All About Sparkling Wine (Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, and more!)

Ep 44

Did you know that one of my very favorite styles of wine is sparkling wine?!

It’s absolutely delicious and I find the history behind sparkling wine so intriguing….especially since it started as an accident, or more accurately, a HAPPY accident!

Today’s episode is essentially my Sparkling Wine 101 Tasting that you would get if you booked a private tasting with me but you are getting exclusive access to this on the podcast!

I’m sharing how to open a bottle of sparkling wine (if you’ve ever tried to open one then you know there is a science to it!) To go along with my advice on the pod, you can check out my IG and TikTok @corkandfizz for video clips showing how to open a bottle of sparkling wine. 

Why was Sparkling Wine once called the devil’s wine? Mostly because of the destruction it caused! Intrigued yet?

I’m also diving into how sparkling wine is made, what makes sparkling wine so special, the different levels of dryness to sweetness in sparkling wine, and finally: the different types of sparkling wine!

Are you ready to learn all about sparkling wine? If so press play and listen in! And after you have listened, head over to my instagram @corkandfizz and let me know what sparkling wine you are excited to try!

Episode Highlights:

• Tips on how to open a bottle of sparkling wine
• How is sparkling wine made
• How was sparkling wine founded
• Why sparkling wine was initially something to avoid
• Why sparkling wine was called the Devil’s wine
• The traditional method of making sparkling wine
• What is riddling
• What is disgorgement
• What is Dosage’
• The tank or charmant method of making sparkling wine
• The ancestral method of making sparkling wine
• Levels of dryness to sweetness in sparkling wine
• 5 Different types of sparkling wines
• What is the difference between Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava

Listen to French Wine 101

Listen to French Wine 101 Part Deux

This episode of the Cork and Fizz podcast is sponsored by Repour - save 10% off your next order with code CORKANDFIZZ and the Cork Crew Virtual Wine Club - grab your free class pass at www.corkandfizz.com/freeclasspass

Transcript

0:19

I am so excited for today's episode. We're gonna be talking about one of my favorite styles of wine, and that is sparkling wine. This is essentially my sparkling wine 101 tasting, and you're getting access to it right here on the podcast. So before we get into the sparkling wine itself, if you're in a place where you can enjoy some, I wanna encourage you to pour yourself a glass of sparkling wine. And before you do that, you might want some tips on how to open your sparkling wine. So that's how we're gonna start this off. Here are my kinda quick tips for making it a little easier and a little safer to opening your sparkling wine. So first things first, this is something that you would have had to do ahead of time, so there's nothing you can do about it now. But in the future, when you're enjoying sparkling wine, make sure it is ice cold. This is one of the only times I will encourage you to have wine directly from the fridge. And the reason why you want this ice cold is that it will decrease the pressure inside the bottle. So when you are opening your bottle, you have it super ice cold. Right? Make sure you wipe it down if it's wet at all. Then you're going to hold on to the top of the bottle and twist the bottom when you're opening it. Now, of course, you need to take the cage off first if you have a style of sparkling wine that has that type of release. Otherwise, sometimes you might find them, with, like, the bottle cap, and in which case you can just open like a, you know, like you would a bottle of beer. But for most sparkling wines, you're gonna see they have a cage on top that basically keeps the cork from popping off. You're gonna have to take that off first. So you're going to hold down on the top of the cork as you loosen the cage. As soon as you loosen that cage, never release the pressure from the top. At any point, the cork could come off. So you're gonna hold the top, release the cork or release the cage by twisting on the side. Now I like to take the cage off. If I have smaller hands, it's hard for me to get a good grip on the cork otherwise. And so when I do this, I'm very careful to, you know, try to keep my hand on top of the cork as much as possible, but the experts say to leave the cage on, so it's up to you. Now once you have that off, again, once the cage is loosened, you simply hold the top, so you keep putting pressure down and you twist from the bottom, and you're gonna hold that bottle in your hands in about a 45 degree angle. Again, it just helps with the pressure. And then if it gets if it feels like it's stuck, which I've had this happen many times, one tip is to use a towel for better grip if the cork appears stuck. If you want more tips, head to my Instagram or TikTok. You can find me at corkandfizz, and I have a whole video where you can see me opening that sparkling bottle of wine. Okay. Now we have our bubbly open if, of course, you're not driving, you're doing something else. Let's talk about sparkling wine, and how it's made before we get into the history, and it's important to know how it's made because it kind of ties into the history. It'll make sense in a second. So regular or still wine, essentially those without bubbles, is made using this process called fermentation. And I think we've talked about this a couple times here or there. So during this process, yeast, which is either added to our pressed grape juice or it exists naturally on the grape, so then it exists in the juice. That yeast consumes sugar from the grapes and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. When we're making a still aka not bubbly wine, the carbon dioxide is simply released into the atmosphere. We don't need it. Goodbye. Now sparkling wine goes through the same processes still wine does. So it goes to that fermentation. The yeast consumes the sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. But then so so and, again, it actually releases the carbon dioxide into the air and you're like, wait. No. We needed that. Come back. Don't worry. More sugar and yeast are added to the product most of the time. Now there there is one way of making it where we're actually gonna trap it the first time, but stick with me here. This is a second round of fermentation, so they add more sugar, more yeast. It's gonna go through a second round of fermentation, and this time, we're trapping that carbon dioxide in some way so that we can get bubbles in our wine. So now that you know how sparkling wine is made, I can tell you how it was founded. And you're like, that's a weird word to use. Why would you say, who founded sparkling wine? Like, don't you mean they, like, created it? And the thing is I use founded because it's one of those things that was a result of a happy accident, and they didn't purposely try to make sparkling wine at first. So it was believed for the longest time that it was the French monk, Dom Perignon. Perignon, yes, that's a fancy champagne house, that he invented sparkling wine in 16/97. However, studies and evidence have shown that it was actually discovered slash invented slash founded, whatever word you wanna use, by the Benedictine monks in the Abbey of Saint Hilaire near Carcasseron, France in 15/31. So nearly what is that? Like, 70 years earlier? No matter who it was that made it, the story is the same for how it was first discovered. So, again, happy accident. Basically, wine was bottled before fermentation ended, so right before the yeast was done eating the sugar. Now, often it was cold in the cellar when they stored the bottles. Or, now, Often, it was cold in the cellar where they stored the bottles. So the fermentation wouldn't start up again until spring. It was okay that there was still yeast and sugar left in the bottle because the yeast was gonna just chill out dormant, kinda like hibernate if you think about it that way. But then spring came, and it got warmer. And at that point, the fermentation started again inside the bottle. And remember, fermentation is sugar + alcohol equals and remember, fermentation is sugar+ yeast equals alcohol and carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide built up inside the bottle, and without a cap or a thick glass bottle, it caused these bottles to explode. So, initially, sparkling wine was something to avoid because the pressure in the bottle that caused one bottle to burst would then cause a ripple effect, and the seller would lose 20 to 90% of their bottles. It was actually a thing where those who worked in the cellar, they would wear a heavy iron mask to prevent injuries from these spontaneously bursting bottles. It was also at one point called the devil's wine, both because it caused destruction and because of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the unknown process of fermentation and carbonic gas. I mean, at that point, all they knew was, well, we crushed grape juice and we put it in a, you know, we put it in a vat, and it becomes alcoholic. We have no idea how it happens. It just does. And so the fact that all of a sudden these bottles were exploding, it didn't make sense. They didn't know that it was this carbon dioxide that was getting trapped in the bottle. Now, remember how I mentioned sparkling wine is made using 2 fermentations, and during the second, the carbon dioxide is trapped? Well, this is the part in which different forms of sparkling wine differ. Does that make sense? Different forms of sparkling wine differ. Sounds a little funny, but I think it does. So different styles of wine produce the second fermentation and trap the carbon dioxide in different ways. And so we're gonna talk about the 3 most popular styles. There are about 6 in total, but most of them are kind of variations of these three methods. So first up, we have the traditional method, and this is also known as the champagne method. And this is a method that I'm sure you're surprised since it's called the champagne method. Guess what's made using it? Yeah. Champagne. Once the wine has gone through one fermentation so, again, we make regular wine. We do yeast plus sugar, quetzal alcohol and carbon dioxide. We have regular wine. It is then transferred to a special thick glass bottle along with some more yeast and sugar. Then a crown cap, AKA kinda what you'd see on a beer bottle, is applied to trap the carbon dioxide and pressure inside the bottle. Now here, notice, we said a thick glass bottle and the crown cap. Both of those are going to prevent the bottles from exploding as they once did when it was initially, discovered. The second fermentation now occurs in the bottle. Now if any of you are bakers, you'll know that yeast is a living thing. So let me say that again. Now if you're a baker, you'll know that yeast is a living thing. So once it's done with its sugar consuming, alcohol and carbon dioxide producing process I'm gonna say that again too. So once it's done with its sugar consuming alcohol and carbon dioxide producing process, it dies. These dead yeast cells are usually removed from the bottle before we consume it. Not because they're dangerous in any way to consume, it's usually removed for stability and preventing the wine from looking hazy. And winemakers have solved this problem because you're like, well, how the heck do you get the dead yeast cells out of a bottle that you've now trapped everything in? Don't worry. They figured this out. It's a process called riddling. Well, it's actually it's 3 pieces. There's riddling, disgorgement, and Dosage. And I'm gonna walk through each of these, but I also highly recommend just do a quick search on YouTube and look up riddling. It's r I d d l I n g, then look up, champagne disgorgement or sparkling wine disgorgement process. And that's d I s g o r g e m e n t. And then finally, look up, sparkling wine dosage, and that is d o s a g e. I'm sure you could also find a video that has all 3, but just so you can see each one separately, I think it's really cool to watch these things happen more than just listening to me talk about it. But still listen to me talk about it first and then go look up a video. Okay? Alright. So that first step is riddling. So riddling involves the gradual tilting of the bottle so it ends up with its neck, which is like that top part of the bottle, like the thin top thin part of the bottle facing down. So that's what our their goal is. So they're rotating it by small increments as they're tilting it both clockwise and anticlockwise. As the angle of the tilt increases, the force of gravity draws the sediment, which is those dead yeast cells, into the neck of the bottle. Nowadays, this is often done by a machine, but some producers still do this the old fashioned way, which is by hand. They use a shaking and twisting technique that has been practiced over the centuries by skilled seller masters. A good remour, which is basically a fancy name for a bottle turner, can handle roughly 40 1,000 bottles a day with the bottles placed neck down in a wooden putre. I'm probably not saying that right, but it's an a frame shaped riddling rack. And, again, this is where I recommend you look this up on YouTube so you can see what this looks like. Now automated Hermos is now much more common. They use a machine called a giropulete, I think, giropulete. I again, I'm not very good at this pronunciation thing, and it can process about 500 bottles in just a single operation. And of course these machines can work 24 hours a day and they take a fraction of the time, you know, 1 week instead of 6 to do this, and there's no expense to quality. So in this case, most of the time, they choose machine. However, if places are just starting up, you gotta do it by hand. So now that all the yeast cells are concentrated in the neck of the wine bottle, it's time for the next step in the process, which is which is disgorgement. This process doesn't usually look like a spray of wine everywhere. Hold on, Liz. Let's cut that because I don't actually have a picture. Sometimes, this process can look like a spray of wine everywhere, but most of the time, producers will basically freeze the neck of the wine before expelling the sediment. And so they freeze. Again, that neck is the top part of the wine bottle. That's where all our sediment is because we had the bottle basically upside down at this point, and we've collected all the sediment. So after the neck is frozen, the sediment, which is now in the form of a frozen plug, the rest of the wine is alcohol, so it doesn't freeze. Right? It is ejected under pressure when the bottle is open. So we take advantage of the fact that there's carbon dioxide and pressure in the bottle. And so they're going to open the bottle very quickly, let out that frozen plug, and then quickly put their hand back over it to prevent minimum or to avoid any loss of wine and any more loss of pressure. Again, I say cover by their hand, but this is most frequently done by machine these days. But there are some bottle houses that still do it, by hand. The main trick is to hold the bottle upside down, open it, and then quickly tilt it back upwards so the only let's skip that part. I don't know what I meant there. So I'm gonna lose. And fun fact here before we get to our last step in the process, disgorgement actually triggers a sharp, sharp intake of oxygen, which together with dosage, which we're gonna talk about next, will have a significant impact on aroma development in the wine. So now let's talk about Dessage. This is the last step before they finally cork the bottle of wine or put the cork in. And this is the addition of a small quantity of what's called the liquor de dosage to the wine. And this is basically a wine and sugar mixture. The amount of sugar is determined by how sweet you'd like the resulting wine to be. So if you ever noticed with sparkling wine, and we'll talk about this in a little bit, some are called some are called dry or sec or seco. All of these refer to the sweetness level in the champagne or in the sparkling wine. And this process, the dosage, determines that because when you think about it again, the fermentation process ate up all of the sugar. There is no sugar remaining in the bottle. It's only what we add to it at the end. Now the role of dosage in the wine sensory development varies according to the style of sparkling wine that you're making. If the winemaker is happy with how the wine stands, the liqueur desiches will consist of a mixture of sugar and the same wine as the bottle holds. Now, alternatively, if a final additional touch of aroma is thought desirable, that liquor de dosage may be made with a reserve wine, some great sparkling wine that's been set aside for long aging in casks, barrels, or even magnums. So basically, they're like, something's missing here. I just I just need a little more grab from that other, reserve that they've been waiting for, and it's kinda there to kinda help add a little bit that they want to make it perfect. These will essentially add an extra dimension to the winemaker's repertoire of flavors, and it creates that really nice palette to choose from so they get that perfect finishing touch. Now a few months before dosage, winemakers will basically experiment with the different liqueurs and find the perfect one. So when it comes time to do this whole process, they've already got it all mixed up and ready to go. So that is the traditional method. So, again, we do a regular fermentation, then the second fermentation happens inside the bottle. That is going to be the main difference with your traditional method. And then because that second fermentation is done in a bottle, you need to go through all those steps to get rid of the dead yeast. And so this