Kitchen Cabinet
Best bangs for your bubbly buck
You'll love these wines Thursday night, and you won't resent your credit card Friday
We’re thrilled to bring you the wine wisdom of Steven Kolpan, the chair of wine studies at the Culinary Institute of America, who will be stopping by regularly with words on what to drink. Today, he’ll help you get ready to party on New Year’s. What you’ll wear is still up to you. (To hear Steven taste and discuss these and other affordable sparklers, go here.)
It’s been a year of thrilling highs and long lows, so let’s begin 2010 celebrating in classic style. I propose a toast to better days ahead, remembering the words of Napoleon: “In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat you need it.”
Ah, Champagne! Twenty million bubbles in that bottle, each one contributing to the pleasure of each sip. It’s the perfect talisman of celebration, an amulet of joy. Times are harder than usual, but that absolutely doesn’t mean we have to give up the bubbly. Affordable alternatives to Champagne abound, and they’re great values.
The original Champagne, as in the wine made in Champagne, France, is by law made from only three grapes — Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay — and usually from a blend of wines of different vintages, transformed by a near-magical second fermentation in the very bottle that you purchase and pop.
But even without leaving France, we can find fine, affordable sparklers — either Crémant d’Alsace (look for Lucien Albrecht and Willm, both widely available) or Crémant de Loire (Langlois is the easiest to find). Crémant, available in the dry brut or rosé styles, is an affordable gem at about $15 a bottle and, by law, must be made by the classic méthode champenoise — the second fermentation, which creates all the bubbles, occurs in the bottle. If you’re looking for with a little more sweetness, try Clairette de Die from the Rhône Valley (Jaillance and Raspail are good producers), made primarily from Muscat grapes, and available for less than $20.
Perhaps the world’s greatest values in sparkling wines can be found in Spain, and summed up in one word: Cava. These are tasty méthode champenoise sparklers — mostly brut or rosé — that start at less than $10. If you want to splurge, you can find artisanal and vintage-dated Cava starting at less than $20. These wines, traditionally made from Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel-lo grapes, range in style from light and fruity to complex. Just about all of the many Cava producers represented in the American market provide high quality at a great price. Personal favorites: Freixenet Elyssia Gran Cuvée or Brut Nature 2005; Codorníu Selección Raventós; Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad; Gramona Gran Reserva Imperial 2005; Parés Baltà; Aria Estate; Paul Cheneau; Sumarocca; Cristalino Rosé.
If you enjoy your bubbles fresh, bright, light and fruity, with a dry to off-dry finish on the palate, then you will love true Prosecco from Veneto, Italy. (There’s a lot of pretend Prosecco out there, like Paris Hilton’s Rich “Prosecco,” sold in cans and made by an Austrian company whose ads feature the naked, gold-painted heiress. Look for the real thing, which will be labeled “Prosecco di Valdobiaddene.”) Prosecco is so much fun in its seductive simplicity, it’s almost too drinkable. Right now I’m in love with the Bortolomiol “Prior” Brut, but can also recommend the ubiquitous Mionetto, Bellenda, Bellussi, Nino Franco, Maschio, Zardetto, and Zefiro, among many others. Plan to part with $10 to $17 per bottle for Prosecco; it’s money well spent in the pursuit of pleasure.
When it comes to wine, Americans are patriotic – we drink about 70 percent American wine, the overwhelming portion of that from California (about 90 percent). But these statistics don’t hold true for bubbly. We tend to like our sparklers to be French, or at least Old World, but we make great sparklers from our home soils, especially those produced by the méthode champenoise. I would happily sip a flute of the following, while toasting better days to come: Iron Horse (always vintage dated, always estate bottled, always a little more expensive — about $25 to $30 — and worth it), and bargains from the great Roederer Estate, as well as Scharffenberger, Gloria Ferrer, Domaine Carneros, and Domaine Chandon, all from California, and all $15 to $20. From Washington state: Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Blancs (under $15); from Oregon: Argyle Brut 2006 (about $25); from New York: Chateau Frank Blanc de Blancs 2002 (about $30); and my perennial favorite from New Mexico: Gruet Blanc de Noirs (about $16).
Whether we opt for true Champagne or great sparkling wine from any other part of the world, may we all have a wonderful and peaceful New Year. And remember, affordable sparklers are not just for holidays. An inexpensive bottle of bubbly can turn the simplest meal into a celebration. Perhaps Lily Bollinger, of the eponymous Champagne house, said it best when speaking about her favorite sparkling wine:
“I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.”
Steven Kolpan is Professor and Chair of Wine Studies at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. He is the author of "WineWise," a consumer-friendly guide to the wines of the world More Steven Kolpan.
