The Best Sparkling Wines From Around The World

During the summer, I was in the North Fork of Long Island, New York, enjoying a lovely and carefully crafted sparkling wine from Lenz Winery, when I read about the panic that was a few miles away in Southampton. Billionaires literally chartered planes to get around COVID supply problems and make sure they have the champagne they are used to.

While champagne is lovely, almost every wine-producing region in the world produces its own sparkler. And for whatever celebrities spent to get their Krug on a private jet, they could have filled entire pools with the 2015 Lenz Cuvée, which is made from 100 percent pinot noir grapes, using the same methods as champagne. But I wouldn’t waste that beautiful wine like that. Instead, enjoy it with local oysters.

Quick introduction: wines labeled Champagne can only come from a small region of France. But it is a very big world, and in the vast universe of bubbles, there are a large number of winemakers and regions that adopt the same fermentation process as Champagne, seeking to please all palates and offer high-caliber sparkling wines without the label. privileged. There are also other methods of introducing bubbles, some of which are listed below. So don’t despair if champagne is hard to come by this year. Expand your horizons and save your private jet for your own travels.

Lenz Cuvee 2015: The second winery to open on Long Island in 1978, Lenz makes touchstone wines, pure examples like this exceptional Champagne method sparkling made 100 percent with pinot noir. Lenz planted pinot vines early on, then found that the North Fork’s delicate climate was not good for ripening, in the same way that Champagne cannot make grapes well-ripe for a still wine. This wine is elegant and fresh, with a warm, toasty finish. ($ 42)

Joseph Phelps Ovation: Looking for something adjacent to Champagne, but more lush? Joseph Phelps’ first sparkling wine, made to honor the legacy of founder Phelps, fits the bill. Toasted nose with an elegant and heavy palate, ripe with stone fruits and flowers, it is made with 80 percent chardonnay and 20 percent pinot noir. ($ 125)

Nino Franco Grave di Stecca Brut Sparkling 2010: This beautiful wine comes over a decade old. Made in the Classico Method, Italian for the second fermentation in the bottle, it has a honeyed aroma on the nose and palate with a fairly deep golden tone. A beautiful example of an aged sparkler – it’s surprising at first if you expect something less toasty and complex. Made 100 percent glera, which is the traditional prosecco wine, it has a great value at $ 50.

Hoopa de La Cantina Pizzolato: I’m in love with

This pet-nat – is a bit tropical, well balanced, and subtle in a way that wines produced in this style – where the juice is bottled during primary fermentation, resulting in sometimes wild flavor profiles – can be lacking. It is vegan, organic and PIWI, acronym for Pilzwiderstandfähig, which represents vine varieties that cross European vitis vinifera with American strains, which are characterized by marked resistance to fungi. This allows the producer to reduce treatments in the vineyards. This wine has limited availability in the US right now, but I look forward to hearing a lot more from them. And the label is really pretty.

Valdo 1926 Cuvee Prosecco Superiore DOCG: Lemon, with good fruit. Elaborated by the Charmat method, that is, the second fermentation is carried out in tank, it spends 120 days on the lees, giving a good weight in the mouth. Made primarily with glera mixed with a hint of Chardonnay, it’s a less expensive option perfect for parties. (less than $ 20)

Codorníu El Tros Nou: This artisan cava made from pinot noir grapes grown in the coldest part of the DO Cava (the Sierra de Prades) shares a lot with a classic Champagne. Toasted nose with an elegant and delicious palate, ripe with red fruits, deepened by woody notes. This wine will impress any wine snob, at a fraction of the Krug price. ($ 120)

Usual Brut – A little toast and a little lemon, with some floral notes, these individual bottles are ideal for solo celebrations or intimate gatherings. Also, the beaker-shaped container is adorable for flowers. ($ 48 for a 6-pack)

Cantina Furlani: Lovers of natural wine, and those curious to try it, should explore this range. Somewhere between the pet-nat, the ancestral method, and the Champagne method, these wines are naturally fermented, with no added yeast or sugar, and are highly food-safe. They are also quite difficult to find. If you can, have the Sboccato Brut Nature Rose, made 100 percent pinot noir and spontaneously fermented in stainless steel, then re-fermented in the bottle with frozen wort (no sugar added). Disgorgement (Sboccatura in Italian), with a minimum of sulfur added if necessary to stop fermentation. But really, anything along these lines will make for a nice conversation starter.

Roederer Estate 2015 Roederer Estate L’Ermitage – This luscious nutty spiced cuvée is one of the few California sparkling wines made from grapes grown on the estate. The vineyard is grown organically and biodynamically, and L’Ermitage is only produced in exceptional years. ($ 68)