Boozeflash Get Some Sparkle
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Boozeflash: Get Some Sparkle
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With New Year’s Eve around the corner, it’s time to get the bubbly in the fridge and prepare yourself to welcome in 2010. But what to buy? We asked Chris Hill, owner of Latitude Wines to talk us through the best options.
Perrier-Jouët
“Perrier-Jouët has a long history with thisrfantastic brand around the art and the beautiful lily thye have on the bottles that was designed pre-First World War. Because it’s a smaller production house, they have more opportunity to concentrate on the winemaking. You might pay a bit, but you get slightly higher quality wine, grape selection, more time in the cellar.”
Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, NV: £29.99; Perrier-Jouët Blason Rosé, NV: £45; Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Brut 2002: £100; Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Rosé 2002: £110
Billecart-Salmon & Pol Roger
“These are literally family industries. They are winemakers number one and their brand has come subsequently. The brand has come from the fact that they’ve always made good wine and it’s attracted customers on that basis and the brand has built from those starting points.
“Billecart-Salmon is your classic champagne with food style, particularly the rose, which I think is a fantastic product. It’s a beautiful salmon-pink wine which I think is so crisp and delicate with loads of persistence and matches really well with food. If you’re having New Year’s in with a meal, I’d recommend this.
“Pol Roger’s Brut Reserve is just fantastic, it’s a perfect example of how good champagne can be. And it’s a real family tradition in the winery and a tradition that’s upheld by the vineyard and the winemaker.”
Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve, NV: £32.50; Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé, NV: £49.50. Pol Roger Brut Réserve, NV: £34.99; Pol Roger Brut Vintage, 1999: £51.99; Pol Roger Rose Vintage, 2000: £68.99
Traditional Method
“Part of the problem with Champagne is that it’s necessarily expensive because the cost per hectare in Champagne is roughly equivalent to that of the city of London. It’s hot property. You have to pay for it. Champagne is made under a strict method, you can avoid paying the premium of Champagne but still find a wine made under the same conditions. It will say ‘Traditional Method’ on the bottle, that means it’s made in the same condition as Champagne. Orlando is brand from Australia and uses blend of grapes generally used in Champagne, it’s not aged quite as long, but you get a high quality fresh wine for a tenner.”
Orlando Trilogy Brut, South Eastern Australia, NV: £9.99
English Sparkling Wine
“Nyetimber is a Champagne copy from Sussex. What makes Champagne so good is the soil. It’s limestone chalk with a lot of maritime fossils in it which imparts a minerality in the wine. That same seam of soil that runs through Chablis and Champagne is the same soil that makes up the White Cliffs of Dover and runs through Kent, Sussex, Dorset and Devon and Cornwall. So Nyetimber can grow the grapes in Sussex and create a fantastic sparkling wine. We’ve got the 2003 vintage, which would cost £40 or £50 if it was a Champagne. It’s an award-winning example of why British wines are so good.”
Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2003: £28.99
Sparkling Shiraz
“We’re doing sparkling reds too. We’ve got one from Charles Melton who have pioneered sparkling shiraz, and one was Peter Lehmann. It’s a really interesting meal that matches really well with duck or goose so is great if you’re planning a rich meal for New Year’s Eve. You have to try it to believe how nice it is, psychologically it seems wrong. You chill it down, not as far as you would do Champagne, but it’s a really lively, really fruity, really interesting winter sparkling wine.”
Charles Melton Sparkling Red, 2005: £39.99; Peter Lehmann Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz, 05: £14.99
Prosecco
“This has sold amazingly for us this year. It’s designed to be a fruity and vibrant wine, not to have the complexity and elegance that you pay a lot of money for in Champagne. It’s a much easier drink for a party night, because it’s less than £10 a bottle and it’s vibrant, fruity, easy drinking. It’s sparkling, it has the cork-popping excitement is really nice and really easy to drink. It also tends to be 12% or lower, so you can have a couple of glasses without feeling the effect so quickly, so a good choice if you’re going to start early on New Year’s Eve.”
Botter Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, Spumante, NV: £9.99; Lunetta Prosecco, NV: £8.50
All the above champagnes and sparkling wines are available at Latitude, 5 Cherry Tree Walk, The Calls, LS2 7EB, 0113 245 3393, 0113 245 3393
Posted on Thursday 17th December 2009
TG
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