Today I went to the K&L Wine in Redwood City for their “Sparkling Wines From All Over The World” tasting. 5 of us from work met there.
The tasting was only $15 which I thought was pretty reasonable as there were 9 bubblys to taste. I arrived on time and everyone else was late :) so I spent some time talking to one of the guys (Gary) who worked there (as a Champagne buyer – excellent job!) and he was telling me all about the Champagne region, smaller places to visit, restaurants, etc. I just finished reading “The Widow Cliquot” so am quite excited to visit the region (and of course I LOVE bubbly.) He was very friendly and informative and spent about 25 minutes chatting with me about champagne: the business of champagne, the region of Champagne and, of course, drinking champagne and what we’d be tasting today :)
More and more people started coming in the store so he had to move on and help others so I went into their tasting room to start my tasting as my friends STILL weren’t there! The girl that was pouring was very friendly and informative. She wasn’t a snotty wine snob in ANY way and she said she preferred bubbly too (like me!) As were the other 2 women who were there tasting. So I was in good company right away :)
We tried:
-Jean-Francois Merieau “Bulles” Touraine Sparkling (Loire Valley, FR) *good*
-Dibon Cava Brut NV (Spain) *very good*
-Bianchi Extra Brut NV (Argentina) *good*
-2005 Argyle Willamette Valley Brut (Oregon) *pretty good*
-Launois “Quartz” Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne (Champagne, FR) *meh*
-Cremant de Limoux Rosé Antech “Emotion” (Limoux, FR) *very good*
-Taltarni Brut Rosé “Tache” Sparkling Wine (Tasmania) *good*
-Ca Berti Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro “Robusco” (Italy) *meh*
-NV Majella Sparkling Shiraz (Australia) *ok*
I used very technical ratings in astericks next to each name :) I found it funny that I liked the French Champagne the least. Kinda makes me laugh since they are so snotty about being the only ones able to call their sparkling wine “champagne”. I’ve read the reasoning, blah, blah. I have tasted California Sparkling, Cava and Prosecco that are all very delicious. So they don’t need the the ‘champagne’ label. But if I call it champagne in casual conversation – I don’t want to be corrected by some dolt who thinks I don’t know it’s “only Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region.” (NO ONE at K&L did that!!!)
I bought a bottle of the Cremant de Limoux Rosé Antech “Emotion”. Was my favorite of the bunch. And reasonable! $14.99. I also bought a tiny bottle of Soligo Prosecco Brut. I bought it for 2 reasons: 1) the bottle and label had a black & silver combo – very pretty!
Tiny Prosecco!
And 2) To add to the now growing collection of tiny bottles on my desk at work :)
Bubbly on desk :)
If you ever want a good, inexpensive and local bubbly (or wine) tasting, I suggest checking the schedule for K&L. You can sign up for their email list and then you will see when they schedule them! They have 2 locations in the Bay Area (SF and Redwood City) and 1 in LA:
