Preparing for Wine Blogging Wednesday – Part V
25-Nov-2006
This is the fifth and last post about sparkling wines meant to help you in preparing for Wine Blogging Wednesday #28 – Sparkling Wines (but not Champagne).
This post is just basically a listing of types of Sparkling Wines that we have not yet discussed. I’m sure that I will have missed some – or many – but this is just meant as a jumping off point for your research!
Australia: One of the latest trends in sparkling wines is Sparkling Reds, mostly Shiraz, from Australia. I first heard about this Sparkling Shiraz about 3 years ago and since then it seems to be springing up everywhere!
Austria: I know that Austria produces sparkling wine and I know that it is even available here in Seattle. But unfortunately that is about all I know. :-( Web searches kept turning up references to Schlumberger but there wasn’t much specific information I can’t read the site – but I know it’s out there and maybe some one will blog it!
Canada: I’ve recently sampled a sparkling wine from British Columbia made from Riesling and have had several other of their sparklers in the past. Canada produces sparklers from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Gamay Noir.
France: Mentioned briefly in the "terms" post Cremant is worth mentioning again as it is used two different ways. First, it can mean a method that produces a moderately sparkling wine. However it is also used in the naming of sparklers from outside the Champagne region that are made by méthode champenoise. The three wines you may see with this naming convention are: Crémant Alsace, Crémant De Burgoyne and Crémant De Loire
Germany: Sekt (short for Qualitätschaumwein) and Schaumwein. Can be made from various varietals.
Italy: We’ve mentioned several Italian sparklers already but one I missed is Rosa Regale, a low alcohol dessert sparker.
Portugal: Vinho Verde, green wine, is not green colored but a young fresh wine meant to be consumed early. Wines from this DOC are red, white, rose or sparkling but it looks like only the whites are exported.
Other New World Sparkling Wine Producers
I would love it if some of these following wines made it into the WBW roundup! I know that Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa all produce sparklers, too. It seems that most of these rely on the standard Champagne grapes but sometimes include local grapes. For instance, I know there is at least one wine from South Africa that is based on Pinotage and includes some Pinot Noir.
The point is that there is a whole WORLD of sparklers and hopefully we will discover some new choices when we all do our research and write-ups for this, the 28th edition, of Wine Blogging Wednesday!
Culinary Fool 
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