is going to be the riddling, disgorgement, and dosage. And so this also tells you if you've ever seen a bottle of sparkling wine where it says it has a late disgorgement, or I think they use one other word too. But, basically, some sort of late something. It usually means that they left the yeast, the dead yeast, in contact with the wine for a longer amount of time. And what that does is it typically develops a more creamy texture and more kind of bread like, aromas in the wine. Okay. Our second method is called the tank method or also called the Charmont method, and this is most famously used for Prosecco. Essentially, once the first fermentation is complete, the wine is then transferred to pressure sealed tanks along with more yeast and more sugar, and the wine goes through that second fermentation in the tank. Then the wine is simply transferred using simply transferred using a pressurized system to the bottle once that second fermentation is complete. And since the second fermentation was all done in tank, they can leave all of that yeast dead yeast behind, and there's no need for riddling, disgorgement, or dosage. It's much simpler, much easier, but you need access to these pressurized tanks. That's one of the hardest parts of this for smaller wineries. But for larger wineries, this is the way to go. It's super simple. It will produce different styles of wine and different flavors and aromas, and we'll talk about that in a little bit when I go through some of my favorite, types of sparkling wine. Okay. Our final method that we're gonna talk about is the ancestral method. So, basically, like, the ancestry method isn't kinda what it, translates to. Now if you ever see a sparkling wine bottle with a crown cap, again, that's like the beer bottle cap, they're likely made using this ancestral method. This method is incredibly similar to the traditional method, except it actually technically only goes through one fermentation. It just does it in 2 parts. So, basically, it follows exactly how sparkling wine was originally made. That's where the ancestry the ancestral method happens. So but, again, it it has better bottles when we put the crown cap on top, so, it doesn't explode. But, essentially, the first fermentation starts, but then it's paused using cold temperatures. Remember, those cold temperatures cause the yeast to hibernate. Then it started back up again once the wine is in the bottle. Many wines made using this ancestral method are sold unfiltered so they don't go through the, riddling, disgorgement, and dosage process that we talked about, which leaves them a little cloudy and with some sediment at the bottom. But, again, that is not bad for you. That is not dangerous to consume. And these are often called petnat or petulant natural. And so a lot of smaller wineries choose to go in this style. It is very time intensive. It takes a lot of effort for them, but it doesn't require any fancy technology of any kind. And, again, they can choose to filter it or not and to go through that, disgorgement process. I've seen some small wineries that do that and some that just choose not to. I've had great wines either way. Alright. So those were our 3 methods. So, again, we had the, traditional method, also called the champagne method, and that is where the second fermentation happens in bottle. Then you have the tank method or the Charmont method, and this is where the second fermentation happens in a pressurized tank. And then the final method is that ancestral method where, really, it actually only goes through one fermentation, but it's paused in the middle by cooling the wine, put into a bottle, and then the fermentation finishes while it is in the bottle. Now, let's talk a little bit about the word vintage. Vintage in the wine simply means the year that the grapes were harvested to make that wine. However, with most sparkling wines, you won't find a year on the bottle. And that is because most sparkling wines are what we call nonvintage. This is where multiple different years' harvests are combined to produce a single bottle of wine. They can do this again because that wine goes through multiple fermentations, and so they store the wine each year after the first fermentation and then blend multiple years to reduce the flavor that they're looking for in the sparkling wine. So if your wine doesn't have a year on it, it is likely nonvintage. And you might even find it saying n v somewhere on the bottle to say that it is a non vintage wine. Now vintage sparkling wine does exist, so there are sparkling wines that have a year on them, and these are extra special because the grapes had to be incredibly good for them to create a wine without blending from other years. Now in certain regions, vintage sparkling wines also have to be aged longer. So, again, this will develop more flavor and just make it even better but also, unfortunately, more expensive but also, unfortunately, more expensive. Now, last thing I wanna talk about before we get into specific types of sparkling wine is sweetness. And I promised we'd talk about this because sweetness in wine is already confusing, and then you add sparkling wine, it's like, oh my god. Why why are we making this so hard? So as