Who doesn’t like a good Champagne or Sparkling Wine?
We all enjoy bubblies, precisely because they have bubbles. They’re often light, festive and sometimes refreshing yet they are real complex wines.
So complicated in fact it is not always easy to know what to pick up from shelves at the wine shop.
Every wine country (pretty much) in the world now produces sparkling wines of different sorts, quality, and prices.
Because I hate letting people in doubt and ignorance, I took some time to lie down my knowledge of the 10 main types of sparklings in the world.
Get you ideas right about who produces what and where in the world of bubblies with my Simple Guide to Champagne & Other Sparkling wines on Vivino.
The 10 sparkling wine types covered in the Vivino article are:
- Australian Sparkling Shiraz: not known by all, this unusual type of red bubbly makes the Aussie proud. It’s rich, tannic, sometimes sweet. In every case: interesting!
- Spanish Cava: it’s potentially made anywhere in Spain but in most cases it comes from the North-Eastern Catalonia region. Generally of great value, some are more expensive and reach great heights in quality
- French Champagne: the most famous sparkling wine in the world, obviously. Its name has been abused all around the world and has simply become synonym of sparkling. But there’s only one Champagne, and it comes from a single region in France producing arguably the best bubblies in the world
- Franciacorta: Italy’s answer to French Champagne. Produced from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir mainly, the quality if often very close to French Champagne on a lightly fuller style due to the morenic terroir (deposited from a glacier)
- German Sekt: a peculiar style created to feed the German’s appetite for everything sparkling, including wine (and beer obviously). Wine is often imported from other European countries and given effervescence in Germany.
- Sparkling Moscato: a very trendy, fashionable and popular style, especially with new generation’s wine drinkers. Fruity, often sweet, always approachable (and enjoyable for those who like this exuberant style)
- Lambrusco: from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy near the gastronomic city of Bologna and made from a red grape variety called Lambrusco. It’s often sweet, but sometimes dry, not always excellent, but pairs well with Italian food and traditions
- Prosecco: it has probably become one of the most popular and famous style of sparkling wine in the world now, severely competing with Champagne in quantity of sales. The quality is very distinct though, many would say much lower if only from the fact that it is not made with the Traditional Method of fermenting in bottle. Hard to argue however that the wines are pleasant and popular.
- Cremant and French Sparklings: France not only has Champagne to proud itself with, in terms of sparkling wines. Cremants are made in a similar fashion all around the country with good results by vignerons or bigger wineries: Alsace, Burgundy, Loire, Languedoc, and even Bordeaux.
- New World Sparkling: Let’s not forget that Europe doesn’t have the monopoly of producing great bubblies. All ‘New World’ wine countries produce interesting products including Australia, California, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, and even New Zealand.
Enjoy my Friends 😉
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