Beware Sparkling Reds

Shame that she had to find one at the bottom end of the market. While seen as very much a novelty wine here in the UK, in Aus, they are drunk by the gallon. There are a few good examples around, such as the E&E, Charlie Melton, but most of it, tends towards the sweet, and are a bit of an aquired taste. Banrock is bad!!!

grazz

Well, I'll confess to occasionally finding a sparkling Shiraz ok. And I've liked some Brachetto d'Acqui (though never enough to buy - the Banfi version is nice, but $10-12 nice, not the $20US it seems to go for). Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Perhaps I've answered the question posed on another thread - what red goes with Chinese food?

Deciding you don't like Sparkling Red after tasting Banrock Station is like tasting Yellowtail and deciding that you don't like Chardonnay. Australia makes some very fine sparkling Reds but they're not easy to come by. Rockford Black Shiraz is probably the pick of the bunch (with a few years bottle age); also Seppelt Show Sparkling Shiraz (released ten years after vintage) and Primo. Others include Peter Lehmann Black Queen, Scarpantoni Black Tempest, Leasingham Classic Clare, BVE E&E, Rumball (specialist Sparkling Red maker). Seppelts Original Sparkling Shiraz is probably the best in the lower price bracket. Inexpensive NV sparkling reds are like drinking cheap NV sparkling whites - pretty ordinary.

Tiggrr

I am aware of that. I have done a couple of tastings - maybe 2 dozen different sparkling reds, and liked maybe 3 of them.

ditto Russian Champagnski

If you ever get near Saumur on the Loire pop down to the Co-operative at St. Cyr-en-Bourg and try their sparkling Cabernet Franc. Very slightly sweet but went down a bomb with our local tasting group.

Happy hunting to your good lady.

Roy.

Now that's a new one on me - thanks, and I'll keep an eyey out for it next time I'm over.

I hesitate to discourage ANY wine urges she may exhibit, but think I'll try and 'guide' this sort into better, deeper waters...

"ivan.bailey" wrote in news:zCCBb.103$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep4-winn.server.ntli.net:

ooh. I had a sparkling cabernet franc from Bouvet a couple months ago, I liked it a lot. Wish I could get more, for the holidays. Cost about $12.50US. d.

By far the most vile sparkling reds I have ever tasted were sparkling "Burgundy" that was sold many years ago. The color often was very dark, many had a nasty chemical or tar-like taste, and if you were lucky they might just contain a bit of Burgundy that could not be sold as a still wine because it was so foul. There might have been decent examples,but I never tasted any in the US. They often seemed to be popular with grandmothers and great aunts who often tinted their hair too blue and served the wine in saucer champagne glasses throughout the meal.

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been decent examples,but I

Hi You can be 100% certain that these bottles had no Burgundy wine in them..., common U.S. (mis)labeling malpractice at that time, I've understood... Anders

There may have been some domestic sparkling "Burgundy" in the US that did not contain any Pinot Noir, much less true Burgundy from France. However several major companies made sparkling "Burgundy" in France and shipped it to the US. I have no way of knowing if their labels were attached while the wine was still in France or perhaps in another country in Europe or in the US. The B&G firm at one time shippd a lot of low end Bordeaux and Burgundy to the US as well as a some superior wines. I can not be certain, but I believe they shipped a sparkling "Burgundy". My guess is that much of the wine used to make sparkling "Burgundy" in France many years ago may have come from the South of France or Italy, but of course I have no way to prove this. Much of the low end still wine from Burgandy at the time seen here , such as Pommard, Beaune, etc. was quite dark in color and most likely "improved". I gather the same sorts of low end Burgundy also found their way to the UK. One of the brand names I remember associated with low end Burgundy at the time was "Royal Purple". The situation was so bad that some in the US who drank low end wines thought that Burgundy was a heavier and more tannic wine than Bordeaux.

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The situation was so

Wonder if that's where Gallo came up with the idea of "Hearty Burgundy"

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

I've not heard about any sparkling red wine labeled Bourgogne, here in Europe - which would probably have been illegal, but I'm not 100% sure (Michal Pronay, are you there?). Even when made in France solely for the U.S. market it is unlikely that 'real' Bourgogne would have been wasted for such a product (also considering some 'real' B's are high-priced shit :-) Anders

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The good news is that I found you a bottle of "French" sparkling Burgundy from 1964 on auction. This wine should be in a most remarkable condition by now. You can view the bottle and label at the bottom of the page given above. The bad news is that the auction is closed. You can find several other listings for sparkling Burgandy on a Google search.

Alexis Lichine knew much about the wine trade on both sides of he Atlantic, and he at one time shipped both Bordeaux and Burgundy to the US. Here is a bit of what he had to say about Burgundy in 1981 in the

"Another deformation suffered by a great deal of the Burgundy in the cellars of shippers (negociants) is caused by the practice of giving the wine a so-called Burgundy character by blending it with heavy wines from other regions. The past hundred years have seen the supply of honest Burgundy running so far short of the demand that cheap heavy wine from the Rhone valley or Roussillon has been brought in to stretch the precious supply. As the contents of Burgundian bottles grew further and further away from the characteristics of real Burgundy wine, a market was built up among inexperieced wine-drinkers who were taught to believe that if the wine did not have the thick or oversugared consistency they had come to associate with Burgundy, it lacked the true characteristics."

The past history of Burgundy from many large houses that dealt with low end wines appears to be one of deception and fraud. Laws appear to have been ignored.

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I found a more recent sparkling wine at wine-searcher. It was Veuve Ambal Cuvee Marie Ambal Brut Sparkling Wine, Burgundy, Cremant de Bourgogne, 1998. Whatever it is, I do not think one could expect much from a sparkling wine for about $US 17, if it indeed comes from Burgundy. Of course Australia has a long tradition of making sparkling "Burgundy". The US East Coast firm of Taylor might still make a sparkling "Burgundy". At least I found some fairly recent bottles listed for this firm.

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] I found a more recent sparkling wine at wine-searcher. It was Veuve ] Ambal Cuvee Marie Ambal Brut Sparkling Wine, Burgundy, Cremant de ] Bourgogne, 1998. Whatever it is, I do not think one could expect much ] from a sparkling wine for about $US 17, if it indeed comes from ] Burgundy. Of course Australia has a long tradition of making sparkling

uh, why do you think this is red? Shouldn't it just be a regular cremant?

Living so close to the Loire, I rarely drink other cremants -- but certainly there's plenty to be had for less than the equivilent of $17US.

Presumably if it is AOC cremant de bourogne, it comes from burgundy...

-E

I have no idea if the wine is red or white from the description. All I know is that, in one of his old books, Lichine mentioned that sparkling wines made in Burgundy were usually of not very high quality and often where white, but sometimes were rose or red. In any event, with the price of top white and red Burgundy being what it is, a sparklig Burgundy made from even fairly good wine likely would be as expensive as some of the better Champagnes, and thus would be unlikely to sell well unless it was at least as good as Champagne.

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Emery beat me to it... :-) The subject of this thread is: "Beware sparkling *reds*...." :-) Anders