Literally and symbolically, sparkling wine overflows with bubbles and signifies joy and abundance.
Thus, it's the ideal drink for New Year's Eve when we say farewell to one year and welcome another with optimism.
It used to be that only French aristocrats were rich enough to pour Champagne at parties in the 16th Century.
But now, fortunately, all can imbibe bubbles on New Year's Eve because the gamut of sparkling ranges from fun and affordable Prosecco and Prosecco-style bottles to high-end Champagne and Champagne-style wines.
For instance, winemaker Amy Paynter at Liquidity Wines in Okanagan Falls crafts a Champagne-style sparkler Reserve Brut ($45) that has quickly become her favourite sip.
"The Brut is a lovely blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, all from Okanagan Falls vineyards and spent 24 months sur lee before being disgorged," she explains.
"It's a serious sparkling wine with a bright and fun side -- perfect for celebrating every day (but especially New Year's Eve)."
For Prosecco-style affordability, the Evolve Pink Effervescence ($23) from Penticton is the winery's bestselling bubbly (it makes three) for its blush hue and quaffability.
This brings us to the difference between Champagne-style and Prosecco-style bubbles.
First of all, only sparkling wine from France's Champagne region can be called Champagne and anything else made in its style anywhere else has to go by a Champagne-style, traditional-method or classic-method moniker.
Such wine is created when a second fermentation in the bottle creates the bubbles the drink is famous for.
Champagne-method also calls for some time for the wine to lay on the lees (dead yeast cells) before the cells are disgorged from the bottle.
Dead yeast may not sound very enticing, but it gives the resulting sparkling elegant added texture and a pleasing aroma of fresh-baked croissants to amp up the traditional aromas and flavours of crisp apple and fresh lemon.
The extra steps, time and texture tends to make Champagne and Champagne-style bottles more expensive than simpler Prosecco and Prosecco-style wines.
Prosecco gets its name from the region of northern Italy where juice from the Prosecco grape (also called Glera) is used to make an enjoyable and approachable bubbly from a second fermentation in a big stainless-steel tank.
Thus, Prosecco should only be used to name sparkling from this region of Italy, while all others made in its style are called Prosecco-method, tank-method or Charmat-method.
Anyway, enough of the technicalities.
Either way, sparkling wine is made to be relished at any celebration, be it a Tuesday after work or New Year's Eve.
So, without further ado, here are 12 sensational sparklers to light up your celebration bidding 2022 adieu and embracing 2023.
- Narrative XC Sparkling Rose 2020 ($25) from Summerland, a Prosecco-style bubbly under crown cap
- Evolve Pink Effervescence ($23) from Penticton, another delicious Prosecco-style drink under crown cap
- Chronos Brut ($35) from Penticton, a top-notch Champagne-style bubbly that won 'Best Sparkling Wine' at the 2022 All Canadian Wine Championships
- Canard-Duchene Cuvee Leonie Champagne ($58) from France, the real deal
- Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut ($28) from Okanagan Falls, all of Blue Mountain's sparklers are done in the Champagne-style for elegance and exuberance
- Blue Mountain Reserve Brut 2013 ($50)
- Blue Mountain 2013 Blanc de Blancs ($50)
- Jackson-Triggs 2017 Entourage Brut ($30), a prime example of Niagara Peninsula Champagne-style
- Liquidity Reserve Brut ($45) from Okanagan Falls, the aforementioned Champagne-style favourite of winemaker Amy Paynter
- Bottega Gold ($33), real deal Prosecco from Italy. Bottega also happens to be the world's bestselling Prosecco with bottles in bougey, iconic, shiny metallic-wrapped gold, silver and pink.
- Bottega White Gold ($33)
- Blue Grouse 2017 Paula ($37)
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears in this space every Friday afternoon.
