Champagne vs The World: Sparkling Wine Tasting

Wine in my glass, wine in my soul The point is, $35 knocks your socks off And $35 is... The name of this tasting is Champagne vs. the rest of the world The price range is about the same. I'll tell you as we go What I wanted to find out is that Some other sparkling wines, are they as good as Champagne? So this is a quality tasting More than an identify-the-wine tasting There are many parts of the world that produce sparkling wine And another tasting to do at another time Would do sparkling wines from different parts of Western Europe So you're including different grape varieties And the reason being that many regions produce sparkling wine There's a demand for sparkling wine, partly driving it Also driving it was that prior to global climate change Ripeness was an issue, but the issue was not enough ripeness So when they were very poor vintages Either with white wines or red wines In different parts of Western Europe They then had something that they could do with the grapes You could make sparkling wine out of it Or sell the grapes off to somebody who's going to make sparkling wine I couldn't find anything from England Yeah, it's next to impossible to find Ask me next week Yeah I'm going on that trip Oh, good A week after next, so I've got four days in English wine country Tally-ho! All right All right, we can start, can't we? Yeah So starting with number one, to me, just looking at it and playing with it It's Blanc de Blanc I didn't really know what it was There was some sweetness, then almost immediately lemon Not champagne to me Tight entry, complex, balanced I believe it's classic varieties, but it's Blanc de Blanc Really delightful I scored it 90, I thought it was really lovely This is my favorite wine of the plate Not quite, but it was my second favorite Same thing as you, Peter Yeasty, somewhat toasty, creamy in the mouthfeel, lemon characteristic I thought this was Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay I was 90 initially, 90 and then plus Okay, let's see number one now Ferrari 100% Chardonnay Minimum 15 months on these, 4.5% alcohol So these wines are at altitude, substantial altitude I think it's granitic soils In the dolomites And so they have the luxury during climate change They can just go up and maintain coolness So they do get more sunlight And that sunlight is giving you that more pronounced lemon characteristic Okay That's a lovely wine Yeah, it's a lovely wine Sometimes if you're having, let's say if we were having a tasting of champagnes And the Ferrari would be in that lineup You can tell the Ferrari would stand out Somewhat being a slightly deeper yellow color And also having a more pronounced Not today, today it's the lightest or the second lightest Yeah Exactly It all depends upon the company you keep Should I do the next one? Yes, please Yeah, so this was very different Medium yellow color, a little bit lighter maybe than the Ferrari Had this candy floral I questioned whether it was pencil eraser, non-specific fruit It increased dosage I thought And then I went back and forth Is this pencil eraser characteristic or is it baby barf? Because I was trying to figure out is this Cava or Prosecco I initially scored 83, then I went up to 84 I'm probably in that 84, 85 But this could be Cava as well It could be Cava I have a major difference with you on this I thought it was lovely I thought maybe Franciacorta, Cava This actually got my highest score of 91 Number two is Cava actually It does have Zarello, Macabeo, Palliata And I paid $25 In terms of Spanish varieties and the ability to resist drought So Spain is a dry, hot place Many, not all parts, but many parts of it And so there are some old varieties that they're retrying But there's a variety in Mexico, País Which came over with the church after the conquistadors came in País does exceptionally well with heat and drought And you can make red wine out of it You can make sparkling wine out of it You can make brandy out of it But the most important thing they make from País is hard liquor That goes into those, what are those drinks? Pisco! Pisco! Pisco Sour! And you don't want to divert too much País to other things Peter, number three, please That's me, number three Definite color on this one Older looking, a hint of pink Nothing to remark about on the mousse Here I got a definite bready character Much more like champagne than the previous two Full body on the entry It feels like champagne to me Although it's a little bit astringent And I found it a bit pedestrian Meaning in the context of these two wines It was a bit plodding I don't want to say tired But it just let that get up and go for me I thought that was entry-level, non-vintage champagne That's what I thought, too Do you think