What's your "house bubbly"?

I drink my Prosecco, Sorelle Bronca. Shows a lack of enterprise on my part, I know, but if I'm not drinking Champagne I just want something to start the evening off while I'm making dinner. I love good Prosecco but I have to say there's an awful lot of the other kind out there...

I drink my Prosecco, Sorelle Bronca. /// I love good Prosecco but I have to say there's an awful lot of the other kind out there...

Prosecco is a minefield!!!


Thanks for a name to look for. I like good Prosecco, but am generally disinclined to try new ones, as my batting average is poor. I generally like Bisol, and one of the Nino Francos bottlings. But the rest range from ok (Zardetto) to Do Not Put In Mouth. I see the Sorelle Bronca is at WHWC, will get a couple as case fillers next shipment.

I love good Prosecco but I have to say there's an awful lot of the other kind out there...

I have to be honest in saying that I am not very good at differentiating between good and bad Prosecco. The $10 stuff and the $25 stuff tastes equally refreshing to me. We do make Kir with it regularly, so that masks the taste some, but I have no brand loyalty when it comes to Prosecco.

[Jenise]

You have succeeded admirably. It is really hard to get Billicart Salmon in Virginia. They don't seem to have a distributor here. I'd love to buy some at $30 a bottle. Usually, I have to end up paying shipping as well. Enjoy it. I know I would.

Glenn

I rarely get such good local deals, so I had to gloat--thank you for indulging me. Current regular price on it here locally is now $48ish.

I love good Prosecco but I have to say there's an awful lot of the other kind out there...

I have to be honest in saying that I am not very good at differentiating between good and bad Prosecco. The $10 stuff and the $25 stuff tastes equally refreshing to me. We do make Kir with it regularly, so that masks the taste some, but I have no brand loyalty when it comes to Prosecco.

Actually, you're pretty astute. Prosecco quality has been uniformly good in recent years. And really, the stuff is priced in a fairly narrow band. I've never seen one priced over $20. I'm sure someone will correct me on this shortly....

Cava & Prosecco under $15 (as recommended by trusted wine steward) and Argyle Brut (good Willamette Valley sparkler) and the occasional "Red Sticky" from Australia.

Actually, you're pretty astute. Prosecco quality has been uniformly good in recent years. And really, the stuff is priced in a fairly narrow band. I've never seen one priced over $20. I'm sure someone will correct me on this shortly....

Dave,

After checking my records it looks like I should have said, "I can't tell the $9 stuff from the $13 stuff". Can't say I've seen any Prosecco over the $13 price point.

It is really hard to get Billicart Salmon in Virginia.

Scuttlebutt holds that for whatever reason, Robert Chadderdon got in some kind of a tiff/huff/hurt feelings/whatever with A Country Vintner, and won't sell to our market anymore.

Don't know the particulars of the genesis of the tiff/huff/hurt feelings/whatever, though.

Duval-Leroy Brut NV
Deutz Brut NV
Prosecco (generic, often for Kir)

Sam - I haven't though of Kir for several years, so thank you for mentioning it. I recall Liz ordering it on several occasions when we were dating; I'll have to make her one this weekend as a little surprise (she never knows what she wants anyway).

The Cliquot Yellow Label is actually my l;east favorite among all the big NV Champagnes. I don't doubt it's well made, but I have never liked the VC style.

Conventional wisdom also has it that its style changed (toward a more generic "upscale mass market" niche) after the company was acquired by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH).

Hmmm, when did this transpire? I probably haven't bought a bottle since the late '80s.

I Delamotte Blanc de Blanc NV. Probably as close as I will get to Salon....

For House sparkling, I also have so far this year.

(1) La Spinetta Moscato D'Asti
(2) Glenora Sparkling Brut from Finger Lakes.

For a house sparkling wine for entertaining and larger celebrations, we use Simonnet-Febvre NV Crémant de Bourgogne, which is available in Pennsylvania for $14. The lot available last year was really good, the new lot is not quite at the same level, but is still very good.

When we drink Champagne, we sample a range of different producers. There are too many interesting things to try to stick to any one.

I love good Prosecco but I have to say there's an awful lot of the other kind out there...

I have to be honest in saying that I am not very good at differentiating between good and bad Prosecco. The $10 stuff and the $25 stuff tastes equally refreshing to me. We do make Kir with it regularly, so that masks the taste some, but I have no brand loyalty when it comes to Prosecco.

Actually, you're pretty astute. Prosecco quality has been uniformly good in recent years. And really, the stuff is priced in a fairly narrow band. I've never seen one priced over $20. I'm sure someone will correct me on this shortly....

I think that bubbles tend to disguise bad or mediocre wine, but if you had a selection of good and bad Proseccos next to each other, you'd see a very clear difference. Very few producers grow their own fruit, for one thing*; for another, most of the less expensive wines are the equivalent of IGT, not the DOC of Valdobbiadene/Conegliano, with lower standards (for one thing, they're not required to be 100% Prosecco). This is perhaps due to the weak dollar making it hard to hit certain price points.

Freshness is very important, too. Prosecco is like Fino sherry, it needs to be drunk as freshly bottled as possible. It won't be vintage-dated, but you may be able to make sense of the lot number...

One small Prosecco point: after tasting many different Proseccos from many different producers in both Brut and Extra Dry I have been forced to drop my 'Champagne prejudice' and accept that Extra Dry works better than Brut, for this variety. All the best examples (such as wines from Cartizze, for example) are at least Extra Dry, if not higher dosage, and the Brut is sold almost entirely in the export markets.

*All of Sorelle Bronca's wines are estate-bottled. I import Sorelle Bronca, so I'm not objective here.

We drink bubbles by the truckload around here! Current house favs are Raventos i Blanc Cava, Gonet, and Michel Dervin. If I'm stepping it up in price, it's always Pierre Peters, Jaquesson 731, Billecart Salmon Rose and Larmendier-Bernier.

[Jenise]

For a reasonably priced Champagne NV, I like Drappier Brut. If going for a half bottle, then I grab a Laurent-Perrier Brut. cheers, Bonnie

We love Drappier too--very traditional in a big, biscuity style.

Sam - I haven't though of Kir for several years, so thank you for mentioning it. I recall Liz ordering it on several occasions when we were dating; I'll have to make her one this weekend as a little surprise (she never knows what she wants anyway).

Jon,

We love the stuff. It's extremely refreshing on a hot summer evening. I mix it about 6:1 with the Creme de Cassis, so that the Prosecco isn't completely overpowered. Enjoy.

From Champagne, I find it is hard to beat Duval-Leroy, both the NV and the Paris bottling (which come in a very cool blue/gold bottle)...last night we had the 1996 D-L, and it was still under $40; close after any of these would be Bollinger Cuvee Brut, Billecart-Salmon Brut, all in the mid $30s, and a bit more expensive, Camille Saves Rose

For non-champs bubbly, it's hard to beat Chandon.

We usually keep a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle Blanc de Noir in the refrigerator for impromptu celebrations. It's enjoyable enough, and at $12 it's easy enough to open.