Looking for a Sweet Champagne Can Be a Bit Confusing

Champagne is a great drink. It's most often consumed in times of celebration. Champagne and joy naturally go together. But "Champagne" is often misunderstood. And splurging on a $100 bottle may result in disappointment.

First, let's take a step back. Champagne is a sparkling wine that is produced in the relatively small region of Champagne in France. Only those sparkling wines produced in this region are allowed to be labeled as 'Champagne.' 

There are also multiple styles of Champagne produced. It is most common to find Brut, Dry and Extra Dry Champagnes on store shelves.  These styles have a direct correlation with the amount of residual sugar (RS) in them. For those seeking a sweet Champagne, you're going to want to look for 'Dry' Champagne. This is a bit confusing since a dry wine typically has little or no residual sugar and will have no sweetness to it. But, in Champagnes, 'Dry' means that there can be 17% to 35% RS and be quite sweet on your tongue.

Here are all the styles of Champagne that are produced:

• Extra Brut: 0-6% RS

• Brut: 0-15% RS

• Extra Dry: 12-20% RS

• Dry: 17-35% RS

• Demi Sec: 35-50% RS

• Doux: Greater than 50% RS

So if you are looking for a sweet Champagne, look for the 'Dry,' 'Demi Sec,' or 'Doux' designations on the label.

Here's to raising a glass of Champagne at your next joyous occasion. Cheers!

Full Bodied Red Wines

We've explored the various styles of white wines and made it through the light and medium bodied reds. Now it's time to take the final step and look at the big, full bodied red wines.

These full bodied reds are going to be very dark in color, have rich fruit flavors, moderate to high acidity and big tannin. And it's often the tannin in young full bodied reds that will turn people away from these wines. But, given a little breathing space in a decanter, or a few years of cellar time, these can be the best of all wines.

Full bodied red wines are going to be centered around the black fruit flavors of plum, black cherry, fig, boysenberry, black currant, blackberry, raisin and include other flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, leather, tobacco, pepper, and even tar.

Full bodied red wines include:

• Malbec, Mourvèdre, Nebbiolo and Tempranillo

• Bordeaux blends (primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot)

• Rhone Blends including Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre)

• Italian Super Tuscan blends (Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah

• Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah and Syrah

Again, it's the tannin that will play a huge role in these full bodied reds.  And tannin is the reason these wines go so well with a steak or other fatty foods.  The tannin acts to cleanse the fats and proteins that collect on your tongue leaving you with a wonderful mouth-feel and an amazing lingering finish. On one end of the scale tannin can be described a 'chewy,' 'muscular,' 'grippy,' or 'firm' and on the other end you may hear words such as 'smooth,' 'soft,' and 'velvety.' Regardless of which end of the spectrum the tannin falls, it is key to the structure of the wine and it's ability to age.

Tannin often gets a bad rap for causing headaches. But if you believe that it's the tannin you need to avoid in red wine, you are also going to have to avoid tea, dark chocolate, nuts, pomegranate, squash, chickpeas, red beans and apple juice all of which all have significant natural tannin.

If you find upon opening a bottle of full bodied red that the tannin is a bit harsh, give it an hour in a decanter that allows the wine maximum surface area for exposure to the air. Quite often you'll find that this will soften it out and make it less harsh. Or, lay the bottle down in a properly controlled cellar or wine refrigerator for five to ten years. The tannin in these big reds will soften with age and reward your patients with a really nice, smooth wine.

Pair one of these full bodied red wines with a nice steak or some flavorful cheese and enjoy. Cheers!

Exploring Medium Bodied Red Wines

Recent posts have addressed light bodied red wines including two of the most common, Gamay and Pinot Noir. Light bodied red wines have bright red fruit flavor and little to no tannin.  But looking across all red wines you'll find very few that are light bodied. On the other hand, not all red wines are big and bold either. So let's take a look at medium bodied reds.

Many medium bodied red wines continue with red fruit flavors such as cherry, raspberry, cranberry and strawberry, but what sets them apart is tannin. If you're not familiar with tannin, it is an astringent compound that comes from the grape's skin, seeds and stems as well as wood barrels. Tannin is responsible for the characteristic of producing a mouth-drying sensation.  Tannin builds character in red wines and allows them to age well.

So, just as you might expect, a medium bodied red wine will have medium levels of fruit flavor, acidity and tannin. And, as described previously, the terroir and the winemaker can have a big influence on the style of wine produced from the same grape. Cool growing climates tend to produce lighter bodied wines while warmer climates lead to bolder wines. And oak aging will also influence a red wine's flavor with new oak adding flavor and neutral oak yielding little to no additional flavors.

Although the Sangiovese grape can be made into light bodied Chianti, it can also produce medium bodied wines. While Chianti is aged a minimum of six months, Chianti Classico is aged for one year and Chianti Reserva is aged two years.  This additional aging smooths out the acidity and produces a bolder wine.

Another example of a grape capable of producing a light bodied wine as well as a medium bodied wine is Pinot Noir. As previously described, the Pinot Noir grape, when grown in warmer climates such as Oregon's Willamette Valley, produces a fuller bodied wine.

Medium bodied red wines also begin the transition to flavors of black fruits including plum, black cherry, black currant, blueberry and blackberry.  These flavors are evident in Barbera, Grenache, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Zinfandel. The moderate tannins attributable to all these grapes gives them a smooth mouth-feel and allows the fruit flavors to shine through.

