Bubbly recommendations for the New Year
Healy Jones, WG'07
Issue date: 12/4/06 Section: Insider
- Page 1 of 1
Around this time of year, business school students begin to think about celebrations, such as New Years. Of course, the best part about New Years, besides sleeping in on January First, is the toast. Specifically the bubbly toast. Therefore, members of the Wine Club's Board decided to get together to taste some fine sparkling wines and champagne. You might think it's easy to convince the Wine Board to get together to taste wines, but actually it's often a bit of a pain. Partly this is due to the late notice I provide (usually about an hour) but partly it's because people have other responsibilities. But I ask, what could be more responsible than drinking half a dozen bottles of champagne on a Tuesday night?? I couldn't think of anything, and neither could several others of us…
Jon "Mad Aussie" Adler, Kristin "Air Force" Lutz, Jac "I'm smarter than I look" Fourie, Michelle "I don't sleep in because I drink but rather drink so I can sleep in" Shinn, and I met at Chris Mendez's house and popped a few corks. Camille Garriga also joined us, but I'm not going to give her a funny middle name because she's awesome and likes Spanish Cava.
In addition to preparing for the New Years, I suggested we taste the bubbly so that we would know what champagnes to have to drink when we started getting job offers. However, the rest of the group informed me that they all have job offers and that it was just Michelle and me who hadn't found a job. At this point I suggested we drink the sparkling to cover my sudden insecurity complex.
It turns out that Jac is a bit of a sparkling wine fanatic. First clue was when he started giggling like a little school girl who had just received a $55 gift certificate to a local chocolate store. Second clue was when he quoted Lilly Bollinger, a famous owner of the Bollinger Champagne vineyards:
Lily Bollinger, on Champagne:
"I drink it 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'm not hungry and I drink it when I am.
Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty."
Jac sternly suggested we try the most expensive bottle we had picked out right away. His rational was that it was the "lightest" so we should start with it. Later it turned out that he had to leave early. Not sure if that was a coincidence…
It is important to note that we are not trying any vintage champagne. Vintage champagne is a blend of wines that are all from the same year, while non-vintage champagnes are blended from several years' grapes in order to achieve a certain level of consistency. Surprisingly, the "chairman's" climate controlled corner at the local Wine and Sprits store does have a few bottles of vintage champagne. However, we weren't about to spend $100 on a bottle, even if most of us had job offers. (You'd think that people who had prestigious consulting gigs lined up would be excited to donate hundreds to the "Healy Jones Hydration Fund," but you'd be wrong.)
Another point of clarification - we are only trying one actual "champagne." All the other bottles were actually sparkling wines. Only bubbly produced from the Champagne region of France are allowed to carry the champagne label, although many other sparkling wines are produced with similar methods and grape varietals. It is sort of analogous to how the executive MBAs at Wharton can't call themselves Wharton MBAs. Oh wait, I guess they can.
We tried two wines next to each other, a Mumm from Champagne and Korbel, a well-known producer of affordable bubbly. Of course, several people were reminded of the scene from Meet the Parents where Focker offers Mumm champagne from the local drug store, pops the cork, and breaks the urn containing the dead grandmother's ashes… which the cat then proceeds to urinate on. "Would anybody care for a bottle of Oyster Bay Drug and Sundries finest champagne?"
Mumm Carte Classique Champagne, Reims France. ($15.99 for a small bottle). First, note that a half bottle of this wine is on sale for less than half the price of a normal bottle. Adler truly believes that this represents a serious arbitrage opportunity, but isn't sure how to exploit it. Any economics professors are welcomed to email him your ideas. We let Jac open the bottle since he was so excited about this tasting. He has perfected the technique of gently twisting the cork until the bottle is just barely open and the gas escapes with a quite hiss. Jac calls this "Angels Farting." Or, with his accent, "Angels Faaating." If you've never heard a six foot plus South African man giggling about celestial beings passing gas, you've never lived. This wine was really good. The head gave off a nice apply, yeasty smell and the bubbles were light and tiny. The flavor was quite apply and toasty and not at all too sweet. Jon exclaimed, "Everybody loves their MUMM! You can't say that because you don't say mum her in the states, its all 'mother' and 'mom.'" Jon is really starting to get his American accent down pat.
Korbel California Champagne Brut, Sonoma County USA. ($7.99 for the half bottle, $12.99 for the bigger bottle). Korbel's Russian River Valley vineyard produces a large volume of consistently decent American sparkling wine. This is no exception. While it was probably not fair to compare this directly to the Mumm, there was no comparison. We didn't find too much of a nose, and the body of the wine had some fruit and a little too much tartness. Camille did point out that this would be an excellent mimosa maker, as the tartness would go well in orange juice. This is a fine party wine, but you probably don't want to propose with it.
It was at this point that Jac turned off the floor lamp next to him. We weren't sure if he wanted mood lighting or if he was about to make a move on someone. No, he says he's getting hot. Then he picked up his chair like he's some kind of a lion tamer. Michelle, put down the bottle and let him pass! We weren't sure what he was trying to do, but we think the bubbles were getting to his head.
After Jac settled into his new spot on the other side of the now darker room, we proceeded to open up another American wine, the Piper Sonoma.
Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir, Sonoma County USA. ($14.99 or so). Jac loves this American sparkling, and for good reason. The wine smelled of citrus. Jon insisted that he smelled a bit of Vegemite, and then tried to tell us for the hundredth time how this Aussie "delicacy" is made - by scraping the yeast and minerals off the bottom of beer barrels. If you don't know what Vegemite is, ask Jon Adler. He will give you one of two stories on how it is made - the painfully long version and the really painfully long version. Also, remind him that I think that Vegemite tastes like crap. However, getting back to the wine, he wasn't entirely off, as the bubbly, like most good champagnes, had a hint of yeast smell on its nose. We all tasted some fruit, probably citrus, and admired its smooth texture and fruit/mineral finish. Michelle thought that perhaps it was a bit too minerally on the finish, but the rest of us really liked it.
Rotari "Arte Italiana" Talento Trento Brut, Mezzocorona, Italy. ($13.99 on sale). I was pretty excited to find this low priced, but reliable, sparkling Italian on sale at the local Wine & Spirits. This wine had a bit of pear smell, and a surprising amount of minerality. Some found it smooth, others a bit rough. It split our group, with some preferring it to the Korbel and others liking the Korbel better.
Before we prepared to open the next bottle, I thought maybe it would make sense to more numerically track how the group was appreciating the bottles. The marketing department should note that my idea to conduct a conjoint analysis was soundly rejected by the group. In fact, someone even called me a nerd. I'm going to blame this crushing defeat on the marketing department. What good is my marketing research class if I can't even market a conjoint analysis to people while we're drinking wine? I feel like our marketing professors need to market the idea of a conjoint analysis a bit more. I mean, you're marketing professors, sell the idea for Pete's sake! At least have the heart to mention that the conjoint analysis was invented at Wharton. After Marketing 621 and Marketing 622, if someone wants to learn about conjoints, what class is there, besides Marketing 756, 771, 773, 776x, 777, 890, 891, 894, 895, 899, 655, 751 - 759, the 780's and 790's? I mean, it's totally possible to take a single marketing class, Marketing 760 (legal aspects of marketing), and not be exposed to the idea of the conjoint analysis!
Freixenet Cordon Negro, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine, Spain. ($11.99). This was our bottle of CAVA from Spain. You might have noticed that I'm a big supported of Camille - that's because she also loves this wine. Spain makes its own, unique version of sparking wine, and it has a taste all to its own. Some of us loved it, others disliked it strongly. Supposedly Freixenet is the world's largest producer of sparking wine. When we poured the wine, we noticed a much lighter, straw color. Camille and I loved the mushroom smell, light citrus fruit flavor and refreshing, unique aftertaste. It would go great with tapas! However, others didn't like it. Jon insisted that it smelled like wet dog and tasted like "Hessian Bag." Try researching that on a stolen internet connection. I guess it's Aussie for burlap. Jon also said that you can't compare this to other sparkling wines, but Jac then pointed out that we just did. Jon got even more upset and declared that this was only good enough to be served at a faculty party. Camille, Jac and I disagreed and said it was really tasty, but unique. That brings us to our final sparkling wine, a wine unique to Australia - Sparkling Shiraz. Many of you have probably never heard of a sparkling red wine, but let me tell you, it wouldn't be a wine tasting without Jon getting purple teeth.
Omni Red Sparking Shiraz, South Eastern Australia. (Not available easily in Pennsylvania). This wine was a light red that frothed up like blood in a bad horror movie or carbonated Welch's grape juice. It definitely smelled like a shiraz. Jon was both apologetic and enthusiastic as we poured this wine. He claimed that this bottle was the only one he'd found in the US, but that it probably wasn't a very good one.
