You already know how much I enjoy sparkling wine. The holidays are the perfect time for even more sparkling wine. I will probably have my favorite, the Domaine Carneros brut rose’ for New Year’s Eve. Actually, I had some last night, too!
From SFGate: On New Year’s Eve, sparkling wine is the only wine. Last year, Americans bought $131.6 million worth of sparkling wine during the week of New Year’s, according to Nielsen, significantly more than even the week of Thanksgiving 2019, at $67.2 million. Given the surge in wine sales during this pandemic year, I can only expect that figure to rise.
Would you believe 25% of all sparkling wine is sold between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Why?
The story has a tie to my new hometown of Clovis. He became the first king to unite previously independent French groups under one rule. He managed to figure out a way to combine things like Christian edicts and Roman rules in what’s now France in a way that started the country on its current path. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with champagne — we’re getting to that.
The popularity of the drink started with the establishment of the region as something royal. Clovis kept his promise to his wife and was baptized in Reims, deep in the heart of France’s Champagne region. When he was baptized, it was no small affair and for centuries, French kings continued to be crowned there. That, as you can imagine, was never a small affair either. In the days before transportation happened in the relative blink of an eye, that meant a royal court could expect to spend ages at any given location. Reims (and Champagne) became the stuff of regal change and royal celebrations that always included some of the region’s finest local wines.
Read More: https://www.mashed.com/32713/real-reason-drink-champagne-new-years/?utm_campaign=clip
| The real reason we drink champagne on New Year’sThe wines Dom Perignon was experimenting with had already been a part of royal coronations for centuries, and only a few decades after the Benedictine monk made his improvements, champagne was front and center at another celebration: the Fete de la Federation.That was in 1790, and Champagne-region wines were the only ones used to celebrate the end of the French Revolution.www.mashed.com |
Here is another favorite of mine: Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley NV ($25, 12.5%): The nonvintage brut from Roederer Estate, the American outpost of French Champagne house Louis Roederer, is perennially one of the best values in California sparkling wine. It has a little bit more sweetness than some of the other wines in this list — the dosage, or sugar solution that gets added to sparkling wines at the end of the production process, is about 12 grams of sugar per liter — but the wine tastes balanced, putting bright, ripe fruit flavors front and center, accented by toasted nuts.
Whatever you do, the bubbles are the key! Kiss 2020 goodbye! Let’s get the vaccine and move on. Tell me what you plan to drink.
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