The Wine Curmudgeon

Expensive wine 50: Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Brut NV

The Wine Curmudgeon has never been able to figure out Italian sparkling wine, all those Proseccos and Astis, despite Herculean efforts from people like the Italian Wine Guy. And if those wines baffle me, you can imagine what I think of the newish sparkling moscatos, many of which are made with all the finesse of a 7-Eleven Slurpee.

Not all sparkling wine needs to taste like Champagne (long live cava!), but I appreciate the Champagne structure and style – firm, tight bubbles; a clean, long taste; and the balance between acidity and fruit.

That’s what makes the Castaldi ($21, sample, 12.5%) different from other Italian sparkling wines. It’s made with a couple of Champagne grapes (mostly chardonnay) and made using the Champagne method. The Franciacorta region, near the Swiss border, is the only area in the country where this is done.

And, as with well-made sparkling wine from Spain and elsewhere, it uses those techniques to make a terroir-driven wine. The Castaldi tastes like it comes from Italy  -- crisp, small bubbles and a bit of clean apple fruit that’s not a Champagne knockoff that oozes of caramel. Excellently done and much better than I expected.

This is Mother’s Day wine, whether for brunch on Sunday or to toast Mom for another year well done.

More about Mother's Day wine:
• Mother's Day wine 2013
• Mother's Day wine 2012
• Mother's Day wine 2011
• Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2011
• Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rose NV

Wine of the week: Gruet Brut NV

The Wine Curmudgeon used to regularly pour this wine blind, and dare anyone who tasted it to guess where it was from. It was, of course, a trick question – there’s no way anyone would guess New Mexico.

Unfortunately, Gruet has been a victim of its own success. It was probably the first regional wine with distribution throughout the U.S., and it long ago had to start using grapes from California to ensure it could make enough to meet demand. And its price hasn’t been $10 in a number of years (to say nothing of the company’s other problems).

I was also unsure about quality after the addition of the California grapes. It might have been my imagination, but something seemed to be missing the couple of times I had tasted it. So I was relieved to find that the Brut ($13, purchased), Gruet’s entry level wine, was up to its usual standards this time around.

Look for lots of tiny bubbles, some crisp green apple and a little something more than most bubbly at this price has. In this, it’s less austere than a cava but not quite as complicated as a well-made, medium-priced California sparkling. Which means it’s an ideal wine for The Holiday That Must Not be Named; you can still get a smile when you tell the other person the winery is in New Mexico.

Valentine's Day wine 2013

The Wine Curmudgeon does not usually do a post for The Holiday that Must Not be Named. This year, though, one of my resolutions for the blog is get more of you to drink sparkling wine. So Valentine’s Day seemed like a good place to start. And the wine of the week on Wednesday will be bubbly as well.

The Champagne and sparkling wine primer is here. You can also find suggestions in the sparkling wine category on the right side. This year, probably because of the hype over sweet red wine and moscato, I got several sweet sparkling wine samples, which is several more than I usually get. As noted in the primer, sweeter sparkling wines are rare in this country.

The less said about those wines the better. They were not cheap, and very, very sweet, with little else to note about them. One day, I suppose, I’ll stop underestimating the wine business’ ability to insult the consumer’s intelligence.

So what are some good choices for the holiday? How about:

• Mittnacht Freres Cremant d’Alsace NV ($21, sample): Crisp with pear fruit (also on nose). Fairly sophisticated, especially for Alsace cremant, and with long, minerally finish. Made with pinot auxerrois, not a common grape.

• Mumm Napa Brut Rose NV ($15, purchased): Widely available and solidly made -- fruity and dry with strawberry fruit. I don’t remember it being this cheap in a long time.

• Graham Beck Brut NV ($18, sample): South African sparkler is clean and fresh, halfway between cava and California bubbly. Some vanilla with apple fruit in the middle.A nice change of pace.

New Year’s sparkling wine 2012

Which means sparkling wine, plus a couple of other ideas -- whether for dinner on Dec. 31 or brunch on Jan. 1.

Our Champagne and sparkling wine glossary is here. This is also the place for my annual plea to drink more sparkling wine during the year. Bubbly deserves deserves more than just one post in the Wine Curmudgeon top 100 (90th place in 2012).

More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut NV

Those of us of a certain age remember American “champagne” – sweet and flat and almost more like 7-Up than 7-Up. If you went to a wedding reception or big party until the 1980s wine boom, that’s what you drank. One of the two worst hangovers I’ve ever had came from that stuff, when I had entirely too much at a newspaper colleague’s wedding in 1980.

That we no longer have to drink that sort of thing is testament to the revolution in American wine over the last 30 years. I may pick at the biggest U.S. wineries for one thing or another (and another and another), but the technical quality of their work is beyond reproach.

Which brings us to the Ste. Michelle ($11, purchased), which amazes me every time I taste it. This Washington state sparkler (from the same company that does Ste. Michelle riesling, Columbia Crest and 14 Hands) is a stunner – varietally correct, tasty, inexpensive and widely available. if someone had told me in 1981 that I’d be able to go to a grocery store and buy this quality of bubbly, I’d have been appropriately curmudgeonly.

It’s zesty and tingling, with green apples, a bit of caramel and a hint of sweetness in the back. Use it to toast the New Year, for brunch on New Year’s Day, or anytime bubbly sounds like a good idea.

Wine of the week: Cristalino Brut NV

Sometimes, one forgets old friends. Not intentionally, of course, but because of the press of business and the rush of life. There are new wines to try and more posts to write, and one sometimes takes things like Cristalino for granted.

For which I’m sorry. It has been two years since I reviewed Cristalino, the Spanish sparking wine known as cava, and that post was more a back-handed slap at the lawsuit that made it change its name because a federal judge ruled that consumers might confuse it with the $150 Cristal, which was French and Champagne. (Its new legal name is Jaume Serra Cristalino, which I refuse to use.)

This was one of the first wines I ever reviewed professionally, back in my newspaper days, and it has never – and I mean never – let me down. The first bottle I opened for this review was flat (no doubt sitting on a shelf in a hot warehouse too long), but was still quite drinkable.

Cristalino ($7, purchased) is everything a cheap wine should be and too often isn’t – varietally correct and well made, with distinct flavors and character. Look for terrific bubbles, a little bit of green apple fruit, and even a sort of mineral finish. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s also not too much of one thing or not enough of another, an incredible achievement for a $7 wine.

It will take its rightful place in the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame in January, and I will drink more of it this holiday season and recommend it for Thanksgiving. Because it’s always good to say hello to an old pal.

Wine of the week: Francois Labet Cremant de Bourgogne Brut NV

Summer is squishing us here in Dallas, and we’ve been on either side of 100 degrees for a month or so. So what does the Wine Curmudgeon do when the air conditioner runs all day and the sun hurts to even look at? Break open the bubbly, of course.

In this case, a cremant from Burgundy. I’ve always enjoyed sparking wines from that part of France, since it produces some of the best chardonnay in the world and quality chardonnay is a key to great – and expensive -- Champagne. Burgundian cremant (the French term for sparkling wine made outside of Champagne) provides quality for a fraction of what Champagne costs.

The Labet ($15, purchased) comes from the same family that owns Chateau de La Tour, a top-notch producer that can trace its wine lineage back to the 15th century. This is not Champagne – it’s a little more austere (the review in the link calls it rustic, which I like), but that doesn’t mean it’s not an outstanding chardonnay-based cremant. Look for some apple, wonderful bubbles and even a bit of caramel in the back. It’s more sophisticated and a step up from most cava, and is a great value at this price. Highly recommended.