On the other hand, he insisted that Sparkling Shiraz was a very popular, very good party wine in Australia, if you got the right one. The taste was… interesting. A little sweet, a little like bad shiraz, with a carbonation that Chris said reminded him of beer carbonation, "a barrel of awfulness." Kristin couldn't drink it. Strangely Michelle seemed to be enjoying it, but she thought it reminded her of Crystal Pepsi - "you can't really tell what it is." Jon didn't think this was the best of Sparkling Shirazes that his country had to offer, but said that it's an Australian tradition (to which Jac responded a tradition born out of a complete lack of culture.) While the two of them debated which country, South Africa or Australia, had less culture, I decided that the best analogy for this wine was that it tasted like a cheap Shiraz had sex with a bottle of tonic water on top of a bag of Equal.
In all, our tasting was a success. We celebrated a whole ton of nothing quite well, and discovered that everyone has really different tastes in sparkling wines. This tasting probably had the highest standard deviation on ranking of the wines of any we've had to date. The real lesson here is that you ought to taste around a bit to find out which kind of sparking you prefer the most.
We'd also like to thank Diageo for putting on an excellent tasting for scores of Wine Club members on Wednesday, November 29th. The wines were excellent, and the opportunity to taste the really high-end reserve wines from BV and Sterling was amazing. Also, the hundred dollar BV Georges de Latour was really spectacular!
Mumm Carte Classique Champagne, Reims France. ($15.99 for a small bottle). The Classic French Champagne. You can't go wrong, and this is a good price for the smaller bottle at the Wine and Spirits store. Good fruit, smooth bubbles.
Korbel California Champagne Brut, Sonoma County USA. ($7.99 for the half bottle). The American go-to wine, didn't quite stack up against the Mumm. Really good in mimosas.
Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir, Sonoma County USA. ($15.99 or so). Fruit, yeast, good texture. Probably the best value you can get at a low price point in Philly.
Rotari "Arte Italiana" Talento Trento Brut, Mezzocorona, Italy. ($13.99 on sale). Some found this too minerally, but others liked its forwardness. If you don't like too sweet of wines and aren't looking for too much fruit might be worth trying. Good price right now!
Freixenet Cordon Negro, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine, Spain. ($11.99). If you've drank sparkling in Spain and liked it, you will probably enjoy this wine. Mushroom smell, light citrus. Some didn't like it at all, so try if you are feeling experimental.
Omni Red Sparking Shiraz, South Eastern Australia. (Hard to find in Philly). Very divisive wine, unique to Australia. Probably should try this once before you die, but maybe Pennsylvania isn't the right place to find one.
Jon "Mad Aussie" Adler, Kristin "Air Force" Lutz, Jac "I'm smarter than I look" Fourie, Michelle "I don't sleep in because I drink but rather drink so I can sleep in" Shinn, and I met at Chris Mendez's house and popped a few corks. Camille Garriga also joined us, but I'm not going to give her a funny middle name because she's awesome and likes Spanish Cava.
In addition to preparing for the New Years, I suggested we taste the bubbly so that we would know what champagnes to have to drink when we started getting job offers. However, the rest of the group informed me that they all have job offers and that it was just Michelle and me who hadn't found a job. At this point I suggested we drink the sparkling to cover my sudden insecurity complex.
It turns out that Jac is a bit of a sparkling wine fanatic. First clue was when he started giggling like a little school girl who had just received a $55 gift certificate to a local chocolate store. Second clue was when he quoted Lilly Bollinger, a famous owner of the Bollinger Champagne vineyards:
Lily Bollinger, on Champagne:
"I drink it 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'm not hungry and I drink it when I am.
Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty."
Jac sternly suggested we try the most expensive bottle we had picked out right away. His rational was that it was the "lightest" so we should start with it. Later it turned out that he had to leave early. Not sure if that was a coincidence…
It is important to note that we are not trying any vintage champagne. Vintage champagne is a blend of wines that are all from the same year, while non-vintage champagnes are blended from several years' grapes in order to achieve a certain level of consistency. Surprisingly, the "chairman's" climate controlled corner at the local Wine and Sprits store does have a few bottles of vintage champagne. However, we weren't about to spend $100 on a bottle, even if most of us had job offers. (You'd think that people who had prestigious consulting gigs lined up would be excited to donate hundreds to the "Healy Jones Hydration Fund," but you'd be wrong.)
Another point of clarification - we are only trying one actual "champagne." All the other bottles were actually sparkling wines. Only bubbly produced from the Champagne region of France are allowed to carry the champagne label, although many other sparkling wines are produced with similar methods and grape varietals. It is sort of analogous to how the executive MBAs at Wharton can't call themselves Wharton MBAs. Oh wait, I guess they can.
We tried two wines next to each other, a Mumm from Champagne and Korbel, a well-known producer of affordable bubbly. Of course, several people were reminded of the scene from Meet the Parents where Focker offers Mumm champagne from the local drug store, pops the cork, and breaks the urn containing the dead grandmother's ashes… which the cat then proceeds to urinate on. "Would anybody care for a bottle of Oyster Bay Drug and Sundries finest champagne?"
Mumm Carte Classique Champagne, Reims France. ($15.99 for a small bottle). First, note that a half bottle of this wine is on sale for less than half the price of a normal bottle. Adler truly believes that this represents a serious arbitrage opportunity, but isn't sure how to exploit it. Any economics professors are welcomed to email him your ideas. We let Jac open the bottle since he was so excited about this tasting. He has perfected the technique of gently twisting the cork until the bottle is just barely open and the gas escapes with a quite hiss. Jac calls this "Angels Farting." Or, with his accent, "Angels Faaating." If you've never heard a six foot plus South African man giggling about celestial beings passing gas, you've never lived. This wine was really good. The head gave off a nice apply, yeasty smell and the bubbles were light and tiny. The flavor was quite apply and toasty and not at all too sweet. Jon exclaimed, "Everybody loves their MUMM! You can't say that because you don't say mum her in the states, its all 'mother' and 'mom.'" Jon is really starting to get his American accent down pat.
Korbel California Champagne Brut, Sonoma County USA. ($7.99 for the half bottle, $12.99 for the bigger bottle). Korbel's Russian River Valley vineyard produces a large volume of consistently decent American sparkling wine. This is no exception. While it was probably not fair to compare this directly to the Mumm, there was no comparison. We didn't find too much of a nose, and the body of the wine had some fruit and a little too much tartness. Camille did point out that this would be an excellent mimosa maker, as the tartness would go well in orange juice. This is a fine party wine, but you probably don't want to propose with it.
It was at this point that Jac turned off the floor lamp next to him. We weren't sure if he wanted mood lighting or if he was about to make a move on someone. No, he says he's getting hot. Then he picked up his chair like he's some kind of a lion tamer. Michelle, put down the bottle and let him pass! We weren't sure what he was trying to do, but we think the bubbles were getting to his head.
After Jac settled into his new spot on the other side of the now darker room, we proceeded to open up another American wine, the Piper Sonoma.
Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir, Sonoma County USA. ($14.99 or so). Jac loves this American sparkling, and for good reason. The wine smelled of citrus. Jon insisted that he smelled a bit of Vegemite, and then tried to tell us for the hundredth time how this Aussie "delicacy" is made - by scraping the yeast and minerals off the bottom of beer barrels. If you don't know what Vegemite is, ask Jon Adler. He will give you one of two stories on how it is made - the painfully long version and the really painfully long version. Also, remind him that I think that Vegemite tastes like crap. However, getting back to the wine, he wasn't entirely off, as the bubbly, like most good champagnes, had a hint of yeast smell on its nose. We all tasted some fruit, probably citrus, and admired its smooth texture and fruit/mineral finish. Michelle thought that perhaps it was a bit too minerally on the finish, but the rest of us really liked it.
Rotari "Arte Italiana" Talento Trento Brut, Mezzocorona, Italy. ($13.99 on sale). I was pretty excited to find this low priced, but reliable, sparkling Italian on sale at the local Wine & Spirits. This wine had a bit of pear smell, and a surprising amount of minerality. Some found it smooth, others a bit rough. It split our group, with some preferring it to the Korbel and others liking the Korbel better.
Before we prepared to open the next bottle, I thought maybe it would make sense to more numerically track how the group was appreciating the bottles. The marketing department should note that my idea to conduct a conjoint analysis was soundly rejected by the group. In fact, someone even called me a nerd. I'm going to blame this crushing defeat on the marketing department. What good is my marketing research class if I can't even market a conjoint analysis to people while we're drinking wine? I feel like our marketing professors need to market the idea of a conjoint analysis a bit more. I mean, you're marketing professors, sell the idea for Pete's sake! At least have the heart to mention that the conjoint analysis was invented at Wharton. After Marketing 621 and Marketing 622, if someone wants to learn about conjoints, what class is there, besides Marketing 756, 771, 773, 776x, 777, 890, 891, 894, 895, 899, 655, 751 - 759, the 780's and 790's? I mean, it's totally possible to take a single marketing class, Marketing 760 (legal aspects of marketing), and not be exposed to the idea of the conjoint analysis!
