CorkPopper

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE sparkling wine. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT. My idea of a perfect Saturday/Sunday morning ALWAYS involves a delicious glass of bubbly (or two… or three…). And while I would love nothing more than to be able to fill a swimming pool with Dom and just swim around in it for hours, the fact is that real Champagne (and especially the big-name quality Champagne) is simply not within the financial reach of most people right now. In light of this, I have decided to take it upon myself to seek out (for you all, of course) some delicious sparkling wines that will fit in the average budget. I know, I know… the sacrifices I make are just too large, right?

The first of my budget-friendly bubbly recommendations is one I just discovered tonight (thanks to my law firm’s summer associate wine tasting event). It’s a non-vintage (“NV” on the bottle) Andre et Mireille Tissot Cremant du Jura from Eastern France. What does “non-vintage” mean, you ask? Well, it certainly doesn’t mean that it is not a quality wine. On the contrary, “non-vintage” simply means that the wine is a blend of different vintages (or harvest years). Sparkling wine is often released as non-vintage because it allows the wine maker to blend wines from different years in order to ultimately create a consistent or “house-style” wine that tastes the same as the wine released in any other year. Only in really exceptional harvest years will sparkling wine makers release a vintage wine.

Now, if you prefer Champagne to other sparkling wines (Cava or Prosecco, for example), then you’ll definitely appreciate the Andre et Mireille Tissot Cremant du Jura. It’s made in the Champagne method (methode champenoise) with the same grape varietals (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) and has the same creamy aroma and mouthfeel of Champagne. It smells of red apples and honey and tastes of the same as well as a hint of almond… just like Champagne. It is pleasantly effervescent and leaves you wanting more… just like Champagne. So why not just buy a bottle of Champagne, you ask? Well, how about because this bottle will cost you HALF! Yep, that’s right. You could go spend $45 on a bottle of Veuve Cliquot for that romantic evening tomorrow night or you could get TWO bottles of this for the same price! Do you need more reason than that to get out there and buy a bottle? I think not!