Another Thanksgiving will be arriving shortly, and planning must begin well in advance of the ravenous hoard that may be descending on your home.
May we suggest a dynamite way to enhance your Thanksgiving celebration, make it a sure hit and give it an air of opulence: Serve a sparkling wine.
When sparkling wines are mentioned, the first thing that usually comes to mind is French champagne. Champagne is all well and good if you can afford its usually high cost, but there is also an opposite direction, the very inexpensive sparkling wines.
There is a good reason that they are so inexpensive, and we will leave it at that. In between the monumentally high-priced champagne and the wanting quality of the very low priced sparkling wines lies the Barefoot Bubbly sparkling wines.
Barefoot Bubbly wines are not champagne, nor do they attempt to be. They are California wines that have been made sparkling in bulk (the Charmat process) and then quickly bottled and corked to retain their carbonation. This process dramatically reduces the production costs by eliminating all of the hand processes of champagne and allows Barefoot to produce a large selection of sparkling wines, from very dry to very sweet, while still maintaining high quality with an affordable price tag.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Brut Cuvee ($10)Brut means the wine is dry, not sweet.
This wine displays the classical bright yeast and bread aroma with hints of citrus, which then carries over to the flavor and even beyond, ending in a long and exceptional finish.
For its price, this wine is a gem.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Premium Extra Dry Chardonnay Champagne ($10) The Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry Chardonnay presents a bit of added sweetness not often found in chardonnay sparkling wines, while still featuring green apple and citrus flavor and the aromas of a classical chardonnay. It ends in a creamy, soft, toasty and fruity finish.
This is a great choice to accompany a dinner of turkey or ham.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Pinot Grigio ($10)The Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Pinot Grigio is a wine with a positive acid bite, a feature required for a sparkling wine to have any character.
The wine is slightly sweet with an aroma and flavor featuring bright golden apples and tangerine that continue on to the finish.
As of now, we believe this wine will be our choice for our Thanksgiving table.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Moscato Spumante ($10)California grapes are famous for the intense fruit flavors they add to a wine. The Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante will prove that to be true.
As with all spumante wines, it is resplendent with the aroma of orange blossoms and jasmine, which is amplified by its California birth place. The flavor is sweet, accenting a honey and raisin component, continuing on to a explosive fruit-filled finish.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Pink Moscato ($11)Here is the moscato in its pink incarnation.
This brightly colored sweet bubbler’s pink hue is made by adding a small amount of red wine to a moscato, allowing it to display the usual aromas and flavors, but with the added sensation of red raspberry, strawberry and pomegranates.
This wine will easily complement all the foods being served this Thanksgiving.
Barefoot Cellars Bubbly Red Moscato ($11)We usually admonish our readers not to serve dry red wines with their Thanksgiving fare, as it does not go well the sweet side dishes.
While this wine is red, it is sweet and there are none of the harsh tannins often associated with red wines. The addition of red wine to this moscato amplifies both the flavor and aroma and mirrors those of the pink moscato - but with much greater intensity.
This wine makes a very positive flavor statement and should please your guests, as well as brighten your dinner table.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.