it's the XCD that's lacking in this one? No, I just think the wine kind of feels old I'm in the same boat It's a little varnish-y for me Yeah, I had that, I think, on this one Maybe the next one, yeah I scored 88 to 89, I like the wine Pat, how did you score this one? 86 plus, so 86 to 88, let's call it Number three is... Actually, Grand Monde Jura $27, 100% Chardonnay 0.3g per liter dosage 12% alcohol I've been to the Jura And I've also tasted more wines of Jura than one would think Given its relative lack of importance in the world I've never been in love with the Jura Barblisse Unlike wines that are made from Sabanin But I did like this, 88 to 89 This tastes very much like Champagne, but not vintage I mean, look where they are I mean, the weather in that part of the world is like what Champagne was five years ago This is interesting I got some marked minerality on the nose, which can go along with Champagne I thought it was tight, a bit less expressive on the nose than the previous wines It certainly had creaminess and toastiness But I got a little hint of peanut here on the nose and the palate And I wonder if there were some ladybugs floating around And that distracted a bit for me But that all said, the length was pretty good But, you know, again, I have that question mark The length is very good, but I'm not sure how crazy I am about the finishes that are lingering on my palate I thought it was Champagne I scored it 90 But I'm a reluctant 90 Again, it felt somewhat trying to get there It didn't lift, it wasn't lifted And so I'd be very surprised if it's an expensive wine But it was my second highest score Giving it 90, you should have a Santa cap on Oh, okay Number four Again, I think chilled, I wouldn't do it It's Champagne, Lorraine Le Quart Heritier Assemblage de tres sepages Tres sepages So it's the main three, right? So that's a grower wine, they're all over the place You can't tell Classically, in Champagne, you know you're drinking their entry-level wines When the dosage is minimum 7, up to 10, or 11, or even 12 Because when you're working with the very finest material You can make it almost bone-dry and it doesn't taste thin But when you're working with less good material You leave a little bit of sugar in there to give it the body and the balance And also, it's who you're appealing to in that entry-level Champagne market But when you're dealing with growers like this All bets are off They do whatever they feel like Yeah, this is like not really good Champagne that I want to drink Well, so that's the point The point is, a carver at $35 knocks your socks off And Champagne at $35, man Knocks your jock off Again, we have personal preferences So the surprising thing is that in this lineup When you have inexpensive Champagne Against somewhat similarly priced sparkling wines from other parts of the globe The really inexpensive Champagnes have a hard time competing With those wines that, you know, in this case You have a vintage Schramsberg Rosé And then you've got a, is it a Ferrari vintage? Yeah, it's a non-vintage wine It's non-vintage, but still You have some sort of competitive advantage of place If you're getting some of the top sparkling wines in a given area As opposed to among the lower-priced wines In the Champagne region That's it It was interesting I enjoyed it I hope the readers enjoyed it I enjoyed it, too What I would have loved to have seen Is that they are really cracking Champagnes at that price They aren't There might be some out there, but they weren't here today Oh, your favorite was Ferrari And then, Peter, your favorite was Cava My favorite was the Cava Today's tasting, Champagne lost Champagne did not win today A lot of Koreans that I know They like putting the non-vintage Champagne Put it in their closet or somewhere And then they age it for a couple of years before they drink it And this is at ambient temperature And in Korea, the ambient temperature is a lot higher than here I would not do that The French drink their Champagne early The Brits will put them down the cellar So the French derisively refer to that As the English taste I am in the middle So, given that I had unlimited funds I would want old Champagne But disgorged within the last five months That's given my money I'm going to save up It would depend upon what I'm having it with If I'm having seafood, shellfish Let's say I was going to pop oysters I just soon have vintage, blanc de blanc Recently disgorged Not necessarily the super old stuff Because there I want freshness Some creaminess to match the creaminess in the oysters I don't want the toastiness of a non-vintage wine Or at wine age to the cellar getting in the way Should we move on to the last tasting? All right, thank you Can we do a quick cheers? Thank you Cheers