Holiday Sparkling Wines #2: Sparkling Rosé! (Sparkling Rosé wine demystified, Traditional Method vs. Charmat Method of making sparkling wine, cuve close, sweet vs. dry sparkling wine)

Show Notes

Episode 58: Holiday Sparkling Wines #2: Sparkling Rosé!    00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

Ok, a quick orientation for those of you who may be new to the podcast - in each episode we learn about, taste and review three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $20 - and should be easy for you to find. Our goal is to have some fun, learn about some new wines, and talk about wines in a way that regular people like us can understand. And we are proud to say we  are officially recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine, who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. 

Well, Carmela, just in time for New Year’s Eve, we have another episode on Holiday sparkling wines, and this time we are focusing on, as we said in the intro, sparkling rosé. Oooo.

Now, we love love love sparkling wine, and we will say again, as we always do, that sparkling wine is something we recommend you drink any night of the week and any time of the year. People don’t often realize how great of a food wine it is, because we generally associate it with parties and weddings and drinks after dinner, and a lot of times as an aperitif or before dinner wine. But we are here to tell you that a good sparkling wine is a perfect dinner wine as well!

But, of course, we tend to see more sparkling wine during the Holidays, and it is most often the drink of choice on New Years Eve, although you will get reprimanded by us if you call the sparkling wine you are drinking “Champagne” if it is not Champagne. That is a wine un gros faux paus. (Ann Grew Foe Paw) - or, a big mistake. Ok?!?

Now, the wine we have chosen for today - sparkling rosé -  can be a little extra confusing for a few reasons. First, both sparkling wine and rosé are styles of wine, they are not varietals. What does that mean? By that we mean that sparkling wine can be made in a variety of different ways with a variety of different grapes,and rosé also is a wine style that can be made in a variety of different ways with a wide variety of grapes, so it’s really helpful to know WHAT your sparkling wine and your rosé are made of and WHERE they are made to really understand them. So, putting these two things together - sparkling wine and rosé - can be a real head scratcher because you have to know both. 

But don’t, worry, we’ll demystify these things a little bit today. 

• For one quick primer, rosé wine is made by using red wine grapes in the wine and putting the wine juice, which is clear or yellow or straw colored, in contact with the skins of the red grapes for a few hours. 
• And, for another quick primer, there are a few different ways sparkling wine can be made, including the traditional method, the Charmat method, and the transfer method. For all of our sparkling rosé wines today, we’ll tell you what grapes they are made from and how the sparkling wines are made, and we have a few different styles which is fun!

And, you also need to understand if your sparkling wine is sweet or dry. Don’t you think that most people think of sparkling wines as sweet? And it is true that most sparkling wines definitely do have sweet notes to them, but many sparkling wines are not sweet. And, Carmela - which are our favorite types of sparkling wines? Now, there is no right or wrong here. Your Aunt Glo and Uncle Doc, for instance, like a good demi-sec sparkling which is on the sweet side. Your taste is your taste, afterall, but it’s good to know what we prefer so then you can decide if you agree with us or not. We’ll  just say that the sweeter a sparkling wine is, the harder it is to pair with savory foods. 

Don’t worry, we’ll talk a skosh more on sparkling wine sweetness a bit today, too, and we have some great links to articles in our show notes, so just head on over to this episode on our website and look in our show notes for some of this information.

But, Carmela, I think we should just go ahead and talk a bit more about sparkling rosé and the wines we chose for this episode and tell you what we think about these wines right?!?  . . . 

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug, right Carmela? If you finding that you are enjoying what our podcast, we think it would be a sparkling great idea to subscribe to our podcast! And we would also bubble over with joy if you would leave us a nice a rating and review on our website or on your podcast service so that people who are searching around will see our ratings and pop on over to check us out!

You can also follow us or reach out to us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast or on CounterSocial - our Twitter alternative of choice -  or contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should tell about The Wine Pair Podcast, and this week we want you tell anyone who is preparing to party like a rock star on New Year’s Eve and needs ideas for sparkling wines to bring or to serve.


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://winefolly.com/tips/sparkling-wine-explained-dry-to-sweet/
• https://vinyang.com/blog/sparkling-wine-sweetness 

 

Topic: What is Sparkling Rosé Wine? 09:38

Ok, so as we said earlier, sparkling rosé is actually two styles of wine pulled into one. First, let’s talk a little bit more about rosé and what it is, and in particular what it is when it is a sparkling wine. 

I will readily admit, too, Carmela that when people say they like rosé I get a little annoyed and self righteous - and do you know why that it? Well, I am a little bit of a snob. Saying you like rosé is kind of like saying “I like red wine” - and, if you haven’t figured it out by now, there are tons and tons and tons of different red wines out there - much more than just Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and Pinot Noir. 

