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Bubbly Beyond the Flute

By Liza B. Zimmerman, Photography by Pat Mazzera

Champagne represents just a small part of the sparkling wine market -- an estimated 1.8 million of the total 13.6 million cases of bubbly sold in the U.S. even if it is the best known and most prestigious piece of it. But American consumers are catching up and finally discovering that there is more to bubbly than Champagne. In fact, even in France, consumers have long appreciated cremant from the Loire, Alsace and other regions that produce lovely and less costly sparkling wines.

In the United States, guests and industry pros alike are growing ever more adventurous as cava from Spain and prosecco from Italy are catching on as affordable, food-friendly sparkling alternatives, both by the glass and in cocktails. And the passion for sparkling wines produced in California continues to grow unabated. For today's bar and restaurant operator, the key to unlocking the true sales potential of bubbly is understanding the category and presenting it to the guest in an accessible format.

Sparkling wine is a diverse category; bubbly is produced in dozens of regions and from many different grapes, and marketed at a range of price points. Champagne is produced solely in the Champagne region and typically sits in the upper echelon of cost. French cremant are the sparkling wines produced outside the Champagne region but using the same process: method traditionnelle, formerly called method champenoise, which involves the secondary fermentation occurring naturally in the bottle. The main French regions in which these sparkling wines are produced include Alsace, Jura, Burgundy, the Loire and Bordeaux.

The best and most classic California sparkling wines often are produced using method traditionnelle by companies with French mother houses, such as Domaine Chandon and Domaine Carneros; wines produced in this way are among the more expensive domestic offerings. Other California independents also shine, such as J, Frank Family Vineyards and Schramsberg. What they most often have in common is a focus on traditional sparkling wine production methods and the primary use of the three classic Champagne grapes: pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot munier.

Prosecco is produced via the charmat process, wherein the secondary fermentation occurs in stainless steel tanks, using a white grape variety native to the Veneto region of Northeast Italy. Spanish Cava is produced via the method traditionnelle from the grape trio of macabeo, parellada and xarel-lo and can be produced in quite a few regions, although the bulk of it hails from Caraluita in Northeast Spain. Both are less pricey than Champagne, but there is a range of price points within these subcategories.

Other countries such as Portugal, Argentina and Australia also produce a bevy of sparklers from a variety of traditional and indigenous grapes. Sweet and dry sparkling shiraz from Down Under may be among the most innovative of sparklers to hit the market in recent years, although the style has yet to take off in a big way stateside.

According to data from Cheers parent The Beverage Information Group, sparkling wine consumption increased 1.9 percent in 2007, with the total category volume growing from 13.3 to 13.6 million 9-liter cases over the year. Consumption of imported sparkling wines grew 3.4 percent to reach 5.1 million 9-liter cases; domestic sparklers expanded 1 percent to end 2007 at 8.5 million cases.

EFFERVESCENT COCKTAILS
The availability of a broad selection of sparkling wine is now prompting savvy operators to offer more bubbly by the glass, and is also serving as a natural catalyst to its use in cocktails. "Sparkling lists by the glass are making sense these days," says Josh Durr, director of research and development of Molecular Bartending, a Louisville, Ky.-based drinks consultancy.

Sparkling wine's more frequent appearance as a cocktail ingredient is the result of restaurants' sparkling lists beginning to catch up with their other increasingly sophisticated by-the-glass offerings, Dun contends, and quips, "There was a time when you didn't want to order a glass of sparkling unless you had $300 in your pocket."

The welcome expansion of many by-the-glass lists to include a range of styles, as well as similar adjustment to cocktail programs that include sparkling wine, stems from operators "going back to simple and quality products," says Duff. Also driving the interest in these programs is that, "It's easier to put a sparkling cocktail on a list if it's done with prosecco or cava because [those wines are] cheaper."

Tim Baldwin, director of wine at the 700-room Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., concurs that sparkling wine is more cost effective to use in cocktails and offers "a better margin than if [the drinks] were made with Champagne." The Broadmoor features 16 restaurants and bars and carries 15 sparklers by the glass-priced $6 to $40 -- and 150 by the bottle. Bottle prices range from $25 to $750 for Dom Perignon 1999 Rose.

OPTIONS ABOUND
The use of sparkling wine gives fizz to a drink and makes it lower in alcohol and more food friendly, all attributes that have become ever more attractive. "A lot of people [in venues with which Duff consults] are asking for sparkling cocktails in the last six months especially," confirms Durr. "Instead of having two sparkling cocktails, many accounts now have five to six."

Part of the explosion of interest also comes from behind the bar and from the restaurant floor. Mixologists are becoming more savvy about wine as a cocktail ingredient and more interested in what it can add to cocktails, notes Duff, referring to the unique effervescent and flavor qualities it imparts.

Also, wine directors -- who once showed little interest in the cocktail side of the menu -- are recognizing sparkling wine's food-friendly nature and getting busy creating bubbly infused quaffs to pair with the restaurant's cuisine. One of the Broadmoor's signature cocktails, the Sparkling Summit, is made with pear puree and prosecco. Served in a Champagne flute, it is available in all 16 restaurants, according to Baldwin.