Sausage balls and old turkey for Christmas
It's who's there with you that matters
We asked members of our Kitchen Cabinet to briefly share some of their holiday memories with us, and we’re sharing them with you all this week. Tonight or tomorrow, perhaps, many of you will be rushing around your kitchens, stressed about the food you’re going to serve. So take a moment with our Cabinet members to remind you that, regardless of what’s on the plate, the table and who’s around it are what matters.
Continue Reading CloseJohn T. Edge is the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance More John T. Edge.
Jessica is the author of 10 critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora including: “Iron Pots & Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking,” “Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Traditional Caribbean Cooking,” “The Welcome Table: African American Heritage Cooking,” “Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food From the Atlantic Rim” and “The Martha’s Vineyard Table.” Jessica is working on “High on the Hog,” a narrative history of African American cuisine, to be published in 2010 as will her book on the rum culture of the Caribbean. Jessica has lectured on African-American foodways throughout the United States and abroad and has written extensively about the culture of Africa in the Americas. Jessica holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Queens College, Université de Nancy, France, and New York University. She is the inaugural scholar in residence in the Ray Charles Chair in African-American Material Culture at Dillard University in New Orleans, where she has established an Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. Jessica is also professor of English at Queens College, C.U.N.Y. More Jessica Harris.
Chef’s night in
Some people spend their holidays more relieved than relaxed
We asked members of our Kitchen Cabinet to briefly share some of their holiday memories with us, and we’re sharing them with you all this week. Today, two chefs spend the holidays pretty much alone, and that’s alright by them.
From Michael Laiskonis, executive pastry chef, Le Bernardin:
It was a turning point in some way, 15 years ago, when I separated the holidays of youth with the ones I experience now. It was my first Christmas season as a young cook, deep, as we call it, in the shit.
Continue Reading CloseAmanda Cohen is a chef and consultant, who opened the award-winning New York restaurant, Dirt Candy More Amanda Cohen.
Michael Laiskonis is the award-winning executive pastry chef at New York's Le Bernardin restaurant More Michael Laiskonis.
A rapscallion’s holiday
Two holiday parties: One dirty, the other covered in dirt
We asked members of our Kitchen Cabinet to briefly share some of their holiday memories with us, and we’re sharing them with you all this week. Today we’re celebrating with fabulous foods, be they wholesomely found or more ill-gotten.
From Clark Wolf, food and restaurant consultant:
It was the indulgent start to an excessive decade: 1980, and who knew that wild arugula and padded shoulders were just round the corner? So nice that only one of those endured.
Continue Reading CloseClark Wolf is founder and president of Clark Wolf Company, a New York-based food and restaurant consulting firm. More Clark Wolf.
Higgins turns out fine cuisine in support of his premise that food is community - an idea that creates respect, commitment and responsibility from farmer to chef to diner. “We're interested in nourishing and sustaining not only our customer's appetites but also the land and the quality of life we all enjoy,” says Higgins. With an agricultural region that provides unparalleled abundance and diversity - from wild salmon, mushrooms, and huckleberries to some of the finest wines in the country, Higgins is defining a cuisine that is truly rooted in the northwest. More Greg Higgins.
Latke scandals and papaya salad battles
Two stories of the miracles of holiday cooking
We asked members of our Kitchen Cabinet to briefly share some of their strongest holiday memories with us, and we’ll share them with you all this week. Today, our resident wine experts talk about looking into their holiday kitchens and staring into the abyss.
From Steven Kolpan, professor and chairman of wine studies at the Culinary Institute of America:
Continue Reading CloseSteven Kolpan is Professor and Chair of Wine Studies at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. He is the author of "WineWise," a consumer-friendly guide to the wines of the world More Steven Kolpan.
Tara Q. Thomas is a former professional cook who now concentrates primarily on booze as Senior Editor at Wine & Spirits Magazine. She also writes for Culture, Gastronomica, Real Food, the Denver Post and other publications. More Tara Q. Thomas.
Cash and gumption: Food nonprofits to support
Here are organizations from all over the country worth donating to
Alissa J. Novoselick and her class at Camp Verde High School Alissa Novoselick’s story of how $40 and some gumption planted a school garden that created a community made me think about food-related nonprofits in general, spread across the country, working on an enormous range of issues. Hunger is the most obvious one, but how about helping immigrant women to build small businesses out of their home cooking? Or helping abused kids find love and hope by teaching them to grow food and care for animals? Or telling the stories of American food traditions that may not last another generation?
Continue Reading CloseFrancis Lam is Features Editor at Gilt Taste, provides color commentary for the Cooking Channel show Food(ography), and tweets at @francis_lam. More Francis Lam.
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