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champagne
Carrie and the post-Cosmo girls: It’s now Sex and the Champagne
The girls who launched a thousand bottles of cranberry juice in a sea of vodka are back and grown up. Or at least richer. And the beverage of choice they’re plugging is more adult: Champagne year round.
Vincent Van Gogh Acai-Blueberry Vodka 19.99 (Note: Spirits are only sold for delivery in FL)
As always Carrie & crew prefer their bubbly flirty and tarted up with flashy fruit.
This year’s SATC2 cocktails cooked up by Moët, the movie’s sponsor, use today’s hot liquor flavors, Pomegranate, ginger, elderflower and maraschino.
Or are those yesterday’s hotties? Why not acai berry or small batch bourbon?
My advice, as with many cocktails, is to splurge on good juice and liqueur; worry and spend less on the wine or vodka.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Encore: Agrapart is in the house
Agrapart Terroirs Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc $39.99
Agrapart is our favorite small-label grower Champagne. We like them for the artisan care they give to grapes and cellar and like them even more because they tend their own vineyards, seven chardonnay pacels on the Cotes de Blancs, most of them grand cru vineyards.
Because the Agrapart family spends its time highlighting the terroir not blending to a corporate “house style” their wines have come the preferred nectar of the B’s. Or it could be because their & Crus blanc de blanc is magic, honeyed golden apples that bristle with racy bubbles.
Start with the 7 Crus ($34.99) or the Terroir cru (made just from Avizes) at $39.99. I think you’ll want a case — or decide to try their grander bottlings, like Mineral, Rosé or Extra Brut ($39.99 to $69/99)
Don’t worry that New Years is 8 months away, this stuff keeps ten years or more.
Beyond the great houses: Grower Champagne in the fields
Agrapart Les 7 Crus 1er Cru Blanc de Blanc ($34.99)
Forget for a moment, the Doms, the great ladies and the chandelier bottles of the tetes de cuvee. The true marque of the Champagne connoisseur is the label of a small artisanal grower not a big house with a steady style and heady marketing. Independent growers tend smaller, precise plots of Chardonnay and Pinot, blended and bottled according to their own taste and terroir, not house wishes.
Mind you these are pure Champagne, from the right grapes and the delimited area of the cold chalky north, yet they have personal style, purity and freshness that delivers more excitement for the money than label status. The flavors range from brisk and mineral to creamy and opulent, just like the big boys. Grower prices are great value too: Even vintage bubbly and old-vine Mesnil can be half the show-off bottles. Production is limited but B-21 has wise buys from favorite growers like Agrapart, Egly-Ouriet and Saint-Chamant.
Ranger Rhett’s warning: “Chill out.”
“Keep it cold, very cold”, B-21’s Rhett Beiletti warns this holiday season. He’s insistent on this, “The bottle should be burn cold to the touch.”
How to get that cold?
1. After 3 hours on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator place in the freezer for another 20 minutes before opening.
2. Take time to make a bucket with 2/3 ice and 1/3 water to keep completely chilled.
“It is an action that will be completely rewarded. Sante,” Rhett says.
Brrr, and don’t forget to put out the fire before going to bed.
Spain loves bubbly too!
Cristalino Brut Cava
Great bubbly doesn’t always have to come from France! Its Spanish neighbor offers many great sparkling wines that are affordable bubblies for entertaining during the holidays. It’s always good to have a bubbly on hand. If your holidays are anything like mine, you will find your doorbell ringing and a group of unexpected relatives trampling in wiping their shoes on your brand new rug. (Unless of course you hide your car down the street, making it appear as though you are not home. Though, I wouldn’t know anything about that of course!) These types of situations call for a good inexpensive bubbly to pop and ensure that your in-laws have a great time, and you don’t pull your hair out (or theirs)!
- Summer, B-21′s Spain Advocate
Here are three of my favorites Spanish Sparklers:
Cristalino Brut Cava 91W&S – $7.99 (on for $6.99 this month)
This is a no brainer. It’s on sale this month for $6.99. You can’t beat the price and it’s an awesome bubbly. You can’t find this kind of quality in a California sparkler for less than $10. (90SM)
Me toasting with Maite Esteve of Marques de Gelida.
Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava 90W&S – $7.99 ($7.19 btc)
This is a great bargain from Spain with scents of honey and apple, crisp, floral and creamy. (89SM)
This fall I had the chance to taste through the Marques de Gelida wines with Maite Esteve, one of the owners of Marques de Gelida. This was my favorite of her bubblies, very crisp and light. (90+SM)
1996 St. Chamant Brut Cuvee de Chardonnay (Champagne, France)
1996 Saint Chamant Brut Champagne ($69.99 - Buy 2 for $35 each in December 2009 only!)
The Chardonnay fruit from the Champagne (Grand Cru) village of Chouilly reaches a peak around 10-12 years in an excellent vintage such as 1996. I confess this 1996 was at its best in 2008 when I first tasted it; that same day the excellent 1976 was shared by the St. Chamant family followed by a magnum of 1959! No need to worry about the 1996. We do offer at half price while our stock lasts…what to expect…gorgeous mature Chardonnay, elegance and refinement: something Coco would drink at 60.
95 Points, Bob Sprentall, Email: Bob@b-21.com