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Sparkling Wine

“I only drink Champagne 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 am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.” (Lily Bollinger)

Working at a winery that makes sparkling wine is one of the best parts of my job, it is also one of the most challenging. In the wine shop, on a daily basis I hear our visitors remark that our sparkling would be great for New Year’s or their anniversary…and it would be. But the message I feel I am always trying to share is that sparkling, or champagne or prosecco or any other bubbly is a wine.  Despite the fact that it contains 49 million bubbles it deserves to be treated like any other wine.  You wouldn’t think twice about opening a white or a red wine any day of the week.  So why not open a bottle of sparkling on a Thursday, because it’s almost the weekend or your power bill arrived and it was either higher, or better yet lower than you expected.  Sparkling is not just for special occasions it is for everyday and we all need to drink more bubble for no reason.

Everyone says they have a bottle that they are saving for a special occasion.  My advice is don’t wait for that special occasion, they don’t always happen like you expect. Instead open the bottle of sparkling and make the occasion special. You can always replace the bottle with another for that far off special day. At our house every gathering starts with bubble, usually sparkling or prosecco.  We find it gets everyone into a celebratory mode regardless of the occasion.

Sometimes I wonder if people get hung up on not having the right glassware.  Not everyone has a bunch of champagne flutes in their china cabinet nor does everyone want the hassle of washing them every time.  Enjoy your sparkling in a regular wine glass.  You will be amazed at how much more of the aromatics of the wine come through and it will take away the stuffy feeling of having to enjoy it in a flute.  Don’t get me wrong flutes lend something to the celebration but they are not a must have to enjoy sparkling.

This year make a New Year’s Resolution when you are toasting with friends or family with your celebratory glass of sparkling in hand to drink more bubbly for no reason.  I guarantee it will be the easiest resolution you have ever tried to keep.  And remember life is a celebration!

Cheers!

P.S. If you want to know more about how sparkling is made watch this great video. /blog/how-sparkline-wine-is-made

Nov 20, 2012 at 8:02 AM Permalink

How Wine Corks are Chosen

The choice to use cork as a closure for wine is something of a contentious debate. While there are many arguments in favour of a manufactured screw cap closure, or Stelvin Cap as it is known by popular trade name, there also exist many arguments against.

Blue Mountain continues to use all natural corks. This is partly due to the availability of top quality corks, and the increased quality of the cork available to us. It is also a style of winemaking that we feel has worked for us. Oxygen transfer, or lack thereof, into the bottle over time is a significant factor in how a wine ages over time, and we have reached a point where we know how our wines age in the bottle given the methods we have been using. A changeover to a metal screw cap would dictate a new approach to making our wines, and would also take time to understand whether or not we had made the correct choices in type of enclosure, type of glass, cap liner porosity, etc.

While there is certainly a place for the screw cap, we are sticking with the natural cork for our wines based on experience and testing over time. While we would never say never, at the moment there's just something satisfying about popping a cork. Call us old fashioned, but we like it that way.

What do you think? Do you prefer cork or screw cap?

Nov 1, 2012 at 9:59 AM Permalink