by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
What makes the New Year’s Eve drink of choice different from other sparkling wines? The answer: location, location, location! Champagne is not only the name of a sparkling wine, but more specifically, it’s a region in France. Aside from Champagne being one of the northernmost wine producing regions of the world, it’s easily one of the most misunderstood wines.
All that glitters is certainly not gold and all that bubbles is not Champagne. Only wines that are made within that delimited region can carry the hallowed name “Champagne”. The secret to Champagne? In its still wine stage, Champagne undergoes a unique second fermentation while in the bottle. Other wines are simply shot full of carbon dioxide while in a tank, then bottled. The choice is yours.