{"id":1357,"date":"2009-12-30T21:17:27","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T04:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2009-12-30T21:17:27","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T04:17:27","slug":"champagne-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1357","title":{"rendered":"Champagne Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been tantalizing you with Champagne cocktails all week but haven’t really been pointing you in any specific direction on the choice of Champagne.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s see if we can’t rectify that with this post.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to offer you two paths.\u00c2\u00a0 The first is to do your homework, understand the basics, seek some advice and then make an educated decision.\u00c2\u00a0 The second path is way simpler, just use my suggestions and happily enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Champagne<\/a><\/p>\n

Path One<\/strong><\/p>\n

While this is the more complex path I’m going to keep it relatively simple for you.<\/p>\n

Step 1 <\/em>– Do some basic research.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d start with a quick read of Wikipedia<\/a>, as any good geek would suggest.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a lot of great info on there about growing regions, naming requirements, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 Given that wealth of information, I’d recommend you focus on a few facts.\u00c2\u00a0 One, if the wine isn’t from the Champagne region of France it’s not really Champagne.\u00c2\u00a0 One-B, despite this regulation, there are some great “Champagnes” from other places around the US and the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Two, there are a range of sugar contents and each has an associated name.\u00c2\u00a0 For most mixing I’d stick with Brut.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a dry option which will allow you to adjust the sweetness of your drinks as you see fit.\u00c2\u00a0 For drinking straight I also lean towards Brut, but there are other options depending on your preferences.\u00c2\u00a0 Three, there are a variety of Champagnes that are classed based on their grape composition.\u00c2\u00a0 For example a “Blanc de Blancs” is composed completely of Chardonnay grapes, whereas a “Blanc de Noirs” is a combo of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes.\u00c2\u00a0 That said, a lot you find simply won’t say, and that’s fine too.<\/p>\n

Step 2<\/em> – Okay, now you’ve got the basics down, how about some suggestions?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, naturally you can go lots of places to seek this advice.\u00c2\u00a0 My personal suggestion is to first talk to friends and family.\u00c2\u00a0 Chances are, if they’re wine appreciators they’ll have some suggestions for you.\u00c2\u00a0 As a second option here are some resources that know more about wine than I do.\u00c2\u00a0 Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV<\/a> has a number of episodes about sparkling wines.\u00c2\u00a0 This episode<\/a> is one of my favorites and covers a huge range, both in style and price.\u00c2\u00a0 Ben Carter of Benito’s Wine Reviews<\/a> put up a post<\/a> last year on some of his personal recommendations.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, I’ll point you to a series of posts<\/a> on Fredric Koeppel’s blog Bigger Than Your Head<\/a> where he covers a lot of sparkling wine options.<\/p>\n

Path Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, here’s the compressed, ADHD version for the attention challenged among us.<\/p>\n

Mixing<\/em> – Gruet Brut.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s fairly cheap, my bottles were on sale for $12.49, usually $16.99.\u00c2\u00a0 Better still, it’s good stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d drink it straight and it blends well in cocktails.<\/p>\n

Drinking Straight<\/em> – Schramsberg Brut Rose.\u00c2\u00a0 Although my personal choice is the Rose their Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs are also very good.\u00c2\u00a0 These are more expensive choices, about $40.\u00c2\u00a0 You could certainly use them for mixing, but I’d say just drink they alone in a flute instead.<\/p>\n

So there you have it.\u00c2\u00a0 Some guidance on education and selection and the quick approach to the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me know if you have any great recommendations to share with everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been tantalizing you with Champagne cocktails all week but haven’t really been pointing you in any specific direction on the choice of Champagne.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s see if we can’t rectify that with this post.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to offer you two paths.\u00c2\u00a0 The first is to do your homework, understand the basics, seek some advice and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[134,202],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-champagne","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1358,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}