Wine:It's a time to splash out - but a bit of bubbly doesn't always have to hurt your pocket, writes Joe Breen.
Fizz at Christmas is a must for most - which is why there's so much of it about, from the humblest Prosecco to the grandest grande marque. Apart from the occasional family celebration, this is the time of year when we feel emboldened to splash out on a little bit of sparkle to help lift the wintry gloom.
To the horror of the Champenois, who will go any distance to protect the exclusivity of their product, we often refer to any wine with bubbles in it as champagne. At the same time, though, we have been led to believe that anything under €20 is too cheap to be real.
Generally speaking we are right. Making champagne is not cheap, but whether the process costs as much as the Champenois would have us believe is doubtful. They keep prices high, even
for the average stuff, because champagne is the premier type of sparkler and has to be reassuringly expensive.
There is a strict pecking order in champagne. At the top are the 24 houses that comprise the Club des Grandes Marques - or Big Brand Club - such as Taittinger, Pol Roger, Krug, Gosset, Ruinart and Roederer. That pecking order also applies to what they produce.
Champagne comes in many guises, but the four main categories are non-vintage (NV), rosé, vintage and prestige cuvée.
Not all bubbles hail from northern France, of course. Other sparkling wines, known as cremants, are made in many regions of the country, including Alsace, Limoux and the Loire. Outside of France, Italy produces its very popular Prosecco, and Spain makes Cava. Even England's sparkling wine industry is making headway.
Most of these wines cost less than €20. Look out for Bisol Jeio Prosecco (Searsons, Monkstown, Co Dublin), Mionetto Prosecco (O'Briens, branches), the classy Australian Croser 2004 (about €25, various independents) and the gloriously drinkable Ascheri Moscato d'Asti 2005 (O'Briens) with its low alcohol (5.5 per cent) and low price (€12.99).
But even champagne doesn't always hurt your pocket. Dunnes Stores and Superquinn have two good-value brands in H Lanvin & Fils and H Blin & Co, respectively. Lanvin is available over Christmas for €19.99, €5 less than normal; Blin costs about €23. Neither will set the house on fire - Lanvin has the edge, with its sharp apple notes - but mix either with good orange juice and you and your guests will be laughing all night long. O'Briens has a good basic, toasty champagne in Charles Orban Blanc de Noirs (€23.99). Berry Bros & Rudd's own-brand Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Le Mesnil (€33.95) is solidly impressive, although my favourite bargain bubbly this year is Cattier Brut Premier Cru (Celtic Whiskey Shop, €29.99), which has a baked-bread freshness. Marks & Spencer's more bracing Oudinot NV (€24) and Donnybrook Fair's Veuve Fourney & Fils Premier Cru NV (€39) are not far behind.
As Christmas is a time of splashing out, however, we've got a sparkler wish list. So please, Santa, in no particular order, bring me:
Krug 1996. It's ludicrously expensive - about €200 if you can find it; try O'Briens. The glass I sampled was memorable.
Bollinger RD (€125 in a wooden gift box, O'Briens), Bollinger La Grande Année 1999 (€95, Mitchell & Son) or both.
More realistically, Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV (€49, Searsons). Bone-dry, nutty and citrusy.
Taittinger Brut Réserve NV (about €45, various independents). Fresh, well-defined and well-balanced. A great brand back in great form.
Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé NV (€57.95, Berry Bros & Rudd). Arguably the best pink champagne.
GREAT GIFTS FOR WINE LOVERS
Selecting wine or a wine accessory for someone you love, like or need to impress can rebound catastrophically if you make the wrong choice. The wine world at Christmas is littered with booby traps for the ill-prepared, so do your homework before you splash the cash.
Top of the list is how much you want to spend. There is almost no upper limit when it comes to wine. At one recent auction, a Swiss cellar of 12,000 bottles of fine wine sold for more than €4 million, of which about half was for 1,500 bottles of Château Pétrus, at a cool €1,455 a bottle. That seems like a bargain against the €3,158.10 Berry Bros & Rudd, in Dublin 2, is charging for the celebrated 2005 vintage, in bond (see www.bbr.com).
