02. 14. 2013

Blind Sparkling Tasting: Cocktail Party Style

A fun idea for Valentines Day. You can either make this sparkling tasting a small intimate affair for yourself and your partner, a fun cocktail party tasting for a few friends, or a couples tasting with 2 or 3 other couples.

Bubbly is always a good idea. Period. Double Period. But there is something about this time of year with the holidays and Valentines Day that really sweetens the deal.

I set up a blind champagne tasting, cocktail style, for my family on Christmas Eve. It was such a fun way to kick off the festivities and really got everyone involved, happy and loosened up for a killer game of charades.

You could always do a more formal sit down tasting where you supply everyone with pre-poured glasses laid out in a row but I think this is more fun for a casual-style gathering.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Start out by selecting at least 4 different bottles of sparkling wine.
If you have 6 or more people, you may want to make it 5 or 6 bottles. Make sure you show a nice variation in wines.
Pick up:

-a grower champagne like this NV Guy Charlemagne Blanc du Blancs
(Other grower champagnes to look for: Egly-Ouriet, Vilmart & Cie, Chartogne-Taillet, or just ask your trusted wine shop what they recommend)

-a traditional house champagne like this NV Taittinger Brut La Francaise
(Others to look for: Moet & Chandon, Laurent-Perrier, Piper-Heidsieck)

-a cava like this NV Oriol Rossell Brut Nature
(others to try: NV Segura Viudas Brut Reserva and the NV González Byass Vilarnau Brut)

-a cremant like this NV Tissot Cremant du Jura Brut
(A few other top value and tasty cremants to try: NV Jaillance Crémant de Bourgogne Brut and NV Paul Ginglinger Cremant d’Alsace Brut)

-a new world sparkler like this 2006 Iron Horse Classic Vintage Brut or this 2007 Lenz Sparkling Cuvée from Long Island’s North Fork.
(Other great New World Sparklers: 2009 Schramsberg North Coast Blanc de Blancs Brut and NV Sharffenberger Mendocino County Excellence Brut)

-and maybe throw in a prosecco like this NV Desiderio Jeio Prosecco Brut
(The NV Mionetto Brut Prosecco Veneto is also excellent)

This way you can really taste through and note the differences between a non vintage branded champagne like a Taittinger- made to taste the same no matter the vintage- a smaller production grower champagne, a Spanish cava, an Italian prosecco and sparkling wines made in both the traditional Champagne method and otherwise.

For your next party, you can get a little more detailed. Maybe do all Blanc de Blancs, all rosé sparklers, all grower champagnes, or New World vs. Old World sparklers, etc.

2. Set up your champagne station somewhere that you would like your guests to gather and taste.
Line up your champagne glasses behind each bottle. If there are 4 people tasting, line up 4 glasses behind each bottle and so on.

*If I’d had my druthers, I would have used all glass champagne flutes but we only had a few and needed 16 so we subbed in some regular wine glasses. I though it actually looked kind of beautiful to mix them up. Next time I put together a sparkling tasting, I will pick up a few packs of these Govino champagne flutes. They are inexpensive, fabulously chic and shatterproof.

3. Cut up tiny squares of Post-It notes (make sure it has a sticky part on the back) and write the initials of each wine to stick on each glass. Stick your mini post-it to the bottom of the appropriate wine glass in each row.

*Warning: as the night progresses, these do tend to get a bit soggy but that just adds to the charm of it all, I think.

4. Pour the wine into the glasses per row. Give a generous pour as you will be going back to each wine to discuss numerous times.

5. Remove the bottles from the rows after you have poured and labeled each glass and stick in the fridge or on ice. One of these vintage ice buckets is always fun to break out at a party like this. I just got one for Christmas from my stylish mama.

6. Have your guests come gather around your champagne station. Each guest can pick up a glass from the 1st row.

7. Taste together and talk shop. What do you think? What does it taste like? Any guesses as to if this is a big Champagne house, a smaller production label, a New World sparkler, etc.

8. Continue tasting each wine together from each row. Encourage your guest to try and keep the wines in order as they taste so that you can all refer back to each wine together.

9. Take a vote as to which wine each guest likes and then drum roll… the big reveal.

10. Bring out the bottles so everyone can match up the wines from the labels on the bottom to the bottles and see what their tastebuds chose.

Enjoy and Cin Cin!

A fun addition: Pull up my Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cheat Sheet below, on your iPad or laptop for the tasting. My Cheat Sheets show typical notes found both on the nose and palate when tasting champagne and sparklers, to give your guests a reference guide.
For me this always makes wine tasting more fun and accessible so that you don’t just have that one oenophile busting out the “biscuity, toasted almond and Mandarin orange flavor profiles”. That gets annoying. We all want to play.

*A little sparkler tip to make your wallet happy: Cremants are always on my shopping list. Most cremants are a bit less fizzy than traditional champagne, yet still made in the traditional style of champagne, but at a much cheaper price. While still French they are made outside the Champagne region itself where the real estate tends to be cheaper, hence a cheaper bottle of wine. I have rarely had one that disappoints. In fact, the verdict on our little blind tasting party was that the $23 cremant reigned supreme over a $60 bottle of grower champagne. Go freakin’ figure.

Here is a little guide for your tasting pleasure. Of course it is impossible to list all the notes that may be found in sparklers, especially the more complex champagnes. The blend factor of multiple grapes in a wine makes it all the more complex, but this is a good starting point.