Month: December 2018

Worlds Best Champagne

Champagne is considered the premier of sparkling wine. Sparkling wine production is attributed to the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire in the south of France. The Benedictine monks developed the process known as the ‘methods champernoise’ which is somewhat complicated and results in the significantly high price for the bubbly champagne. Dom Perignon initially witnessed this and took this process to northern France, the Champagne region, to produce the finest sparkling beverage in the world, the worlds best Champagne.

Developing an Exceptional Beverage

Where did Champagne originate
All authentic Champagne wine comes from the Champagne region of France. The laws of France and the international community specify for a sparkling wine to be called Champagne, it must be grown and made in this region. Any other bubbly made outside of this region is a sparkling wine.

Many people think the first French sparkling wines were made in Champagne, but that distinction goes to the region of Limoux France by the Benedictine Monks were the first at the abbey in Saint Hilaire. But, it was the monk Dom Pierre Perignon in Champagne, who created the demand for these sparkling wines by marketing them as a distinctive luxury beverage. Perignon’s famous quote about tasting Champagne: “Come quickly, brothers, I am drinking stars.”

The Worlds Best Champagne

The great Champagnes comes in many different styles and sweetness levels, so you’ll want to find a Champagne that appeals to your palate The choices include Blanc de Blancs made from 100% Chardonnay; brut rosé, often a blend of purple and white grapes; and rich-tasting Blanc de Noirs made from purple grapes. You can also find Champagnes with different levels of sweetness ranging from bone dry brut nature, which is great for people following a keto diet to popular brut Champagne, to demi-sec dessert styles, such as Moet Champagne Nectar Imperial.

 

The Champagne Process

Fine champagne starts as a customary fermentation process of a blend of usually Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier—and it develops bubbles during a process called ‘Methode Champenoise’ or the Champagne method.

• 1. The Champagne grapes are picked earlier than for still wines because the winemaker wants fruit that has higher acidity and less sugar.
• 2. The white grapes like Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, as well as purple grapes Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, are gently pressed to extract the juice. The skins are thrown away.
• 3. Next, each type of juice as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay is fermented separately to create a base wine. The juice goes in a big tank or wood barrel, and yeast is added to start fermentation.  This step is called the PRIMARY FERMENTATION.
• 4. Once the fermentation is finished, the winemaker tastes each type of wine. Then they create a blend of those wines, plus some older wines from previous harvests, so the final assembled blend fits the flavor profile. This step is called ASSEMBLAGE.
• 5. The blend is bottled, and each bottle is topped off with a mixture of wine, sugar, and yeast, called the liqueur d’expedition. Finally, the bottle is sealed. As the yeast eats the sugar, it creates alcohol and CO2 gas bubbles, which are trapped inside the wine. This second fermentation inside a bottle is what makes this wine made under the METHODE CHAMPENOISE or CHAMPAGNE METHOD. The yeast cells in the bottle give the wine aromas and flavors of bread crust, toast, and nuts.
• 6. After the wine has aged long enough, the bottles are carefully turned and tilted downward, so the yeast settles in the neck of the bottle.
  
• 7. Once the yeast has settled at the top of the bottle, the neck of each bottle is frozen and then opened quickly to remove the yeast, in a process called DISGORGEMENT.
  
• 8. The Champagne is topped off with a mix of little more wine and sugar called the DOSSAGE (or just wine in a dry brut nature Champagne) to round out the flavors and give the wine the desired level of sweetness.
• 9. Then each bottle is sealed with a mushroom cork and a metal cage. It’s age.d for a short time to allow the wine to overcome the shock of bottling, and then it’s sent out for sale.

 Champagne is expensive

French Champagne is of the highest quality, and it has to be made in a very specific area under particular conditions. Therefore, French Champagne is more expensive than other styles of wine because of the quality and long and labor-intensive process used to make it. In addition to the detailed process of grape selection, even the least expensive Champagnes have aged a minimum of 15 months, and vintage Champagnes are aged as much as three or five years.