And, it’s the same with rosé. First, rosé wine must be made at least partially from red grapes because it is the red grape skin or purple grape skin that makes rosé wine pink in color. In the process of making the wine, the grape juice must be in contact with the red skins for up to 24 hours. Any longer and you are kind of getting into the orange wine realm. 

There are a wide variety of red wine grapes that can be made into rosé, and some of the most common are Grenache, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cinsault (sahn sew)  and Cabernet Franc. All of these, by the way, are classic French grapes. Depending on what grapes are used and how they are mixed together and where they come from, one rosé can taste pretty different from another. 

Now, when we are talking about sparkling rosé, the tendency is that wine makers often use what red wine grape Carmela? Do you know? Pinot Noir. One reason for this is that Pinot Noir is one of the three grapes that goes into Champagne - and remember that Champagne is a specific sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region of France. In Champagne, the three grapes are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier - which is also a red grape. So, sparkling rosé Champagne will always be made from those grapes. 

Its use as one of the classic sparkling wine grapes is one of the main reasons why Pinot Noir is used so often in sparkling rosé. Pinot Noir is used, for instance, in rosé Prosecco as we mentioned a couple of episodes ago. And, Pinot Noir is used in all of the sparkling wines we are having today! Maybe that is why I like sparkling rosé so much! Just note that in many sparkling rosé wines, the other grapes used may be quite different. A lot of times they will use a Chardonnay, but in wines like Prosecco, they use the Glera grape which is the base grape in all Prosecco wines. 

Again, you just have to take some time to understand what the grapes are in the wine, and then, when you do, you can really start to determine what wines you like.

Now, let’s talk a bit about how sparkling wines are made, because depending on the sparkling wine, the way in which it is produced can vary. The traditional method of making sparkling wine is the way Champagne is made - so if you see things like Méthode Traditionnelle, Méthode Champenoise, and Méthode Classique on a bottle, you know it is made in this style. 

I won’t go into it in any depth on what the Champagne Method is because we have talked about it in the past, like in the previous Holiday sparkling wine episode on Cremant. Needless to say, it is a pretty lengthy and in depth process that requires two fermentations, disgorgement of sediment and yeast, adding of sugar or sweet wine from previous vintages, and a corking and caging phase. 

The more important things for us to talk about today cover are the Charmat method and sweetness in sparkling wine:

• First, we love Prosecco, right, Carmela? Is Prosecco made in the same style as Champagne? No! Prosecco is not made in the Champagne style, and it is not made with Champagne grapes. If you want a real Champagne style sparkling wine from Italy, look for Franciacorta, which is fantastic. 
• Two of the wines we are having today are made in the same style as Prosecco which is called the Charmat Method, sometimes also known as the Italian method. In this method, the second fermentation takes place in a pressurized stainless steel tank, and is a much faster way of making sparkling wine. 
• Second, you need to find the sweetness style that you are most comfortable with. As we said, we much prefer the drier sparkling wines which are often called - do you know Carmela? Brut, Extra Brut, Zero Dosage, or Brut Naturale. Do not be fooled by “Dry” in the name of a sparkling wine, because that means it is sweet.
• Again, we love Prosecco, but most Prosecco is actually on the sweeter side, and is often labeled as Extra Dry which is super confusing because that just means that it is in the middle of the sweetness scale.
• If you like sweet sparkling wine, you want to look for Dry, Sec, Demi-Sec or Trocken. And, if you like your sparkling wine super sweet, look for Dolce, Dulce, Doux or Mild. 
• One shortcut? Look for the alcohol content. What would you expect to see in alcohol content, Carmela? The lower the alcohol content, the sweeter the wine usually is - under 11% generally means sweet. This can be true for still wines as well. 

So, I think those are some good basics to get you going. 

1. First, know what is in your sparkling rosé. The majority of the time it is going to contain Pinot Noir, but you should know that, and know what else is in it. 
2. Second, know the style of the way the wine is made. Is it in the traditional method like Champagne, or is it in the faster Charmat method? 
3. And third, know how sweet it is. If you like your sparkling wines less sweet, look for Brut in the name. If it doesn’t have Brut in the name, it is likely on the sweet side. And remember our shortcut. If the wine is less than 11% alcohol, it’s probably sweet. 

But let’s talk about the sparkling rosé wines we chose today, whaddya say?

