What is your favorite value sparkling wine?

🍷🆚🍷 Next Wine Battle: California Sparkling Wine

🇺🇸 2017 Schramsberg - Blanc de Blancs Brut

 What is your favorite value sparkling wine? 🍷🆚🍷 Next Wine

🇫🇷 NV Champagne Philipponnat - Royale Réserve

🇫🇷 NV Champagne Bollinger - Special Cuvée

🧠💭Let me know your thoughts or feedback on this

🗳 Add suggestions for future wine battles in the comments below👇

 🇫🇷 NV Champagne Philipponnat - Royale Réserve @champagne

A super educational tasting from Michael Cruse

. Blind tasting of dosage trials for sparkling wine.

 A super educational tasting from Michael Cruse @crusewine 

2007 Thiénot - Cuvée Alain Thiénot Brut (92 pts)

ℹ️ This wine is a blend of 65% Chardonnay and 35% Pinot Noir.  The grapes come partially from their vineyards. The wine was aged on its lees for ten years and was disgorged in 2018.

👃 Medium+ intensity on the nose. Aromas of baked apple, quince paste, Mirabelle plum, dried apricot, orange zest, baked bread, cheese rind, custard, and caramel.

👄 The wine is dry, high acidity, fine bubbles (not overly pervasive), medium alcohol (12.5%), and medium+ body. The wine has a powdery texture on the palate. A medium+ length finish of baked apple, crème caramel (flan), and orange zest.

🔔 The 2007 Cuvée Alain Thiénot is a fully mature Champagne that is ready to drink now. This wine shows how a fruit-driven Champagne ages with so much time on the lees developing baked and caramel apple notes with rich custardy flavors. The Cuvées of Champagne Thiénot all have a unique personality. It was fun to try them side by side. In the grand scheme of things, this represents a substantial value in Vintage Champagne.

 2007 Thiénot - Cuvée Alain Thiénot Brut (92 pts)

ℹ️ This Champagne is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, and 5% Meunier. More than 25 crus from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims make up the blend. The majority of the blend comes from the 2015 vintage, with 30% of reserve wines. There is also a small amount of Cuve 38, a perpetual reserve of Grand Cru Chardonnay. Each bottle is aged more than three years on lees. The dosage is less than 8 g/l.

👃 Medium intensity on the nose. Aromas of ripe golden apple, Asian pear, lemon zest, acacia, white flowers, and bread dough.

👄 The wine is dry, high acidity, vigorous moderate-size bubbles, medium alcohol (12%), and medium+ body. A creamy texture on the palate. A medium- length finish of golden apple, Asian pear, and marzipan.

🔔  Maison Henriot offers the right amount of complexity at a very fair price. The style is fruit-forward, with some floral notes showing nuance. The autolytic notes are less pronounced on the nose but are represented more on the supple palate. The Souverain bottling provides a lot of value for the money better than many of the bigger houses similarly priced wines.

 NV Henriot - But Souverain @champagnehenriot ℹ️ This

Henri Giraud - Espirit Nature Brut (90 pts)

ℹ️ This Champagne is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. The grapes are vinified and aged in oak barrels. Over 50% of the blend comes from the house's perpetual reserve. The wine is aged on the lees for 2 years.

👃 Medium intensity on the nose. Aromas of nectarine, white peach, quince paste, red apple, orange marmalade, marzipan, saltine cracker, and subtle white pepper.

👄 The wine is dry, high acidity, vigorous fine bubbles, medium alcohol (12%), and medium+ body. More expressive on the palate than the nose with a slight spice from the oak. The medium length finish shows notes of white peach, apple skin, and salted almonds.

🔔 A solid entry-level Champagne from Henri Giraud. A bit richer and riper than many Champagnes at this price point. Also, suitable for people wanting to taste Pinot Noir dominant blend. I want to add that it is nice to see the commitment and guarantee on the back label.

 Henri Giraud - Espirit Nature Brut (90 pts)

1990 Drappier - Carte d’Or Brut (92 pts)

- Medium+ gold color. Still noticeably and fine bubbles. Pronounced nose. Aromas of oxidation through gentle aging. Honey, bruised yellow apple, dried apple, baked quince, mineral, copper penny, toast, and yeasty notes. Medium acidity that has mellowed with time. The body was quite full and stood out in the wine. Good texture from the refined bubbles. Overall balance between the tertiary notes from long bottle age and minerality. Interesting wine and by far my favorite of the evening.

 1990 Drappier - Carte d’Or Brut (92 pts) #winereview -

- Medium lemon color, solid persistent almost aggressive bubbles. Medium+ intensity on the nose. Smokey, woody, then ripe red apple, and ripe pear. The wine is dry, Medium+ acidity, medium+ body. This is a riper more fruit driven style that is almost a touch oxidized by choice. Medium length finish. It comes across a bit disjointed, but shows potential if it can come together. People need to sit on NV bottles longer to get the best tasting experience out of them.

 NV JM Labruyere - Prologue Brut (85 pts) #winereview -

ℹ️ This wine is a blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, and 10% Pinot Meunier. The grapes are primarily sourced from Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards. The blend has 30% reserve wines (2010, 2012, and 2013). The dosage is 5 g/l.