 

Champagne or Sparkling wine….Levels of Sweetness:

Extra Brut

Extra Brut: This is the driest of the sparkling wine where essentially all the sugar is metabolized by the yeast giving a very dry wine.

Freixenet Extra Dry Brut

Brut

Brut: This wine is dry, but with a light taste of sweetness and is the most popular of the sparkling wines. Champagne is the most common sparkling wine to be labeled Brut.

Mumm Napa Brut Rose

Extra Dry

Extra Dry: This a dry sparkling wine with some slight sweetness. It is not as dry as Brut of Extra Brut. Prosecco is most often consider Extra Dry.

 Verdi Spumante Extra Dry Champagne/Sparkling

Demi-sec

Demi-sec: This is the sweetest of the sparkling wine. Demi-sec is often served with dessert as a sweet compliment to the luscious fair.

Schramsberg Cremant Demi-Sec Champagne/ Sparkling

Check out some great selections of the Worlds Best Champagne from our vast collection or go to our main site for a complete selection of the Worlds Best Champagne as well as all our fine beverages.

 

II Conte Stella Rosa Imp Brach Brut Champagne/Sparkling

  Villa Sandi II Fresco Prosecco Champagne/Sparkling

Mionetto II Prosecco Brut Champagne/Sparkling

Verdi Peach Sparkletini

Maschio Prosecco Brut Champagne/Sparkling

Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Brut

Borgo Magredo Prosecco

Toad Hollow Risque Sparkling Brut

Toad Hollow Amplexus Brut

Tedschi Maui Sparkling Pineapple Champagne / Sparkling

Bouvet Brut Signature

Verdi Spumante Extra Champagne/Sparkling

Mirabelle By Schramsberg Brut Rose Champagne / Sparkling

Korbel Moscato

Bouvet Rose Excellence

Korbel Rouge Sparkling Red Wine

Gruit Brut

XXIV Karat Grande Cuvee

Andre Pink Moscato

Cooks Sprmante

Bocelli Prosecco

Pasqua Prosecco

Philipponnat Brut Champagne

Segura Viudas

Cook’s Sparkling Sweet Red

Louis De Sacy Brut Grand Cru

Le Grand Courtage Blan De Blanc Brut

 

Best Rose Wines

Rose as it is known in France is known as rosado in Portuguese and Spanish and rosato in Italy. These best rose wines  incorporate some red grape color, but not enough to call it a red wine. Rose, which is probably the oldest known type of wine. The Best Rose Wines are a great light fruity drink to accompany your relaxed weekend choice pairings as well as numerous Rose cocktails to experiment with your tastes.

HISTORIC ROSE

Many of the earliest red wines produced in such notable wine regions as Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne were “rosé-style” wines made from juice that had only brief periods of skin contact during wine making. Today Rose is produced using these classic and well defined techniques throughout France from the cooler climate rosé Champagnes and Loire Valley wines to the warm Mediterranean influence climates of Provence and the southern Rhone Valley.

THE UNIQUE ROSE

There is a common mistake that Rose are extensively sweet and there is no variation between the various types. However, the selection is large with a bottle of Rose for every white or red wine connoisseur. Rose is essentially the combination of red and white grapes in varying proportions. Winemakers manage the color shading by the length of contact between the juice and red grape skins during the wine production. Rose usually pairs well with a lighter fare of fresh foods as fish, seafood and salads

Check out some great selections of the Best Rose Wines from our vast collection or go to our main site for a complete selection of the Best Sweet Rose Wines as well as all our fine beverages.

