Time for some champers? Yes, it is!
Champagne – oh how much I love champagne. Obviously, I only drink it at special occasions but when I do, I truly enjoy it.
I should have lived in the times of French king Louis XIV when champagne was prescribed by doctors for headaches and all other aches they couldn’t find an explanation for – and there were many ailments that needed a glass or two of the liquid gold. It might not have helped much but I am sure all patients had a happy face!
Champagne has to be produced from grapes of a certain region in France (yep, you might have guessed – from the Champagne region) under very specific rules and methods.
There’s a second fermentation involved that happens in the bottle and not in casks but that’s the extent of my knowledge of the process of turning simple grapes into this delicious sparkling liquid.
My favourite champagne is Veuve Cliquot – a smooth dry sparkling with a light caramel note in it.
On a recent visit to London, I visited Cake & Bubble Café and treated myself to an excellent afternoon tea paired with Veuve Cliquot. I was sitting at the terrace (the weather was wonderful), watching people walk by while enjoying delicious patisserie and four glasses of Veuve Cliquot (did I tell you I am a glutton??) – it was my happy place on the day and I enjoyed every second of it.
Champagne is labelled a luxury food item but prices have come down a lot over the years and many supermarkets now stock some pretty good labels. And as far as I remember, Aldi even stocks some pretty good ones in the €20-30 range.
Why is champagne so expensive compared to cava and prosecco? Simply because of the tight regulations in France – no other sparkling wine is allowed to be named champagne. There is nothing wrong with prosecco or cava and I am known to enjoy a bottle in an evening but nothing feels as special as the pop of the champagne bottle, the bubbles flowing into an elegant flute and the first sip when the bubbles are tickling the top of your lips.
The word sparkling wine doesn’t sound as exciting as champagne but I also like the names prosecco (Italian), cava (Spanish) and sekt (German). Funnily, prosecco seems to be the most adopted sparkling wine in bars and restaurants as well as supermarkets and as my friends know me so well, I even got seven bottles of prosecco as gifts (yes, from seven different people) and they were all delicious indeed.
I am very peculiar when it comes to glasses – I love flutes for sparkling wine while others prefer saucers/coupe (yes, they are really called saucers). Champagne saucers are the oldest glasses used for champagne but I think that the bubbles are not as lively and evaporate quickly while you can see the bubbles rising in a flute.
Here’s to the next special occasion when you get to open a bottle of the yellow label!