👃 Medium+ intensity on the nose. Aromas of red apple, pear, nectarine, lemon zest, pie crust, bread dough, toast, and cherry blossom.

👄 The wine is dry, high acidity, persistent fine bubbles, medium alcohol (12.5%), and medium body. A medium length finish of baked orchard fruit and flaky pie crust.

🔔 Champagne Thiénot's Brut offers a balanced and crowd-pleasing bottle of bubbles at a very fair price. Coming in around $40, this is the perfect brunch offering where you won't feel guilty killing a bottle or two. It is more elegant than many "big" houses that can be a tad heavy-handed with dosage. I don't know about you, but I would instead pay for reserve wines in the blend than a marketing campaign.

 NV Thiénot - Brut @champagnethienot ℹ️ This wine is a blend

2010 Thiénot - Cuvée Garance Brut (92 pts)

ℹ️ Cuvée Garance is 💯 Pinot Noir, and House Thiénot refers to as Blanc de Rouges (not an official designation). The grapes primarily come from Montagne de Reims: Aÿ, Cumières, and Rilly-a-Montagne. The base wine is fermented in stainless steel and undergoes full malolactic fermentation. The wine was aged on its lees for eight years.

👃 Medium intensity on the nose. Aromas of red apple skin, Mandarin orange, yellow plum, orange blossom, dried leaves, caramel apple, dried apricot, pie crust, and high-end honey.

👄 The wine is dry, medium+ acidity, fine fading bubbles, medium alcohol (12.5%), and medium+ body. The palate is showing more development of baked and dried fruit. A medium+ length finish of dried apricot, honey, and oolong tea.

🔔 The 2010 Cuvée Garance is a fully mature Champagne that is ready to drink now. There is a lot of dried and baked fruit on the palate combined with pie crust autolytic notes. The honey and caramel notes show development from the extended time on lees. This is definitely a wine that would work better paired with more decadent foods. Solid Champagne 🍾.

 2010 Thiénot - Cuvée Garance Brut (92 pts)

Louis Roederer - Brut Premier Champagne (91 pts)

ℹ️ This Champagne is roughly a blend of  40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, and 20% Pinot Meunier. A small percentage of the wines are matured in oak casks. Reserve wines constitute 25% of the blend.  The wines are matured for three years on the lees then rested for six months after disgorgement  Dosage is ~10 g/l.

👃 Medium intensity on the nose. Aromas of pear, yellow apple, lemon zest, quince paste, pie crust, and white flowers.

👄 The wine is dry, high acidity, delicate bubbles, medium alcohol (12%), and medium+ body. The palate has a creaminess due to the bubbles with a powdery, chalky texture on your tongue. A medium length finish of fresh orchard fruit and floral notes.

🔔 Louis Roederer's Brut Premier offers a lot of composure and value for an entry-level Champagne. On the nose, it is tightly wound but uncoils on the palate with a generous dosage, great texture, and super clean finish. It is hard to go wrong with this pedigree of Winemaking.

 Louis Roederer - Brut Premier Champagne (91 pts)

Gusbourne Interview and Virtual Tasting with Charlie Holland

🎙 Join my Instagram Live interview with Charlie Holland winemaker at Gusbourne in Kent, England, on July 17th at 9:00 am PST / 5:00 pm London. We are going to discuss the current state of English Sparkling Wine and the history of Gusbourne. We will talk about the Terroir of Kent and how this translates into the wines. Also, what are the key differentiators with Champagne and other sparkling wine regions·

🍾 We will taste three sparkling wines from Gusbourne. All three wines are from the 2015 vintage: Brut Reserve, Brut Rosé, and Blanc de Blancs. Please join our Instagram Live and participate in the conversation. Don't forget to click the reminder in the stories·

 Gusbourne Interview and Virtual Tasting with Charlie

Dry, crisp, loads of bubbles, great acidic end with little sweetness. I like this style and the bottle is very fancy. I do like this...simple...

 Piper-Heidsieck Cinema Edition Rating: B+ Price: $42

🍇55% Pinot Noir / 33% Chardonnay / 12% Pinot Meunier

“Yellow Label” is the signature of the great winery’s, Veuve Clicquot’s, quality and style, recreated every year thanks to the winery’s collection of reserve wines.  Grapes from as many as 50 to 60 different Crus go to the blending of this wine, afterwords at least three years in crayères.

Fine pale color with a lot of tiny, tiny bubbles, which give a lovely creamy texture to the wine. Pear, brioche, vanilla, lemon and yeast on the nose. The palate is dry and fresh with pear, apricot, yellow mirabelle plum, light bread and honey (without getting sweetened…) - it’s a bit saline and has a fine medium long mineral finish.

To me, it’s a fine text book example from Champagne, but for the price, it’s possible to find more excitement from smaller producers.

 ⭐️84+/100⭐️ Veuve Clicquot “Yellow Label” Brut Champagne, NV

Inviting aromas of strawberry, raspberry and traces of fresh buttery bread.

Tasting similar to the aromas with raspberry, strawberry and cherry gliding over fine, consistent bubbles.

A squeeze of citrus zest compliments buttery toast on the crisp dry finish.

MARCALBERTO Metodo Classico Rosé Brut NV