Sunday, December 30, 2007
Food
Holiday cheer
Michael Venezia helps us ring in the new year in style
Michael Venezia for United Distributors Inc
CREDIT: Spark St. Jude |
Michael Venezia helps us ring in the new year in style
By Hope S. Philbrick
As corporate director of education for United Distributors Inc., Michael Venezia is a nationally recognized expert in the beverage alcohol industry. Because the 27-year veteran specializes in fine wine, The Sunday Paper tapped him for information on choosing the right bubbly to ring in the New Year.
Q Is Champagne popular?
A Champagne has been used for three centuries as a celebratory gesture. There’s a certain image associated with Champagne—they’ve done a fabulous job marketing themselves; all the sparkling wines of the world aspire to be embraced like champagne. It’s the fantasy wine with a luxury image, yet it is an attainable luxury experience.
In terms of sales, the category is enjoying a good year, the strongest since the millennia. Consumption of sparkling wine in Italy, France and Germany is very high; they drink it all the time. The American market is embracing sparkling wine and total sales in 2007 will exceed that big year at the turn of the millennia. The global market is expanding at an incredible rate, like in China. You can be sure that during the Olympics there’s going to be a great demand for champagne—and they’ll want French, the real deal.
What’s the difference between Champagne and other sparkling wines? What is brut?
They all have bubbles in common. The similarity ends there.
Champagne comes from Champagne, France. The only grape varietals allowed are Chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, which are planted in a variety of vineyards in the greater Champagne district. Secondary fermentation occurs in every bottle, because yeast is added. The wine is then aged a minimum of 15 months, according to law for entry-level Champagne—the big boys age longer.
Prosecco is from Italy, specifically from the Veneto region. Prosecco is the name of the grape, and it is typically made in the frizzante style, which is a delicate sparkle. Spumante is a much more forceful foam. Prosecco is made in tank fermentation at very cool temperatures. The carbon dioxide is captured in the tank, so there is a single fermentation—no bottle aging, no secondary fermentation. It’s a much easier method.
Cava is Spanish and is actually made the exact same way as Champagne, the méthode champenoise. Spain is the world’s largest producer of classic method sparkling wine. Most cavas are made in the Catalonia region around Barcelona using native grape varieties.
Sparkling wine is any other generic type of wine with bubbles in it. There are wines that are simply carbonated—just like we’d carbonate a soft drink, there’s a large tank with a pipe hose hookup and the wine is injected with carbon dioxide gas. They can sound French and may even use the word champagne, but they may be domestically produced and at the low end of the price range.
The last step of production is to dose the finished wine with a little sweetening agent. Most dry is brut. A little sweeter is called extra dry. Blanc de blanc is made only from white wine grapes, so if it’s French that means exclusively of Chardonnay.
Isn’t the word Champagne protected?
The European Union signed agreements to protect the integrity of indigenous products like the word Champagne. In Europe, Champagne is a protected regional appellation, and anything that even sounds like it can’t be used. But that doesn’t apply here in the United States. Some high-end California sparkling wines are made according to the méthode champenoise but are labeled with the term sparkling wine. But some others are marketed using the word Champagne. There are no U.S. laws which prevent [this]. There’s a lot of discussion around the world in trade groups, and, believe me, the European Union and especially the French delegation would love some law requiring American producers to eliminate that word from their marketing programs. SP