“Clean, crisp, fresh and delicious, this hits all the right notes
for this taster when it comes to sparkling wine…”
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I’m a bubble head. I have been for a long time. I got a taste for the stuff back in my early 20s, when I was singing a lot of rock and roll, which can be hard on the voice. The word among some of my fellow singers back then was that, when getting hoarse, Champagne will numb the vocal chords and get you through a performance. That claim could have been BS, but I used it to get through a few gigs, sometimes with real Champagne, from the French region it’s named after, and more often with cheaper knockoffs from places like California and New York.
Sparkling wine has come a long way since then, with variations on the Champagne theme being made in a wide variety of regions around the world. Pretty much everybody knows Prosecco these days; you can buy it cheap at Trader Joe’s, or you can buy it for $40 or more at the chichi joints. Most of the better Prosecco runs in the $15-20 range, but the one I keep coming back to again and again costs 11 bucks at our friendly neighborhood Costco.
NV Mionetto Prosecco Brut DOC Treviso, 11% alc., $10.99: Light straw in color, with a profusion of fine bubbles springing eternal from the bottom of the glass. Racy on the palate, with effervescent green and yellow apple flavors dancing down the tongue and lingering on the finish, where some mineral makes itself known. This sparkler is medium bodied, and delivers impressive concentration for so few dollars. Clean, crisp, fresh and delicious, this hits all the right notes for this taster when it comes to sparkling wine, and it’s an absolute no-brainer at this price. It has remained remarkably consistent over the 15 or more years that I’ve been enjoying it. It’s very food friendly, and so versatile; if you like things like mimosas or kir royales, this is a great ride for your juice or Crème de cassis. Produced with Glera (Prosecco) grapes, using the Charmat method, in which the secondary fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel. Find this wine
Imported by FXM USA, White Plains, NY
There are sparkling wines that cost less money, and some of them are just fine. I’d like to drink Champagne on a regular basis, but that’s above my pay grade. For everyday purposes, sparkling wine starts with Mionetto Prosecco at our house, and it has for a long time.
Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo