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.bornrose.com/blogs/news/the-different-styles-of-rose-wine-is-all-rose-sparkling-wine
• https://iscbubbly.com/2018/03/traditional-method-vs-charmat-method/
• https://www.winonoire.com/home/how-to-tell-if-wine-is-sweet-or-dry#:~:text=Check%20the%20ABV%20and%20RS&text=On%20the%20other%20hand%2C%20if,dry%20usually%2014%25%20and%20up.
• https://www.everwonderwine.com/blog/2017/1/14/is-there-a-relationship-between-a-wines-alcohol-level-and-its-sweetness

Sparkling Rosé Wines We Chose for this Episode: 18:55

As usual, all of the wines we are drinking today are relatively easy to find. I know you can find all of them on wine.com because that is where we found them, and all of them are under $20, and in fact none was more than $.16.99. And,once again, all of them had decent ratings from at least one well known professional reviewer. For what that’s worth.

I will also say that none of these wines is a Prosecco, a Champagne, or a Cremant. In addition, none of these sparkling wines is from France or the United States. So how about that? 

So what do we have you ask? We have a sparkling rosé Cava from Spain, a sparkling rosé Brut from Italy that is not a Prosecco and is not a Franciacorta - ooh, the mystery - and a sparkling rosé from the Mendoza area of Argentina, the home of the World Cup champions, that I have no idea about but may be on the sweet side. We will see.

The first sparkling rosé is called Codorníu Anna de Codorníu Cava Brut Rosé. And, we have had the non-rosé version of this wine, which they were selling in Costco this summer. Cava is the name for the most famous sparkling wines from Spain, and unlike sparkling wines from France and Italy, Cava is the name for Spanish sparkling wines that are made in the Traditional or Champagne method and come from a designated area, but that designated, or Denominación de Origen (DO) is not all in the same region or town, which is a bit unique. 

Most Cava is made in an area near Barcelona near a town called San Sadurní d’Anoia which is where our wine comes from today, but Cava can also come from a few other areas that are designated as Cava, including some parts of Aragon, Valencia, and Rioja.

What do you think the name Cava means, Carmela? That’s right, it means cave, and this is because, like a lot of sparkling wines, they are stored for their second fermentation in caves. Most Cavas are brut, but not all. The great thing about Cava is that it is delicious and inexpensive, so it is a great choice. 

What is interesting about this particular Cava is that it is not made of the traditional grapes found in a Cava which are very unique to Cava, but rather from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, so very much a Champagne style.

We have some good articles in our show notes on Cava, and there is a good link we included from a source called Master Class, so check them out if you want to learn more of the finer details, like what grapes are usually found in a Cava. And, we did an episode last year during the holidays just on Cava, so check that out. Episode 9, to be exact.

The second wine is called Cleto Chiarli Brut de Noir Rosé, and this wine is from the Emilia-Romagna area of Italy. We have mentioned this before, but this area is often called the food capital of Italy, and is a region that sits between Florence and Venice. The most famous city in the region is Bologna. Not baloney. And, in Bologna, bologna is called mortadella, but I digress. 

This wine is really interesting for a few reasons. First, this wine is made in the Charmat method, which they call cuve close on their website - which is also what the French call it, by the way. So, it is made like Prosecco, where it is fermented for a second time and the bubbles are added in a pressurized tank. Second, it is made from a bit of Pinot Noir, but mostly a Lambrusco grape called Grasparossa which I have never had before. 

This wine has gotten a number of good reviews, so I am really looking forward to trying it, and I am curious if it seems closer to Prosecco than Champagne.

The third sparkling rosé I got a bit on a whim. I was thinking of doing an entire episode on sparkling wines from South America, and we may still, but I thought it would be fun to do a new world wine along with our old world wines. This wine is called Antucura Cherie Sparkling Rosé and is from the Mendoza area of Argentina which is most famous for Malbec. 

This sparkling rosé is made entirely from Pinot Noir, which is also pretty unique. We do love  
Rosé made from Pinot Noir a lot, so I am expecting us to really like this one, too. You’ll like this, too, Carmela - this is what the winery says: “Inspired by music lyrics, Cherie is our expression of Pinot Noir Rose. While it’s always appropriate to share sparkling rose with your significant other, we believe that all occasions are made brighter with pink bubbles.” What song do you think that probably comes from?

This wine is also made in the Charmat method as best as I can tell, and I am a little suspicious that it will be on the sweeter side, but we will find out. 

All right, enough of that jibber jabber, I think it’s time to try some wine!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://winefolly.com/tips/what-is-cava/
• https://www.masterclass.com/articles/the-complete-guide-to-cava-spains-sparkling-wine 
• https://www.wiredforwine.com/products/cleto-chiarli-rose-brut-de-noir-sparkling-blend
• https://www.dallaterra.com/tech-sheet/cleto-chiarli-brut-de-noir-rose-vino-spumante-di-qualita 
• https://glossary.wein.plus/cuve-close 
• https://winechateau.com/products/antucura-sparkling-pinot-noir-rose-cherie?variant=41167411340 
• https://www.antucura.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CHERIE.pdf
• https://southernwines.com/product/antucura-cherie-sparkling-nv/ 