many things in the wine world are, the sweetness scale for sparkling wine can be hard to read, but at least they always have to label the wine in some way to let you know, or most styles do. So a dry wine in the wine world typically means there's little to no sugar. Def it it's essentially doesn't taste sweet. Now, of course, it wouldn't be that easy and this is not the case when it comes to sparkling wine. So, again, remember, dry, when you're talking about non bubbly wine, equals not sweet. However, if we're talking about a sparkling wine. When we wanna say a sparkling wine has little to no sugar, if that's what you're looking for, you're looking for a sparkling wine with little to no sugar, you're going to look for the word brute, b r u t and especially extra brute or brut natur which looks like brute nature. Now, if you want something a little sweeter, you're gonna look for sick, sicko. Or if you speak it, Spanish or French, you'll know that I am saying dry in those languages. So, yes, sparkling wine when it is labeled dry or the Spanish or French translation of such, it is actually saying it has more sugar. Do I know why they chose to do this? I do not. I'm sorry. I've done the research. I've tried to figure it out. It's just the way that it is. So, essentially, no sugar is brut. Sugar is dry, sick, or sicko. And so if you're looking at a scale if I were to give you a scale from the least sweet to the most sweet, you're going to have that means no sugar is added. I'm pretty sure that is like 0 grams of sugar. So then extra then dry, then extra dry, and again, in place of the word dry, you might see sick, s e c or seco, s e c o. So then dry, extra dry, and then demi sac tends to be, very sweet as well, but we're not gonna get into that. But again, not sweet, dry or more sweet. Makes sense? Hopefully, that helps. If you get a lot of headaches after you have sparkling wine, try Brut Nature option. A lot of times, those headaches can be caused from a combination of the alcohol and the sweetness in the wine. Okay. It is time to talk about different types of sparkling wine, and I am going to walk you through and I'm gonna walk you through 5 different types, but I'm also gonna list a ton more at the end so you can kind of go out and explore and discover on your own. So first up, we gotta talk about the big guy. We gotta talk about champagne. Champagne is a sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. It's made using the traditional method, also called the Champagne method, and it is made with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and a grape called Pinot Mounier. Now not all 3 of these grapes have to be present in every champagne, but only these 3 grapes can be used to make a champagne. Champagne can typically be found in the 40 to$70 price weight in the 40 to$70 price range with, of course, plenty of bottles in the 100 and 1,000 of dollars price range. One thing that makes champagne special is even the cheapest ones. Right? So our our lowest tier, I guess you could say, have to spend a legal minimum of 12 months aging and developing flavor. This results in these kinda really delicious flavors of toasted bread, biscuit, and cream. And you might think those in wine, trust me, I love it. I mean, not everybody does, but I certainly love it. Others believe that the chalky soil that you find in champagne give this wine a very special flavor that no other region can achieve. Of course, a lot of prestige is also simply due to the name value. Whenever anybody thinks of fancy wine, they think of champagne. Other flavors besides those that I listed earlier that you can find in champagne include lemon, yellow apple, and toasted almonds. Okay. For our next wine, we're going to talk about Cremont. If you are looking for a tasty body if you are looking for a tasty bottle of sparkling wine, but maybe on a more reasonable budget, I'd highly recommend Cremont. Cremont is a group of sparkling wines that is made with the same technique as champagne, but from outside the champagne region. And they're typically named after the region in France that they do come from. Right? Remember, so we've all heard the saying before, you can only call it a champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of France. This is actually true. There's a law. It it it says so. So it's not people I mean, it is people being a little snobby, but, also, it's just pure fact. Like, you can't. There is exactly one wine, I think, in the US that can be called champagne, because they got in before this law was created. And then champagne was like, what the hell are you doing? You're not allowed to do that. We're gonna make this law, but that other, I think it's in California somewhere, but they got grandfathered in. So other than that wine, you cannot call it champagne unless it comes from the champagne region of France. Now if it's made in the exact way that a champagne is made but it comes from a different region in France, you will call it a Cremont. Now the region, again, remember, we said the region is often in the name of the wine. It also determines what grapes are used. So, for example, a Cremont des Burgon, which comes from the Burgundy region of France, is just south of