Beyond the hotel-wide cocktail offerings, each restaurant at the Broadmoor features its own unique cocktail made with sparkling wine. The Penrose Room, which showcases solely European wines, offers the Strawberry Rhubarb Fizz, made with prosecco and strawberries. Baldwin says he likes prosecco as a base "because it's lighter and has a freshness that helps push the flavors of the cocktail forward."

Beyond potential cost savings, top barkeeps and sommeliers are also using lesser-known sparkling wines in cocktails in their efforts to create different kinds of drinks. "Sparkling wine is more delicate [than still wine]," says Durr, who has a particular passion for prosecco, a wine that he says "is a little lighter."

The addition of sparkling wine makes a drink extremely fresh, instead of sweet, adds Kerin Doran, general manager of Fireside cocktail bar and restaurant in the 396-room Omni Berkshire Place hotel in New York City. Fireside features fun, small plates of cocktail-focused cuisine, along with a drink called the Sweet Seduction, made with Champagne and muddled rhubarb and strawberries. Doran pours three sparklers by the glass (priced $8 to $16) and 12 by the bottle ($40 to $310).

She adds that drinks made with sparkling wine can even appeal to customers who don't usually drink that type of wine, bringing another demographic into the bubble.

FROM FLUTE TO BOTTLE
Even with a greater awareness of cava, prosecco and other sparkling wine styles, by-the-glass and bottle offerings remain pretty traditional at many establishments. At the Broadmoor, for example, Baldwin says that two-thirds of the total sparkling wine sales are Champagne. "It's a category where people often stick with names they have heard of." Few sparkling wine brands, outside of the noted California houses, can compete with the name recognition of Champagne.

At the Broadmoor, the majority of sparkling wine consumption occurs by the glass, showing that many customers are not quite ready to fully embrace bubbles with food. Baldwin recognizes that bubbles are gaining fans but are not yet fully accepted as an accompaniment to an entree. In order to expose guests to the array of available wines and demonstrate their food-friendliness, "every single one of our tasting menus starts off with a different sparkling wine," he says.

While excitement about sparkling wines is just starring at most establishments, a handful takes the light, effervescent wines quite seriously. When the Bubble Lounge opened 12 years ago in New York and a decade ago in San Francisco, both bubbly-loving cities were introduced to the concept of the Champagne lounge. Similar concepts, such as Flute in New York and Paris, soon followed.

At both Bubble Lounge locations, sparkling wine and Champagne is featured by the glass, bottle and flight, and 20 to 25 sparklers are available by the glass (priced $15 to $40) and 270 by the bottle ($65 to $2,000), according to managing partner Emanuelle Chiche.

While Bubble Lounge does carry a few Italian sparkling wines and cremants, its list focuses primarily on Champagne. Both locations now feature Champagne flights from small growers, which go by the name of Farmer's Fizz. Three 5-ounce glasses of Champagne sell for $40.

Staff also promotes the business of bubbles by teaching guests how to saber Champagne bottles. Chiche says it's a 10-minute lesson that is usually given as a gift. Champagne-based cocktails, such as the Champagne Mojito, are also available, and Bubble Lounge has even started importing its own Champagnes from small producers.

The wide range of sparkling taste profiles stemming from the various grapes and regions producing these wines provides a bevy of fun flavors by the glass. As a cocktail component, bubbles bring complexity and a delightful fizz to mixologists' latest creations. As savvy operators experiment, bubbles are more likely to appear both in the flute and as part of the mix in a Highball glass.

Leading Brands of Champagne & Sparkling Wine (000 9-liter cases)
Brand	Supplier	Origin	2006	2007	% Change
Andre/ Wycliff	E & J Gallo Winery	USA	2,180	2,150	-1.4%
Cook's	Constellation Wines	USA	1,344	1,390	3.4%
Korbel	Brown-Forman Beverages	USA	1,236	1,266	2.4%
Martini & Rossi Asti	Bacardi USA	Italy	795	803	1.0%
Verdi Spumante	Carriage House Imports	Italy	692	773	11.7%
Freixenet	Freixenet USA	Spain	635	638	0.5%
J. Roget	Constellation Wines	USA	584	562	-3.8%
Ballatore	E & J Gallo Winery	USA	515	520	1.0%
Moet & Chandon	Moet Hennessy USA	France	508	488	-3.9%
Veuve Clicquot/La Grande Dame	Moet Hennessy USA	France	413	432	4.6%

Source: The Beverage Information Group
Bubbly-based cocktails bring new imbibers to sparkling wines. Shown here is the Bubble lounge's La Vie En Rose, involving rose Champagne, Chambord and fresh strawberries.

Liza Zimmerman is a San Francisco-based wine and cocktail writer and consultant. She is principal of the Liza the Wine Chick wine and spirits consulting company and the exclusive wine and cocktail "Examiner" for the SFExaminer.com.

Cheers, OCTOBER 2008, www.cheersonline.com