Sparkling Rosé wine pairing tasting and review 25:57

Wine: Codorníu Anna de Codorníu Cava Brut Rosé (Click here to buy this wine. Affiliate link)
Region: Spain, San Sadurní d’Anoia
Producer: Codorníu family
Year: NV
Price: $12.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12%
Grapes: 70% Pinot Noir & 30% Chardonnay
Professional Rating: JS 91, WE 90, WW 90

What we tasted and smelled in this Cava Brut Rosé: Strawberry, kiwi, watermelon, not yeasty, fresh and fruity, effervescent or fizzy in the mouth, like Pop-Rocks, raspberry in the taste, tart plum, skins of the plum, tangy, refreshing. Does not taste like Champagne. On the sweeter side. Pleasant. 

Food to pair with this Cava Brut Rosé: Fish, seafood, fried fish, fried foods, spicy foods. Probably more of an aperitif, and less of a food wine. 

As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and in-between we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 7/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Wine: Cleto Chiarli Brut de Noir Rosé (Click here to buy this wine. Affiliate link)
Region: Italy, Emilia-Romagna
Producer: Cleto Chiarli
Year: NV
Price: $15.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12%
Grapes: 85% Lambrusco Grasparossa and 15% Pinot Noir
Professional Rating: JS 91, WE 90, WW 90

What we tasted and smelled in this Brut de Noir Rosé: Strawberry, flowers, rose petals, some toast and yeast, creamy, earthy, grapefruit, tart, citrus notes. Bubble gum notes. Tart raspberry. Very creamy in the mouth. Some fizziness to it rather than bubbly. Delicious. Very pretty.

Food to pair with this Brut de Noir Rosé: fish, fried foods, spicy foods, chicken, white meats. Nice food wine. A good wine for the entire night - toast, dinner, and after dinner with the celebration. 
 

Rating: 

• Joe: 7/10
• Carmela: 8/10

Wine: Antucura Cherie Sparkling Rosé (Click here to buy this wine. Affiliate link)
Region: Argentina, Mendoza
Producer: Antucura
Year: NV
Price: $16.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12%
Grapes: Pinot Noir
Professional Rating: JS 90, WE 87

What we tasted and smelled in this Sparkling Rosé: Toast or yeast, earthy, cherry pit, strawberry bramble or leaves, almond, chestnut, not sweet, very dry, bitter, fruit disappears almost instantly in the mouth, watermelon rind, tart cherry, under-ripe cherry. Citrus. Sophisticated. Complex.

Food to pair with this Sparkling Rosé: A food wine. Very much needs to be with food, goes great with food. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 8/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Cleto Chiarli Brut de Noir Rosé
• Joe: Antucura Cherie Sparkling Rosé

What do you think of these Sparkling Rosé wines for New Year’s Eve?
These are great wines for New Year’s Eve.


Taste profiles expected from Sparkling Rosé 47:54

• Cava - Anna de Codorníu Cava Brut Rosé
  • Winery: Aromas of red fruit, strawberries, cherries and woodland fruits with hints of green apple. Elegant and light on the palate. Well balanced between acidity and sweetness with a refreshing finish.
  • JS: red-berry and candied-orange character.
• Cleto Chiarli Brut de Noir Rosé
  • JS: watermelon and lemon character. Medium body, lovely creamy texture
  • WE: aromas of apple, berry and bread crust. The aromas carry over to the tangy palate together with red cherry and a hint of pastry cream alongside bright acidity and small continuous bubbles.
  • WW: aromas and flavors of zippy, red fruit, and mineral notes.
  • Leesy strawberries, faint mint and cider apples
• Antucura Cherie Sparkling Rosé
  • Winery: perfect combination of aromas of yeast, toast, candied fruits and white flowers. aromas of raspberry and fresh strawberry with hints of tropical fruit
  • JS: A rosé with plenty of dried fruit character and lemon undertones. Full body, bright acidity and a firm and lively finish. Excellent body.
  • WE: Strawberry, field grass and creamy, lactic aromas feed into a bright palate with ripe but short flavors of melon and spiced apple. This is dry and dusty on the finish, with fresh acidity and a touch of powdered sugar flavor.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 50:10

As always, thank you so very much for listening to us, The Wine Pair, and you know, while you’re thinking about it, we think you should subscribe and give us a nice rating! 

We would also love to hear from you. Please reach out to us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, you can email us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com, you can follow us on Instagram and you can also find us on a Twitter alternative we just joined that I think we are going to like called CounterSocial - which seems to be a pretty positive environment, and we would be so happy if you DM’ed us and told us what you think, if you have ideas for future episodes or wines you are curious about or wine styles you are interested in or ways of growing wines you are curious about! And, we hope you tell your friends and family and loved ones and your mom and everyone who ever said anything nice to you about us!

Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.