Champagne, and it uses the same Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. One of my favorite crements is a Cremont de Jura. This region is Southwest of Champagne. It's just East hold on. I said that wrong. This region is southeast of Champagne, and it is just east of Burgundy, and it typically uses Chardonnay. And it's sparkling wine and, so good. You also have a Cremont de Lemou, and this is so Lemou is limou x. Yeah. It doesn't look anything like what I'm saying. This is a sparkling wine that comes from the Languedoc in the southern French area, and this is where sparkling wine was believed to be founded. And it's actually believed that Dom Perignon made a pilgrimage to the monks in this region in the Languedoc to learn how to make sparkling wine. Cremants typically fall in the 15 to $30 range. I would trust a Cremont at $15. It's gonna be wonderful and delicious. Flavors differ depending on the region, but they can include anything from white cherry, lemon, white apricot, toasted bread, and almonds. Again, it's gonna depend where it's made. If you're curious, the grapes that are used in some of these regions, so we have a Cremont d'Ool sauce. This is primarily pinot blanc, pinot gris, riesling, chardonnay, and pinot noir. We've already talked about burgundy or Cremont des Bourgons. It's primarily pinot noir and chardonnay. Then there's a cremente de Bordeaux, primarily merlot along with cabernet franc. You can also use cabernet sauvignon, Carmenere, Malbec, and Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Semillon. So Bordeaux has a lot of options. You might also be kinda curious. You're like, you are listing a lot of red wines for a sparkling wine. Is this this is still a white wine, but the skins are not put in contact with the grape juice, so we end up, making a white wine from red grapes. Kinda cool. Right? We also talked about Cermont de Jura. And, again, I said this is main made mostly using Chardonnay, but you can also find Pinot Noir, Boursard, Sauvignon, Pinot Gris, and Truceau. There's also Cremont Des Loire. This uses Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, and Pinot Noir. And then, Cremont Des Le Meux. This is Chardonnay, as well as Chenin Blanc, Mozoc, and Pinot Noir. And if you wanna learn more about each of these French wine regions, go check out my previous episodes. I have a French wine 101 and a French wine 101 part 2, where I dig into each of these wine regions a little bit more. In case you're curious, I don't talk about the sparkling wine, but I do talk about the region itself. Okay. We're gonna head out of France now and into Spain to talk about Cava. Cava is made using the traditional method, so the same as champagne, but it's made in Spain. And it can be made anywhere in Spain, but most of it comes from the Catalonia region in Northeast Spain near Barcelona. These wines are typically made with the local Spanish grapes. You have Macabeo, Parreada, and Zarello. However, you can also use Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These wines are perfect for the pocketbook. I've had great cava for under$10 And, honestly, some of the best kava I've had, AKA the kava that I served at my wedding for the toasts, was just $15 a bottle. It had some Chardonnay in it. Oh, it was lovely. Wonderful. We still have one bottle left. We've been having one every year on our anniversary for the ones that were left over. I may have overbought, but I'm not mad about it. And it's been really lovely. The last time it was, it lost a lot of flavor. So this last one might be over the hill a little bit, but it's still kinda special. These wines, so the cava, they tend to be a little more fruity and floral than champagne. They're not required to age as long as champagne is, which would, kind of explain that, but they are just as flavorful. You get lime, quince, apple, almond, and chamomile in these wines. Next up, we have Prosecco. Of course, if we're talking about sparkling wine, we can't leave out Prosecco. Prosecco is made using the tank method, so that Charminch, 2nd fermentation in a pressurized tank, and it's made with a grape called Galera. Now funny story here. I always love to tell the story. I don't know how much of it is true because I read it a couple times, and then sometimes I have a hard of finding reading it. But, anyway, I wanna believe this is true, so we're just gonna believe that it is true. It the grape itself that made Prosecco used to actually be called Prosecco. So it was actually the grape that was called Prosecco, but the problem was that when you have a grape called Prosecco, that means any region in the world can make a Prosecco wine. Kinda like how, like, you know, the grape is called Chardonnay, so we can make Chardonnay anywhere. And the people in Prosecco didn't love this. They didn't like that anybody could make what they were making. They wanted to have the same, you know, kind of authority that champagne did or at least the same protection that Champagne did. So they I and then I think the final straw, and this is the part where I'm, like, not a 100% sure if it's correct, but Paris Hilton made a Prosecco, and she put it in cans, and she went on a talk show, and she talked about how she made