As you get ready for your New Year’s Eve celebrations, many of you non-teetotalers will no doubt be popping a bottle of bubble to usher in the new year. Will you be celebrating with Champagne, Prosecco Cava or Cremant? Before making that wine run, you need to read the breakdown of the different types of bubbly options you have so we turned to Enoch Shully, owner of BIN36 to give us a breakdown of the difference between sparkling wines and champagne as well as give recommendations to which bubbly you should pick up for your celebration. Enoch says that unless you are throwing down a pretty penny aka above $50, chances are you are not drinking Champagne at all.
Champagne-
- Made with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes
- Can only be grown in the Champagne region of France
- It must be made in the Méthode Traditionnelle, which requires that the wine’s secondary fermentation takes place in the same bottle it will be served from.
Prosecco-
- It comes from the Veneto region in the Northeastern part of Italy
- It is produced from the process or glare grape
- A process known as Charmat Method which is a secondary fermentation process in a stainless steel tank.
Cremant
- Sparkling wine that hails from France and is produced in the Alsace, Bordeaux, Jura, Limoux, and Loire regions
- It is made with a wider range of grapes not limited to pinot blanc, auxerrois, pinot gris, pinot not, riesling, more than any of the other sparkling wines.
- Though it is made in a similar method as Champagne, it is less effervescent (bubbly) than fully sparkling Champagne.
Cava
- Comes from Spain and its made predominantly in the Catalonia region
- They use macabeo, parellada, xarel-lo grapes which are native to Spain
- It can’t be called champagne but it is produced in the champenoise traditional method like Champagne.
If your budget is under $20, consider picking up: Prosecco Balbinot NV.
If your budget is over $50 then Enoch suggest these options: Tatting NV Champagne, Forget-Brimot Premier Cru NV Champagne.
You can pick up these bubbly choices and many other varieties of wine at BIN 36 (161 N Jefferson St. 60601). So make sure you check your labels before buying and please drink responsibly.
