champagne, it just doesn't get any better than Veuve Clicquot Brut. Or, for a real treat, try Veuve Clicquot's La Grande Dame! There's also Bollinger-one of the best too.

Charmat process and bulk process sparkling wines have had carbon dioxide pumped into the still wine and are really inferior beverages in my opinion. They are cheap and there is a reason. I would avoid them, personally.

BIG DOIN'S

Saturday features seminars at San Luis Obispo wineries, a special seminar featuring wines of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti at The Cliffs.Saturday evening, winemaker dinners will be held at participating local wineries and restaurants.
For more information, visit their website - www.worldofpinotnoir.com or call (805) 489-1758.
For reservations or more information call (805) 688-0881 or e-mail tickets@sbcountywines.com.


Times wine columnist and wine lover Bob Senn lives in the Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.

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