Prosecco wine. And this is apparently what the last straw was for those in Prosecco. And so no hate against Paris Hilton. I'm I just I think it's hilarious. So they found a town near the region that was called Prosecco, the region where they were making they were growing all these grapes. And so they basically created a border around this town and said, alright. This is our Prosecco region. And, also, y'all have been calling the grape the wrong thing. It's called glera. And this glera was actually a term that a past term that was used for the grape. So it's not that it was wrong, but it also wasn't right, but they were like, no. It's it's called glera. And see, we have this region called Prosecco. And so now you can only call your wine Prosecco if it comes from this region of Italy. I am probably, like I said, if there are any Prosecco producers out there, please don't hate me. I just think it's a funny story and you know, you deserve the protection, you deserve it. So Prosecco made in a very different way from champagne. It is a lot more citrus, tree fruit, think like apple and pear, and a bit of tropical as well with the pineapple and mango. It's a tad bit of cream, but, normally, the fruitiness wins out. So it's not gonna have that creamy texture or that bread kinda like flavor. Bottles of Prosecco usually fit in the 8 to $20 range, and to me, these are perfect sparkling wines for cocktails. I think they have, like, just the right amount of bubbly. Alright. The final wine that I'm gonna dig into comes from Italy, as well. So I guess, yeah, I guess we only really hit on France, Spain, and Italy, but we'll talk more about other wine other sparkling wines from other regions. So this is a sparkling wine called Lambrusco. Lambrusco to many people is that cheap, sweet red wine that tastes like soda. And, admittedly, I felt that way too for a while. All the Lambrusco wines that I had up until a couple years ago just weren't that great. But I can tell you now that there are some really amazing Lambrusco's being made. Its reputation is changing, and some just really incredible producers are stepping in and making high quality stuff. So let's get into what exactly it is. Lambrusco is actually a family of very old grape varieties that are native to Italy. So most of the wines are a blend of many different distinct Lambrusco grapes. The majority of Lambrusco is produced in an area called Emilia Romano. This is also the area known for its Parmigiano Reggiano. And so they're known they're basically like the food capital of the world. Like, they've got the Parmesan. There's something else there too that they're famous for. I wanna say it's a type of meat. And then they have Lambrusco. So the Lambrusco is literally just meant to be, like, fun. It's meant to go with this food and just meant to be, like, a fun, enjoyable pairing. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Now these Lambruscos, they range in sweetness from dry to super sweet, and I think most people are more familiar with the super sweet version. Nothing wrong if you like that. But if you don't like it, go look for a dry LimbRusco. So, again, the best are the the drier ones, versus the, barely or somewhat sweet, versions, and then, of course, the very sweet versions. Okay. Now like I said, we've only talked about 5 different styles of sparkling wine. There are so many others. So just to name a few, you have Trentodoc. This is a sparkling wine that is produced in the classical method, in Trentino, Italy. You have metodo Classico. This is a sparkling wine made using the traditional method anywhere in Italy. You have Moscato dei Osti, a sweet sparkling wine made in Osti of Italy. You have Pet Nat, Pechaine Naturale. We mentioned this a little bit. This is a wine typically made in the US, so I'm seeing it from other countries in the world now using that ancestral method. Capp Classique, this is a sparkling wine from South Africa made with Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Pinot Noir. And then Sekt, s e k t. This is a sparkling wine from Germany. I've seen it made in both, like, the tank style and the traditional style. And then, of course, you have domestic sparklings, which are just the sparkling wines made here in the US. And, again, sparkling wine is made all across the world. Okay. Do you have more questions about sparkling wine? What do you want to know? Message me on Instagram at corkandfizz or send me an email, haley@korknfizz.com. And then let me know which sparkling wine will you be trying next? I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. If you loved it as much as I enjoyed talking to you, I would so appreciate a quick second to rate and leave a review. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. We release new episodes every Wednesday. In next week's episode, I'll be doing a deep dive into an Italian grape variety called Barbera. This is my go to pizza wine and super fun, super affordable. I love it, and I can't wait to tell you more about it. Thanks again for listening. And as a thank you, I like to share my free shopping guide, 15 wines under$15. Simply head to my website quarkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and join my mailing list. Cheers.