Festive Fizz
There's nothing like a glass of bubbly to make celebrations go off with a swing.
Where the real thing is needed, pop open a bottle of Champagne, or for more frivolous occasions, a glass of sparkling wine will set things off nicely.
Here's a few of our favourites:
Red sparkling wine
Yes, there really is such a thing! Australia is the true master of fizzy reds, and if you're lucky enough to visit the Barossa Valley in South Australia, you may find a glass of fizzy red served up alongside your 'full English' breakfast. A glass of red sparkling wine is not the first thing you'd think about, but it's a fantastic wine to enjoy. You've got a little bit of sweetness, but all the fruitiness of red and black berries. It's a joy alongside bacon (cured or smoked is ideal), fried mushrooms and hot buttered toast. Don't be shy - serve it as a fascinating aperitif, it'll get everyone talking.
Sparkling wines
Only wines grown in the Champagne appellation of France can be called Champagne, but many other sparkling wines in the world are made by the same method, called 'méthode champenoise'. This involves fermenting the base wine in tank, then placing this wine into bottles, where extra yeast and sugar is added to create a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Here, as a bi-product of fermentation, cardon dioxide gas is trapped inside the bottle. The bottles are removed of their yeast plugs, then sealed with a cork or a crown seal, and left to mature for varying lengths of time before the wines are sold. There are other methods of producing sparkling wines, but this is the most traditional, and most the common for quality sparkling wine production.
Champagne
Adored by racing drivers, ship launchers and champion jockies alike, Champagne is the celebratory wine of choice all over the world. The Champagne region of France is famous for growing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes (the latter two are red grapes, but as the grapes are pressed so gently, little colour is removed from the skins, where the colour pigments are). The region has a cool climate, so is perfectly suited to producing grapes with crisp acidity, a quality required to produced a balanced Champagne. The region houses some prestigous Châteaux, many with miles of underground cellars carved into the soft chalk below centuries ago. It really is the perfect environment in which to produce top class sparkling wines, and long may this continue.
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Click here for our complete list of Champagne and sparkling wines.