 

Bieler Rose Sabine

Miraval Cotes de Provence Rose

Sofia Rose

Chandon Etoile Rose

White Girl Rose

Balletto Rose of Pinot Noir

Pedroncelli Dry Rose

Jean-luc Colombo cape Bleue Rose

Lancers Rose

Banfi Centine Rose

  Dear Rose Cotes de Provence

Whispering Angle Caves D’ Esclans Rose

Charles & Charles Rose

Fetzer Valley Oaks White Zinfandel Rose

Parallele 45 Rose

Domaines Ott Rose

Sutter Home Fre White Zinfandel Rose

Sables d’Azur Rose

Robert Hall rose du robles

La Vieille Ferme Rose

Stella Rosa Imperiale Moscato Rose

Schramsberg Brut Rose

Veuve Clicquot Rose Champagne Rose

Laurent Perrier Rose Champagne Rose

J Vineyards Brut Rose Brut Champagne/Sparkling

White wine is a wine that is fermented without skin contact. The color can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the fermentation of the non-colored pulp of grapes, which may have a skin of any color. White wine has existed for at least 4000 years.

The wide variety of best white wines comes from the large number of varieties, methods of wine making, and ratios of residual sugar. White wine is mainly from “white” grapes, which are green or yellow in color. The primary grape selections are from Riesling, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon blanc. Champagne can be made from colored, Pinot noir, as well white grapes such as Chardonnay.

The most common white wine is the aromatic and tangy white derived from the complete fermentation of the grape wort.  The Sweet white wines, on the other hand, are produced by interrupting the fermentation before all the grape sugars are converted into alcohol; this is called Mutage or fortification. The methods of enriching wort with sugar are multiple: on-ripening on the vine, passerillage (straining), or the use of noble rot. Sparkling wines, which are mostly white, are wines where the carbon dioxide from the fermentation is kept dissolved in the wine and becomes gas when the bottle is opened.

White wines, due to their acidity, aroma, and ability to tenderize meat are routinely used for cooking. White wine is a great drink between and with your meals. White wines are often considered more refreshing, and lighter in both style and taste than the majority of their red wine counterparts.

Numerous varieties of grapes can be used to develop white wine. Some have achieved a strong reputation thanks to their marketing of a wine variety:

White Wine Varieties

• Chardonnay : This variety originating from Burgundy and has spread to many countries throughout the western world.  It can be made sparkling or still and has a wider-bodied and rich citrus taste compared to other white wines. This grape has been successfully grown in a wide variety of climates and geology from France, Australia, South America and the United States.
• Sauvignon blanc : originating from the Bordeaux vineyards of France and continued onward and South-West to the Loire Valley. It has also become very popular in growing regions of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The dominating flavors range from sour green fruit such as of apple, pear and gooseberry through to tropical fruit such as melon, mango and blackcurrant. A common food pairing for this wine is seafood, poultry, and salad.
• Riesling : Coming the from German vineyards of Germany, and, Switzerland and is a grape that can be of high quality in a variety of soils and a continental climate. Riesling is much lighter in comparison to other white wines and typically has a green apple aroma. Common food dishes that go well with Riesling are fish, chicken, and pork.
• Müller-Thurgau : the most widely grown grape in Germany which gives a fruity and well-balanced wine but is known to have a very short shelf life.
• Muscat : Consisting of a group of over 150 varieties of Italian and Austrian grown grapes providing a sweet and fruity taste.
• Petite Arvine , originated in the Valais in Switzerland in 1602. Typically medium-dry, this textured wine contains a generous amount of extract from its thick-skinned berries. This variety has become the most frequently grown wine in the most prominent wine-growing region of Switzerland.

Check out some great selection of White Wines from around the world or go to our main site for a complete selection of great White Wines as well as all our fine beverages.

Pinot Grigio

McManis Pinot Grigio

You can enjoy an incredible Pinot Grigio, a Northern Italy classic that is perfect with your favorite catch of the day. Pinot Grigio brings out a dry acidic flavor with noticeable citrus tang and a hint of honeysuckle.

Gewurztraminer

Chateau Ste Michelle Gewurztraminer

This fine wine was originally produced on the border of France, Germany and Switzerland. A sweet wine with low acidity, and high alcohol content. This may give away subtle flavors of pineapple and cantaloupe

Chardonnay

Bontera Chardonnay

A wine of worldwide appeal and history of production. Full bodied buttery with citrus tones. Great with any sea food venue.

