The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Leon Palais Blanc de Blancs Brut NV

In the Wine Curmudgeon's continual quest for sparkling wine values, I stumbled on the Palais, from the Jura region of France. And stumbled is the right word, because the Jura, which is on the Swiss border and is closer to Geneva than Paris, is little known to begin with, and is known for cheese and ham if it's known at all.

Which is why the Palais (about $14, purchased) is so reasonably priced for a wine made with the Champagne method. It's a step down from Champagne in terms of subtlety and sophistication, but it's also one-third the price. On the other hand, it's softer and more interesting than less expensive wines like Spanish cava, and it has plenty of chardonnay pear and green apple fruit. I was a little disappointed with the bubbles, which seemed underwhelming, but that might have been the bottle I had.

Drink this to toast the New Year or with almost any white wine sort of food. My notes say it's tasty, and I almost never write that for any kind of wine. That shows just how food friendly the Palais is.

sparkling wine, wine reviews, wine of the week, Jura, Leon Palais, New Year's wine

New Year's sparkling wine and Champagne

The Wine Curmudgeon loves sparkling wine. In a perfect wine world, we would drink it regularly, and not just on special occasions like New Year's and anniversaries. Bubbly is versatile and surprisingly food friendly, with the ability to fill in the gaps that other wines can't. One example: Recently had a big-time restaurant brunch where the entrees were filet mignon, a tuna-like fish called opah, and Eggs Benedict. The sommelier and I chatted briefly, and we decided on a sparkler from Alsace, Lucien Albrecht Brut Rosé ($40 on the list, about $18 retail, purchased). It was a terrific match, with great bubbles and mouthwatering strawberry fruit. The non-wine drinker in the group wanted to rush out and buy a bottle.

Sadly, though, the world is not perfect. Bubbly, and specifically Champagne (produced in the French region of the same name and the only sparklers that are allowed to be called Champagne), is still seen as something so odd that you can only drink it once or twice a year.

In addition, the sparkling wine business is in tatters. Sales, thanks to the recession, are down, and it's so bad in Champagne that producers are drastically cutting production in an attempt to keep prices up. Throw in the weak dollar, which has raised the cost of imported wine as much as 20 percent over the last year, and it's difficult to find a bargain even among those sparkling wines that have always been a bargain. And it's even more difficult to find interesting sparkling wines that are a bargain.

Nevertheless, there are still some out there -- check them out after the jump:

Wine of the week: Casteller Brut Rosé NV

The Wine Curmudgeon, as is well known, is a huge fan of Spanish sparkling wine, known as cava. In fact, my enthusiasm for cava, and especially Cristalino, annoys more than a few retailers of my acquaintance.

One of them, in fact, insisted that the Casteller cava (about $10, purchased) was so much better than the Cristalino brut rose that I would stop nagging her about it. I wouldn't go that far (and what would the Wine Curmudgeon be without nagging?), but it's a solid, dependable, value-oriented wine.

Look for a lot of bubbles, some raspberry fruit and all the minerality that cava is known for. It's not rich or creamy like Champagne, but it's not supposed to be. I drank this on Thanksgiving and it was more than fine. It will pair with most holiday foods, and can also serve as the sparkler of choice during the New Year's season.

wine review, wine of the week, cheap wine, inexpensive wine, cava, sparkling wine, $10 wine, Spanish wine, Casteller

Champagne producers to consumer: Nuts to you

The news is not good for those of us who love bubbly, and especially the French version – real, live Champagne. The business is in a freefall, as the recession, high prices and the weak dollar combine to clobber sales.

So what are Champagne producers doing? Cutting production, so they can keep prices up. The leading Champagne producers have apparently agreed to production cuts of 30 to 40 percent, which in their case means leaving grapes on the vines to rot. Jocelyne Dravigny, chairman of the Federation of Champagne Wine Co-operatives, told the Times of London: “For us, the stabilizing of prices is a priority.”

This is not an indictment of Champagne as wine, which is one of the Wine Curmudgeon’s guilty pleasures. This is, rather, another example of how the wine industry doesn’t respect the consumer and is shocked and amazed when that approach backfires. More, after the jump:

Wine review: Torre Oria Cava Brut Rosado NV

The Wine Curmudgeon has been known to get into spirited discussions with retailers about Spanish sparkling wine, or cava. I like Cristalino very much – it’s cheap, consistent and well made. Many retailers, on the other hand, don’t get as excited about it. I tend to think that’s because Cristalino is not only ubiquitous, but doesn’t offer them much in the way of margins.

So when we have these discussions, the retailer usually offers me an alternative to Cristalino. Over the weekend, it was the Torre Oria rose (about $14) and I was impressed. Torre Oria is a well-regarded producer, and this is a better quality wine than the Cristalino, with more interest – the fruitiness isn’t quite as simple and there’s more of a finish. Whether it’s 75 percent better than Cristalino ($14-$8=$6, divided by $8) I’ll leave up to you.

Serve this chilled before dinner or with chicken or seafood. I had it with grilled Cornish hen – a fine pairing.

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