Medium bodied red wines are great for food pairings due to their acidity and tannin. They work well with beef, pork, cured meats and even chicken.  As always, the key to pairings wines with meats is to pair them with the overall flavor of the meal that often includes sauces. So, you might not think of pairing a medium red with chicken, unless its got a flavorful sauce (e.g., Coq Au Vin). Then a red wine works quite well.

As mentioned earlier, medium bodied red wines age well due to the compounds in tannin. These reds can easily age for three to five years under proper wine storage conditions. Serve these reds at a cellar temperature of approximately 60 degrees F (not room temperature) in a large wide-mouth wine glass and store any leftover wine in an air evacuate bottle in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days for best flavor. Cheers!

More on Light Bodied Red Wines

Last time we explored the Gamay grape that produces a very nice light bodied red wine. Like most light bodied red wines, Gamay has delicate aromas, light tannin, plenty of acidity, lower alcohol and subtle fruit flavors that are sometimes described as “restrained” and that are not overpowered by oak aging. 

Another example of a light bodied red wine, and certainly the most popular one, is Pinot Noir. The thin skinned Pinot Noir grape results in a wine with low tannin thus making it very easy to drink by itself and with most foods.  

The Pinot Noir grape got its start in France. The region of Burgundy is the ancestral home of Pinot Noir (literally small black grapes ) where it is the dominate grape for red wines. So, if you’re opening a bottle of Burgundy (Bourgogne), you are drinking Pinot Noir or a blend that is predominantly Pinot Noir. And, by the way, don't forget that Pinot Noir is a major grape used in the production of Champagne. 

All wines are influenced by where the grapes are grown, the types of soil, the daytime and nighttime temperatures, and the overall weather. This combination of factors is called terroir (tay-war) from the French word for earth “terre.”  The Pinot Noir grape is especially influenced by its terroir. 

Thus you’ll find Burgundy’s wines have finesse and complexity with delicate fruit flavors and soft tannins. These wines will have red fruit flavors of cherry, raspberry and cranberry along with some earthiness that adds hints of soil, leaves and even mushrooms. But don't worry, these are very subtle flavors that blend in well and sometimes even hide behind all the delicate fruit flavors.  

In California’s Russian River Valley, Pinot Noir benefits from the warm days and cool nights to produce delicate wines that have flavors of cherry and raspberry along with cola or root beer from its oak aging.  But then going a bit north, Oregon’s Willamette Valley produces Pinot Noir that tend to be bigger, bolder wines that are probably better defined as being medium bodied, almost like a Merlot.

New Zealand's regions of Marlborough, Martinborough and Central Otago, Australia and Chile are also producing fine examples of Pinot Noir that are light bodied and very reasonably priced. And if you happen to be buying wine in Italy look for Pinot Nero or in Germany look for Spatburgunder, both of which are Pinot Noir. 

As light bodied red wines go, Gamay and Pinot Noir are certainly the most notable and consistent light bodied.  But, depending on the terroir and the winemaker’s processes, there are certainly other grapes that can produce wines on the way lighter side.  One of these is Sangiovese.  The best example is Chianti from Italy.  Other grapes used to produce light red wines include Rioja, Cinsaut and Zweigelt.  

All these light bodied red wines are best served chilled a bit and go great with a large variety of foods. Enjoy them in a bowl-shaped wine glass that will capture all the great aromas of these amazing grapes. Cheers!

Exploring Light Bodied Red Wines

Having just completed a series on light, medium and full bodied white wines, it's now time to transition to exploring red wines.

But first, just a quick review of the term 'body' as it relates to wine.  The four major components of a wine's body are formed by the alcohol level, the acidity, the tannin and the sweetness. While white wines have no tannin, red wines are going to have varying levels of tannin and this is really what sets them apart from white wines.

One might think that a rosé wine might be the perfect transition between white wine and red wines. After all, they are pink. And to some extent a rosé certainly does have a bit of both worlds. And that primarily comes from the fact that a rosé wine spends just a bit of time after it's pressed with the skins of the red grapes that they are produced from. That's what gives a rosé its pink color and just a very faint hint of tannin. But that's where the comparison ends. Rosé is going to have a lot more in common with white wine. It's going to have bright and crisp fruit flavors of strawberry and melon, mouth-watering acidity and be quite refreshing. 

The best place to start exploring red wines is with those that are light bodied. But in the past, light bodied red wines were often ignored. And some still are. Take Gamay for example. This grape makes a light, refreshing wine best known from the Beaujolais region of France.  Part of the reason that Gamay often gets ignored is the Beaujolais Nouveau that goes from vine to bottle in just a couple months. These wines are big in fruit and meant for celebrating the harvest, not for aging. This is not a wine for serious wine connoisseurs, collectors or critics. It's simply meant for celebration. So it is not taken too seriously by the wine elite.

But Gamay, of which more than 90% is grown in France, is also a serious grape for producing fine light red wine.  These wines can have flavors of raspberry, red currant, cherry, strawberry and boysenberry. A Gamay wine is very low in tannin and is generally made relatively low in alcohol by volume (ABV). Hence, the light bodied classification. Serve Gamay with a slight chill and you'll find it to be a bright fruit flavored wine with great perfumed aromas.

Next time we'll continue exploring light bodied red wines by getting into the wildly popular Pinot Noir. Until then, cheers!