Freixenet Cordon Negro, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine, Spain. ($11.99). This was our bottle of CAVA from Spain. You might have noticed that I'm a big supported of Camille - that's because she also loves this wine. Spain makes its own, unique version of sparking wine, and it has a taste all to its own. Some of us loved it, others disliked it strongly. Supposedly Freixenet is the world's largest producer of sparking wine. When we poured the wine, we noticed a much lighter, straw color. Camille and I loved the mushroom smell, light citrus fruit flavor and refreshing, unique aftertaste. It would go great with tapas! However, others didn't like it. Jon insisted that it smelled like wet dog and tasted like "Hessian Bag." Try researching that on a stolen internet connection. I guess it's Aussie for burlap. Jon also said that you can't compare this to other sparkling wines, but Jac then pointed out that we just did. Jon got even more upset and declared that this was only good enough to be served at a faculty party. Camille, Jac and I disagreed and said it was really tasty, but unique. That brings us to our final sparkling wine, a wine unique to Australia - Sparkling Shiraz. Many of you have probably never heard of a sparkling red wine, but let me tell you, it wouldn't be a wine tasting without Jon getting purple teeth.
Omni Red Sparking Shiraz, South Eastern Australia. (Not available easily in Pennsylvania). This wine was a light red that frothed up like blood in a bad horror movie or carbonated Welch's grape juice. It definitely smelled like a shiraz. Jon was both apologetic and enthusiastic as we poured this wine. He claimed that this bottle was the only one he'd found in the US, but that it probably wasn't a very good one.
On the other hand, he insisted that Sparkling Shiraz was a very popular, very good party wine in Australia, if you got the right one. The taste was… interesting. A little sweet, a little like bad shiraz, with a carbonation that Chris said reminded him of beer carbonation, "a barrel of awfulness." Kristin couldn't drink it. Strangely Michelle seemed to be enjoying it, but she thought it reminded her of Crystal Pepsi - "you can't really tell what it is." Jon didn't think this was the best of Sparkling Shirazes that his country had to offer, but said that it's an Australian tradition (to which Jac responded a tradition born out of a complete lack of culture.) While the two of them debated which country, South Africa or Australia, had less culture, I decided that the best analogy for this wine was that it tasted like a cheap Shiraz had sex with a bottle of tonic water on top of a bag of Equal.
In all, our tasting was a success. We celebrated a whole ton of nothing quite well, and discovered that everyone has really different tastes in sparkling wines. This tasting probably had the highest standard deviation on ranking of the wines of any we've had to date. The real lesson here is that you ought to taste around a bit to find out which kind of sparking you prefer the most.
We'd also like to thank Diageo for putting on an excellent tasting for scores of Wine Club members on Wednesday, November 29th. The wines were excellent, and the opportunity to taste the really high-end reserve wines from BV and Sterling was amazing. Also, the hundred dollar BV Georges de Latour was really spectacular!
Mumm Carte Classique Champagne, Reims France. ($15.99 for a small bottle). The Classic French Champagne. You can't go wrong, and this is a good price for the smaller bottle at the Wine and Spirits store. Good fruit, smooth bubbles.
Korbel California Champagne Brut, Sonoma County USA. ($7.99 for the half bottle). The American go-to wine, didn't quite stack up against the Mumm. Really good in mimosas.
Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir, Sonoma County USA. ($15.99 or so). Fruit, yeast, good texture. Probably the best value you can get at a low price point in Philly.
Rotari "Arte Italiana" Talento Trento Brut, Mezzocorona, Italy. ($13.99 on sale). Some found this too minerally, but others liked its forwardness. If you don't like too sweet of wines and aren't looking for too much fruit might be worth trying. Good price right now!
Freixenet Cordon Negro, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine, Spain. ($11.99). If you've drank sparkling in Spain and liked it, you will probably enjoy this wine. Mushroom smell, light citrus. Some didn't like it at all, so try if you are feeling experimental.
Omni Red Sparking Shiraz, South Eastern Australia. (Hard to find in Philly). Very divisive wine, unique to Australia. Probably should try this once before you die, but maybe Pennsylvania isn't the right place to find one.
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