But all things are relative. And only the very rich or very foolish would plump for such an obvious status symbol.
If you want to spend big but with good taste and discretion, then a magnum of Château Calon-Ségur 2005, at €137.81 in bond, would be appropriate, though its recipient should wait until 2015, at the earliest, before opening it.
Alternatively, Donnybrook Fair, in Dublin, is offering a bottle of Château Léoville Barton 2001 in a black gift box with two glasses for €110. If that doesn't rock your boat, this expanding operation - now, in addition to its Donnybrook base, it is planning stores at Kimmage crossroads in Dublin and in Greystones, Co Wicklow - has lots of food and wine options.
But then all the main wine shops and websites have oodles of gift suggestions. Paddy Keogh's Wines Direct (www.winesdirect.ie) has many interesting mixed cases - his Grand Selection case (€245), which contains Chablis, Montagny, Hautes Côtes de Nuit and Mercurey, will help you make a good impression.
James Nicholson (www.jnwine.com) doesn't mince words with the Christmas Indulgence half-case, at €359 (was €376.95). Its six bottles to remember include the exceptional Champagne Billecart-Salmon Grande Cuvée 1996, Domaine Vincent Girardin Meursault Les Narvaux 2005 and the the top-notch Californian Ridge Monte Bello 2000.
But there is so much to select from that we need to focus. Here's a slice of what would make me happy.
Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson's new edition of The World Atlas of Wine (Mitchell Beazley, £35 in UK, or €24.49 plus €7.99 delivery for the club edition from www.thebookpeople.ie). Brilliantly presented and packed with information. See also page 18.
Tom Stevenson's Wine Report 2008 (Dorling Kindersley, £9.99 in UK). For anoraks only, this is a superbly informed summary of what's important in the wine world at the moment.
A six-bottle wooden case of Brunello di Montalcino Campo del Drago Castiglion del Bosco 2000 (Searsons, Monkstown, Co Dublin; reduced to €260). The promise of glorious decadence with immaculate balance and taste.
Bushmills Single Sherry Cask No 5229 (left; Celtic Whiskey Shop, Dublin 2, €89.99). Distilled in 1989, and with only 200 bottles available, this is a whiskey drinker's collection piece. It is amazing how the sherry cask leaves its sweet, spicy mark on the spirit.
... Loved by rap stars (although their love is not reciprocated by Roederer), Cristal Champagne 1996 (Donnybrook Fair, Dublin; a snip at €600) is for many the ultimate expression of bubbly excess. Presented in gift box with beluga caviar.
San Vicente Single Estate Rioja 1999/2000 (O'Briens, branches, €45 in a wooden presentation case) is a stunning wine, with huge concentration and vivid red fruit.
The Wines of Margaux (tickets €250). A fine-wine dinner on April 10th next year, hosted by Alun Griffiths of Berry Bros & Rudd, at its Dublin HQ, on Harry Street. Wines include Margaux, Palmer, du Tertre, Kirwan, Lascombes and d'Angludet.
Barcelona corkscrew (below left; www.wineobsessed.com, €14.99). Elegant, well designed and highly functional.
Forget the American fridge and opt
for a Eurocave S283 three-temperature wine cabinet (above), which holds 190 bottles (€3,000-€5,000, depending on finish, www.febvre.ie).
There are lots of glasses, but Riedel still rules. Four hand-made crystal Sommelier Bordeaux Grand Cru glasses will set you back €260 at Mitchell & Son in Dublin. It also has a Christmas offer on six Vinum Bordeaux glasses and a decanter for €132.
Bowmore 18-year-old Islay Single Malt (Celtic Whiskey Shop, Dublin 2, €69.99). Named best single malt at a competition in San Francisco.