Champagne deserves more than a toast

By CHRIS SHERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 27, 2000

[Times photo] A crisp rose Champagne, such as this salmon-colored bubbly by Nicolas Feuillatte, is delicious for more than just New Year’s. Try it with dinner.

The hype's over. Even the quibbling over which New Year's Eve kicks off the millennium is over.

Now if we're serious about becoming mature and flexible about New Year's, why wait until midnight to pop the bubbly, raise the glasses and spill a little?

Open the Champagne instead for dinner at home or in a restaurant, and drink it with a fine meal. Now that's celebrating.

It is also a reminder that Champagne and other sparkling wines are indeed real wines, and for the most part good wine, usually chardonnay or pinot noir. Bubbles make them more festive, but that doesn't mean they're frivolities just for toasting.

I proved it at a couple of meals last week, treating myself to less expensive roses; at $20 to $30 a pop, they're not cheap, but they can make an ordinary meal at home exquisite. Try it yourself and you'll resolve not to wait another year.

Good sparkling wine is serious, fleshy wine that goes with more than caviar, sushi or dainty appetizers. Many Champagnes, especially roses, have the body to go with all manner of fish and meats, from salmon, oysters and lobster through poultry to lamb. Their crispness and bubbles are refreshers and palate cleansers for creamy and heavy dishes and can offset spicy dishes.

To true Champagne lovers, of course, bubbles are always appropriate. "Any day that ends in Y," says Darlene McGeehan, a sales rep who handles a variety of brands for Premier Beverages. McGeehan and her husband, Joe, also in the wine trade, regularly treat themselves to Champagne with dinner, even a steak.

Indeed, rules and limits are contrary to the bubbly spirit, says Frenchman Dominic Christini of Cafe Largo. "Champagne is a drink for any time, anywhere, with any food," he says. "It's a drink to have when you want to feel good."

Yet serving sparklers with meals is an idea that has been slow to catch on with most American wine drinkers. French Champagne houses and American wineries have long promoted the idea by hosting winemaker dinners with different sparkling wines for each course, from appetizers through dessert. Yet at Bern's Steak House in Tampa and Bobby's Bistro in Clearwater, customers almost never break out bubbly for the main course. "It's just at the beginning or the ending," says Bob Heilman, a connoisseur who loves Champagne almost as much as Burgundy.

Cost has certainly been an intimidating factor that may have forced sparkling wine into a special event niche. But many still wines now exceed the traditional $25 to $40 cost of Champagne or the increasing number of good-value American sparklers at $15 to $25. (And this year's version of the shortage/glut/hype may provide good discounts.)

Since Americans drink Champagne so rarely, we don't understand the range of choices between Andre and Dom Perignon.

There's a wide range of sparklers of varying quality, sweetness and price that go well with food. The most food-friendly sparklers are generally in the better, slightly more expensive vintage and reserve bottlings, blanc de noirs and roses.

Don't even think pink Champagne. Roses are never prom or lemonade pink; good ones may be a lovely delicate shade of salmon or a rich gold with only the slightest tincture of red.

In most cases, the source of the color -- and the extra body in taste and flavor that makes roses great food wines -- is a greater proportion of pinot noir grapes in the wine. Whatever its final color, a good rose is a red wine at heart and loves food.

If you must view wine and food pairings in a red/white dichotomy, roses go with white meats and fish and pink foods, and there are more pinks than you realize (salmon, lamb chops and ham count).

It's not as indulgent as it seems. I found two roses at modest prices last week that turned weeknight suppers into special occasions.

The first night, we had grilled lamb chops with a rose from Roederer Estate, the Anderson Valley vineyards of the makers of Cristal, one of the best Franco-American operations.

The chops had plenty of rosemary, and there were fresh spinach and mushrooms on the plate too. It was a lot of flavor and brighter in color than the golden amber wine, yet the Roederer had a bit of cherries and spice in the nose, a remarkably rich, creamy taste and a comfortable finish. It stood up to the chops and a silken slice of prosciutto on the salad. The only off note came with a bite of Roquefort, much too sharp and salty; no problem, forget the cheese and stick with the bubbly.

On another night, it was rainbow trout with a rose from Nicholas Feuillatte, a Champagne cooperative that began exporting to the United States in the past five years.

The trout and the rose were closer to the same color, a pale coral, and the wine was bright, crisp and fresh, easily the equal of the trout. It had more of the classic black cherry taste of roses and could have done well with heartier foods like ham, too.

Yes, Champagne with dinner is a luxury, but using sparklers just for one glass at midnight is a waste.

P.S.: If you want to economize and stretch the fun, Champagne stoppers do work. They cost only a few bucks and make two dinners-for-two special.

A few key words and numbers when buying bubbly at New Year's or any other time of the year:

Champagne: By rights, Champagne refers only to sparkling wine made in the traditional way from grapes grown in a limited area around Reims, Ay and Epernay in northeastern France.

Wines made elsewhere in France and the rest of the world should properly be called sparkling wine or other terms, such as mousseux, sekt, cava or spumante.

Sweetness: Champagne and sparkling wines run from sweet to dry in taste although almost all the words on labels sound like they mean dry. Brut is the driest, extra dry is actually sweeter and demi sec is the sweetest.

Non-vintage: Most sparkling wines do not have vintages because they are blends of wines made in different years. They are blends of chardonnay, pinot noir and other grapes.

Vintage: When the harvest of a single year is particularly good, it is set aside and the wine made from it carries the year of the vintage and a premium price. They are often richer wines and good with food.

Reserve and tete de cuvee: The most expensive prestige labels within a brand, often made with vintage wines and sold in special packages.

Blanc de blancs: Wine made entirely from chardonnay and other white grapes, usually lighter and more graceful.

Blanc de noirs: Wine made from pinot noir and other red or black grapes, without the color of a rose, but similar richness in flavor and texture.

With food: To explore sparkling wine/food matches throughout an entire dinner, hosts and guests can each bring a different bottle: a non-vintage or blanc de blacs for the appetizer, a rose or blanc de noirs for the main course, and a demi sec, nectar or cremant with dessert.

Prices: The main line of most French houses sells for between $30 and $40, with their roses and vintages priced from $50 to $80 and their fanciest bottlings still higher.

However, the roses of Montaudon and Nicholas Feuillatte can be found for $40 or less and the rose of Moet & Chandon for not much more.

Better American sparklers, those from California vineyards aned from French-American combines,offer the best values, starting between $18 and $25. Schramsberg, Iron Horse, Kristone, Chandon, Mumm Cuvee Napa and Roederer all make food-friendly roses and blanc de noirs.

- CHRIS SHERMAN, Times food critic

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