Continuing on with our excursion through the world of sparkling wine, we would like to call your attention to two interesting sparklers from Italy.
Berlucchi Franciacorta Brut ($35)Take a walk on the wild side with a dry Champagne-like sparkling wine from Italy. It is a bold, medium-bodied wine, accenting the aromas of apple and pear. The flavor is complex, comprising many layers of fruit and ending in a toasty finish. The Berlucchi Franciacorta Brut is not a Champagne lookalike, but rather an adventure into a new world of sparkling wines. When looking for a wine that bespeaks elegance and strays away from the rest of the pack, Berlucchi Franciacorta Brut is for you.
La Marca Prosecco ($17)This very fruity offering is a true brut, dry wine displaying all of the beauties and flavors one seeks in Champagne but at a very affordable price. The La Marca Prosecco is a bright, happy wine with a subtle aroma of pears, apricots, peaches and grilled pineapples, a characteristic of prosecco grapes. It carries over to the flavor where it is amplified by the bubbles and continues on to a pleasantly crisp exceptionally fruity finish.
Italian sparklers have started a trend that currently is sweeping the country: moscato sweet wines. The rise in sales of the popular asti spumante variety over the past few years encouraged several American producers to venture into the field. Among the most popular here are the sparkling and very affordable wines from Barefoot Cellars.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Moscato Spumanti ($10)If you like the Italian asti spumanti, wait until you taste its California cousin. California grapes are famous for the intense fruit flavors they add to wine. The Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumanti will prove that to be true. The wine is resplendent with the aroma of orange blossoms that heralds the flavor of honey and a raisin components, which is further enhanced by the carbonation. This is truly "the" party wine.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Rose ($10)This delightful sweet wine's pink color heralds the aromas of strawberry jam and concord grapes. The flavor picks up the strawberry, accented by a very positive background of Georgia peaches. Although this wine is sweet, it is not overly sweet. There is a bit of an acid bite, which resolves some of the sweetness and adds to the power of the fruit flavor. This wine is more of an experience and one you will surely enjoy.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Premium Extra Dry Chardonnay Champagne ($10)This wine takes chardonnay in a new direction. There is a bit of added sweetness not often found in this variety, which helps to propel this wine to new heights of fun and enjoyment. The wine is a typical chardonnay sparkler, featuring green apple and citrus in the flavor and aroma and ending in a creamy, soft, toasty, summer fresh fruit finish. This wine is not the typical, nose in the air, raised pinky style of sparkler. It is a wine that can be served in glass tumblers, amid friends and relatives, and can in no way be diminished by a lack of pomp and circumstance when served.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Pinot Grigio ($10)Why this variety had never been picked to be made into a sparkling wine is a mystery to us. The pinot grigio grape produces a wine with a positive acid bite, a feature required for a sparkling wine to have character. The aroma and flavor features bright golden apples and tangerines, which continue on to the finish. This is a wine that you just have to love.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Brut Cuvee ($10) This is a fresh, bright and extremely enjoyable sparkler that displays a bright yeast and bread aroma with hints of citrus that carry over to the flavor and even beyond, ending in a long and exceptional finish. French Champagne beware; you may have met your match.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.
