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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: Riedel Veritas Champagne
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
2016 Fratelli Lunelli Ferrari Perle Millesimato Trentodoc, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/fratelli+lunelli+ferrari+perle+millesimato+trento+trentino+alto+adige+italy/2016?referring_site=KSB
2016 Robert Moncuit ‘Les Chetillons’ Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut, Champagne, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/robert+moncuit+les+chetillons+grand+cru+blancdeblanc+extra+brut+champagne+france/2016?referring_site=KSB
2014 Griesel & Compagnie Grande Cuvee Exquisit Dosage Zero, Germany
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/griesel+compagni+grand+cuvee+exquisit+zero+germany/2014?referring_site=KSB er=p
Colmant Blanc de Blancs MCC – Methode Cap Classique, Western Cape, South Africa
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/colmant+blancdeblanc+mcc+methode+cap+cls+western+cape+south+africa?referring_site=KSB
2018 Artadi ‘Izar-Leku’ Hondarribi Zuri, Pais Vasco, Spain
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/artadi+izar+leku+hondarribi+zuri+pais+vasco+spain/2018?referring_site=KSB
Domaine des Marnes Blanches Cremant du Jura Reserve, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+de+marne+blanche+rsrv+cremant+du+jura+france?referring_site=KSB
The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.
I have done a lot of Sparkling Wine blind tastings in the last months, and I find them fascinating as the Sparkling Wine world is changing quickly.
There are some producers, the well-established ones, that can dominate the market and some of them have serious marketing budgets that help them build their reputation.
On the other side, new wineries are focusing on quality and pushing the boundaries of the sparkling wine world to include regions, that were previously not considered to be prime sparkling Terroir
These new players usually don’t have the negotiation power to compete with the wines from Champagne and therefore trade at a much lower price. This is of course nice for all of us as we can buy quality but budget-friendly sparklers – that is if they can compete with Champagne in terms of quality. This is why I asked Leon to select sparkling wines from all around the world – Champagne to maybe Chile – to compete in the ultimate face-off for the sparkling crown.
35 Comments
The runner up is tough for me! In terms of frequency/availability it’s Prosecco, but my local store has some delicious Riesling Sekt
The higher the number, the higher the foam head.
Lots of foamy foam foam 😂 great stuff
I would watch sparkling tasting every week. I think this is the best market to find a bargain wine vs champagne and it pairs with basically all food – so universal appeal!
Great video again! Outside of champagne, I like Italian sparkling wines (Ferrari, Ca del Bosco, La Scolca), Gloria Ferrer from California and what I consider to be the best Riesling Sekt 1900 from Van Volxem. If you want something sweet: Paolo Saracco Moscato d'Asti and especially Caudrina La Selvatica.
No 5 is from the Basque country – their famous wine Txacoli is very very dry
I like to see you review some Pet Nat wines.
So my takeaway from this: if a Master of Wine like Konstantin struggles to pick out Champagne blind, then there is almost no chance we average wine drinkers could tell the difference. It seems to me like Champagne is not worth the price premium unless you are looking for a very specific profile from a particular grower — too much good sparkling wine being made outside Champagne at much more affordable prices!
I love these face off videos! Would have been an interesting curveball to throw a rosé champagne in there. Or a maybe you could do a whole sparkling rosé wine face off. Also, if you haven't had Raventos from Spain (not Cava) you have to try it! Can really go head to head with good Champagne. Sparkling Vouvray from Loire (Huet) would be a good addition to this comparison as well.