Viognier

McManis Viognier 1

A Full-bodied white from Southern France with an oaky flavor and vanilla aroma and hints of peach, tangerine and honeysuckle. Viognier demonstrations a characteristic oily sensation and is great with selections of fine cheese.

Sauvignon Blanc

Starborough Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc comes to us from the Loire Valley region of France but is currently produced in many fine wineries throughout the world. It brings to the table a delicious smokey flavor with tastes of pear and gooseberry. This wine has noted international appeal.

Riesling

Kung Fu Girl Riesling

This white wine is typically fruity, crisp and acidic with resounding flavors of apricot peach and apple. Rieslings produced in France or Austria are often drier with those produced in Germany and California are usually sweeter. While this white goes well with a range of cuisines, Riesling enthusiasts particularly love it with spicy food.

Moscato

Mirassou Moscato

This is an Italian wine with a sweet flavor and a low alcohol content with nectarine and peach light flavors. Many Moscato fans prefer this as a dessert wine.

Justin Sauvignon Blanc

Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc

Whispering Angel Caves D’ Esclans Rose

Columbia Crest Riesling

Dry Creek Vyd Dry Chenin Blanc

Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay

Banfi San Angelo Pinot Grigio

Kendall-Jackson Riesling

Sofia Riesling

Stella Rosa Imperiale Orange Muscat

Robert Mondavi Riesling Private Selection

Robert Mondavi Moscato d’Oro Desert Wine

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay

Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc

  Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling

Beringer White Zinfandel

Sutter Home White Zinfandel

Terlato Pinot Grigio

Hogue Riesling

Clos Du Bois Sauvignon Blanc

Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay

Louis Latour Pouilly-Fuisse

Bartenura Moscato

Fetzer Gewurztraminer Shady Loam

Remy Pannier Vouvray

Shatter Grenache

TOP RATED VODKAS

There is not much hard historical evidence for the beginning of vodka. Scholars debate the beginnings of vodka.  For many centuries, beverages differed significantly compared to the vodka of today, as the spirit at that time had a different flavor, color and smell, and was originally used as medicine. Originally, vodka contained little alcohol, an estimated maximum of about 14%. The distillation process introduced in 8th century increased purity and increased alcohol content.

Vodka has no strict definitions for its production with the final product usually characterized as being odorless, colorless and tasteless. However, custom distillers like to leave selective flavors in their vodka. This, of course, will always remain an industrial secret.

Top Rated Vodkas as well as all Vodkas are produced from primarily fermented grains or potatoes but also from sugars and some fruits. The primary producers Poland, Russia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Vodka can be produced by undergoing multiple distillation processes resulting in a significant increase in alcohol content.

Much of vodkas popularity is due to the introduction of flavored vodka. Plan vodka does not have a strong flavor and thus can be essentially mixed with anything you may think of.

Check out some great vodka selections or go to our main site for a complete selection of great vodkas as well as all our fine beverages

 

     

 

Reyka Icelandic Vodka

Absolut Swedish Vodka

Tito’s Handmade Vodka

Nat Kidder Navy Strength Vodka

Born and Bred American Craft Vodka

Sky California Vodka

Ketel One Dutch Vodka

New Amsterdam American Made Vodka

Ciroc Premium Vodka

Russian Standard Premium Vodka

Stolichnaya Russian Vodka

Ultimat Polish Vodka

Zubrowka Zu Bison Grass Vodka

Hophead Hop Vodka

Grey Goose Cherry Noir Vodka

Smirnoff Sorbet Pineapple Coconut

Zyr Russian Vodka

Smirnoff Watermelon Flavored Vodka

Blue Ice American Potato

Ciroc 10 Vodka

Chambord Vodka

Skyy Raspberry Flavored Vodka

 

Absolute Oak Barrel Crafted Vodka

Belvedere Citrus Vodka

Effen Green Apple Flavored Vodka

44 North Huckleberry Potato Vodka

Pravda Vodka

Tanqueray Sterling Vodka 750ml