Won’t You Take Me to Sparkle Town
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City Vino has borrowed and personalized the lyrics to the classic song by Lipps Inc, Funkytown, in honor of this week’s sparkling topic and tasting. Here goes:
Gotta try to find a sparkling wine that's right for me
City Vino keeps me tastin’
Keeps me tryin’ with some more bubbly
Well, I swirl about it, swirl about it
Swirl about it, Swirl about it
Swirl about, swirl about
Swirl about tastin'
Gotta taste on
Gotta drink on
Gotta taste on
Won't you take me to Sparkle Town?
Won't you take me to Sparkle Town?
Won't you take me to Sparkle Town?
Won't you take me to Sparkle Town?
Sparkling wines are always in season, but especially over the holidays, and are especially a treat to ring in the New Year. This week’s wines in the shop will indeed be sparkling wines.
In addition to our weekly tasting, we are holding a Sparkle Town Wine Event this Thursday evening, December 29, at 7:00 pm, on the fourth floor of our building, at the All State Community Theater.
As it is the season of giving, all proceeds will go to support the Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble, our neighbors, and friends.
Our “Sip & Learn Sparking Wine Tasting” event will feature a variety of Sparkle Town-worthy selections, allowing you to taste a range of sparkling wines that are made in different ways. You will hear about how the bubbles get into one of the wines is not necessarily the way they got into another. The wines are surprises at this point and I do not even know what they will be. Rita is keeping her selections secret. I can say that there MAY be Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, Asti, Petillant Naturel (Pet-Nat), Moscato, or other styles. Which wines will Rita choose? Which will she choose? Tickets are going fast.
If you happen to have missed getting tickets, our weekly tasting features a few other sparkling wines. Starting with an upscale prosecco, NV Rebuli Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superior di Cartizze DOCG, from Veneto, Italy. Normally prosecco is machine harvested, quickly fermented, and out the door it goes at great value. But take some time to explore this one. The Conegliano Valdobbiadene region is of higher elevation along the Italian Alps, where the slopes are steep. Here they hand harvest, and the wine takes a bit more time in the second fermentation stage, to give a finer bubble. In addition, there is a bit of lees aging just to give it extra texture.
Italy has another Sparkletown of Franciacorta, in the Lombardy region. Here we find NV Elisabetta Abrami Brut Rosè. Made from 70 percent Pinot Noir and 30 percent Chardonnay with a pale salmon color. Typically, traditional-style wines that are rosè are made rosè at the end where the dosage is added. Here the maker started with a rosè in the second fermentation, which results in the beautiful salmon color. Franciacorta wines give you that great champagne flavor, for a fraction of the price.
Maybe you are more interested in creating wine cocktails for your evening. Or just continuing the celebration for a New Year’s brunch? Well the NV Maison Willm Blanc de Blanc Brut is a Crémant d’ Alsace, meaning that it is a sparkling wine from Alsace, France. What is Crémant? Typically, this kind of wine is more affordable than Champagne, but uses the same méthode champenoise, which entails secondary fermentation in the bottle. The assemblage includes 30 percent Pinot Blanc, 30 percent Pinot Gris, 30 percent Riesling, and 10 percent Gewurztraminer. With flavors of peach, fruit cup, ginger spice, and white flowers, it has bit of complexity to complement your choice of fruit juices for bellinis.
What’s New Year’s Eve without at least considering the most joyous, celebratory sparkler? Did you know Julius Caesar may have had a hand in elevating Champagne as the drink of choice on New Year’s? Cesar added two months to the pagan calendar and decreed the start of the new year to be January. The month’s name, January is named so after the god Janus, who had two faces and could look both forward and back. Regardless, Champagne overflows in abundance of joy, and should be elevated to mark important occasions both symbolically and visually. To mark our occasion City Vino will also be featuring NV Bauget Jouette Carte Blanche, from Champagne, France.
City Vino hopes you can join us at this Sparke Town tasting as we pre-usher in the New Year, all while supporting our local theater company. We raise a glass to ending 2022, the new year of 2023, our local community theater (Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble), and also to you our dear customers. To all, we wish you good health and prosperity in 2023 and wine in your glasses! Cheers!
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