LOL – you think communal 'spitoon splashback' is bad? Try what Miles did in Sideways, the communal spitoon SWALLOW! (go to 1min mark) https://www.google.com/search?q=sideways+drinking+from.spittoon&oq=sideways+spitoon&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i8i13i30j0i390i512i650l4j0i512i546l3j0i546i649.7024j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f6eec4b9,vid:PPKdHP8zWuo,st:0
Coorpinat, for sure. Maybe you've already tried them, but they never appear in your videos. In general, they are great sparkling wines, and many at prices below the price of entry-level champagnes. There are also more expensive wines, but in the €25 to €40 range there are many excellent ones. Wineries such as Recaredo, Gramona, Llopart, Júlia Bernet, Nadal…
MW Examiner: Please analyse this wine
Konstantin: “a lot of foamy foam foam”
Tasted some reale good south african sparkling from L’Ormarins, wich costs aprox. 20 euro in Denmark
Very nice Video, thank you! Now i have to check if you have a Video about Prosecco. To stay in the sparkling theme.
I've noticed the rubbery aroma with Cava at times as well. Where does this come from?
So much good stuff in South Africa – most underrated country for sparkling wines. But there are misses too, because very little is exported and MCC has much more flexibility with grapes. If you stick with Chardonnay/Pinot Noir, you'll usually have very pleasant experiences.
I love bubbles! Cheers 🥂
English sparkling such as Gusbourne, Nyetimber, Sugrue, or Simpsons. All great producers!
There are some fantastic methode traditionale sparkling wines coming out of Tasmania in Australia right now. Arras being the main example, but there are many others as well.
It’s sort of like soy sauce, that flavor, but I think of it as those dead-yeast spreads like Marmite or Vegemite, because it’s actually from dead yeast! However, more people are familiar with soy sauce than Marmite or Vegemite: I’m American, and most of us Americans have never tried either of them!
Would love your take on budget champagne (cheapest bottle from aldi et al) and big name brand nv
Great video, he is so honest and a great example of how breaking a wine down to its bare parts to describe and rate it. I live in Australia and there are some amazing bubbles coming from Tassie and Otago too. Champers is very expensive down here. I’d love to try the Txakoli sparkling. Some of my best memories are in san seb.
After suggesting to try a Griesel a couple of videos ago, I am happy that it won the tasting. My favorite producer of sparkling wine at the moment.
The fifth wine which was from Spain comes from the Basque region. I had no clue they were making a sparkling wine. The region is very rainy but the have a white grape and a red grape that tolerate that. The two grapes are unrelated.
I’ve gone to 4 trade shows this month, SO much spittoon splashback 😫 I’ve learned to bring my own cup to spit into. 😅
Again, what a amazing bubble session. I salivate when I hear the sounds of the bubbles opening on the glass.
Unfortunately we don't have Griesel & Compagnie Grande Cuvee Exquisit Dosage Zero here in PT for sale.
BTW, Leon if you're reading this, please show some Portuguese Sparkling wine to Konstantin. I'll happily help!
Cheers everyone.
I love sparkling wines from northern Italy and Spain, but have recently been very impressed with some of the stuff I've had from Willamette Valley. I think there's immense potential there for sparkling wine. Would also love to see Meunier get more love outside of Champagne proper. Not enough producers growing it!
Isn’t the Champagne chosen with the agenda? I can bet that if the champagne was more classic, like, let’s say, Heidsieck 2013 or Bollinger PN, the results could be different – pretty much the same ball park. All the wines in the lineup are pretty conservatively selected, besides champagne and Spanish sparkler. Maybe that was the key to the result.
Not assuming anything, but I believe a classic champagne for 120 EUR would smash all other wine 9 times in 10.
Thanks for your movies – you’re the only guy on the internet who’s sipping wine and making it interesting 🥂
What's with the foam? Sure they weren't beer?:-)
Very good timing to watch this video – tomorrow I am going on Grand Champagne Forum here in Helsinki. I want to taste that carefully !! 🥂🥂🥂
8:09 usually also not just rubber but also carton boxes in taste. 🙂
22:29 well, my choice will be possibly Franciacorta and English Sparkling
Raventós Blanc de la Finca
Super interesting, and fun to watch. Thanks for sharing.
This tasting of sparkling wine confirmed what I have discovered as well, there are some impressive bubbles being produced outside of Champagne that I favor more these days. Thank you for this video!