Sparkling Wine Club

 

Sparkling Wine & Champagne Lovers – Click Here

Receive two different sparkling wines from the world’s top producers every month.  For yourself or a gift.

 

Sparkling wine is frowned upon by many elitists. This is because they tend to look down on it as it as a poor man’s version of Champagne. This is not the case at all a sparkling wine can only be designated as Champagne if it is from the Champagne region in France. Sparkling wine club bottles compare very favorably to Champagne they just happen not to be made there…

Champagne is an administrative region in France where the sparkling wine is made. The Designation Champagne is protected by French Law and by European Law. Countries such as the USA acknowledge this by treaty and they do not produce sparkling wine under the designation Champagne, other than in special circumstances. This is not the case all over the world and therefore it is possible to purchase Champagne that is not what it claims to be.

Sparkling wine can be made in several ways but all the methods have one thing in common they result in a wine containing significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The three main methods are a second fermentation of the wine either in the bottle (méthode champenoise) or in large tanks (Charmat process) or by injecting carbon dioxide.

Sparkling wine is delicate and therefore vulnerable to both light and heat. Care has to be taken with its purchase and storage. When purchasing your sparkling wine try to ensure that it has not been on display in the store, obtain it in its original packaging or crate if at all possible. Once at home either keep the sparkling wine in a cellar that is dark most of the time and kept below 20ºC in its packaging or in the refrigerator in its wrappings.

The greatest amount, by far, of sparkling wine club bottles is consumed in celebration during the holiday seasons. The high acidity levels of sparkling wine make them an ideal accompaniment to a wide variety of foods. Quite often sparkling wine is served prior to a meal commencing as an aperitif along with canapés, small morsels of fish, shellfish, white meats or light cheeses are ideal to be paired in this way. If you are considering serving sparkling wine with your main meal you will find that it is quite versatile. You can pair it with fish, shellfish, white meats these can be traditional, salty or spicy dishes.

Sparkling wines are often a blend of different vintages so that they are ready for you to drink. There is no reason to age them further and in fact they should be consumed with a year or two of purchase because they deteriorate. Sparkling wines that have been designated as vintage can benefit from aging but again they should be consumed within 10 years as they too will deteriorate.

Champagne flutes are specially designed to minimize the surface area of the wine that meets the air whilst the wine is being sipped. This helps retain the bubbles in the wine for longer and therefore enhances the experience.

Champagne flutes should always be held by the stem as sparkling wine is very delicate and heat sensitive, the longer you can keep the wine in the glass cool the better your experience will be.

There is something very magical and mystical about a sparkling wine of the month club, possibly due to the mystery that surrounds the effervescence that delights us so in the glass. It is a timeless, classic and elegant drink that is matched by no other. For this reason it will always be the wine of choice and any celebration or occasion.

Merlot Wine Club

 

Merlot Wine Lovers – Click Here

Source of the rare and precious Pomerol (and St. Emilion) in Bordeaux, along with a lot of nondescript soft reds from California and sometimes from Australia. Occasionally interesting as an Italian, from Tuscany, Friuli and elsewhere.

 

Merlot wine is much loved by many wine drinkers due to its rich, soft, berry profile which is richer and subtler than the harsher and more acidic profile of Cabernet Sauvignon with which is often found blended. Merlot wines are drinkable from early on but they can also be matured in the bottle for decades, this makes it an extremely popular wine club selection.

Merlot is grown all around the world and is known by several names such as Picard, Langon, Petit Merle, Vitraille, Crabutet Noir and Bigney. The designation Chilean Merlot however means that the wine contains Merlot grapes, Merlot and Carménère grapes or just Carménère grapes. This is due to the fact that some Chilean winemakers decided to have their vines identified after the Chilean debacle of miss identifying Sauvignoasse vines as Sauvignon Blanc wines. This brought to the fore the fact that many vineyards had actually been planted with Merlot vines, Carménère vines or a mixture of the two.  The mistake was a fairly easy one to have been made as the vines, leaves and grapes are very similar however the taste and properties of the wines that the grapes produce are very different.

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Chardonnay Wine Club

 

Chardonnay Wine Lovers – Click Here

Charter member of the champagne trio, where it absolutely shines as a stand-alone and a blender. Great white burgundies, not-so-great-but-still-yummy white burgundies, honking big California and Australian white.

 

Chardonnay is a green skinned grape variety used to make the highly popular Chardonnay white wine. The natural flavor of the Chardonnay grape is like a blank canvas which takes on flavor elements from the soil it is grown in as well as from the vessels that it is stored in. This makes it a versatile wine. Its flavors can range from green apple, vanilla, lemon and pineapple through to the smokiness and oakiness that it is famed for. Chardonnay compliments many foods, white meats like Chicken, turkey and pork go very well.  White fish can also be paired with a Chardonnay but care should be taken not to use a too oaky wine with a delicate fish this should be reserved for use with smoked fish. You should steer clear of foods dark meats like beef and tuna fish whilst drinking a bottle sent from a Chardonnay wine of the month club.

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Riesling Wine Club

 

Riesling Wine Lovers – Click Here

Great white grape of Germany, Austria, Alsace—very much a magnet for earth-tones, even with all of its glorious fruit—very popular once upon a time in Australia, and occasionally offering interesting wines in California.

 

Riesling wine clubs are those selections that when you sign up you know exactly what it is going to deliver. Riesling is made from white grapes and it can be a dry, semi-sweet or sweet wine. Rieslings are never dry in the strictest of sense of the term because of the ever present sweet note. The driest Rieslings tend to come from the USA whereas Europe produces the sweeter wines (not taking into account dessert wines).

The heritage of the Riesling grape has become clearer since the advent of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) testing. Riesling is a cross between the Croatian Gouais Blanc (Weißer Henuisch) that was brought to Eastern France by the Romans during their invasion and its other parent is a cross between a wild vine and the Traminer grapes which are from the German/Italian Tyrol. Both of the parent grapes where grown in the Rhine region and it is therefore likely that the crossing took place there. There are two varieties of Riesling Roter (red) and Weisser (white) both produce white wine.

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Dessert Wine Club

 

Sweet Wine Lovers – Click Here

Many styles and choices will be featured in this newest club so hop on board; 2 different wines each month.

 

Dessert wines complement and enhance desserts if chosen with care. Choosing a dessert wine club is different to choosing a wine to accompany other food as dessert wines are sweet. Some thought needs to be put into both the wine and the dessert so that the sweetness is balanced or cut through. A case in point is if you are serving a chocolate dessert that is more than 50% cocoa solids then it is going to be more bitter than sweet so you can serve a dessert wine to cut through the bitterness. It is vital when considering dessert wines to understand the properties and flavors of both the dish and the wine.

On the surface it would seem pretty simple to pick up any dessert wine off the shelf and assume that it will go well with whatever dessert you are serving. This is not the case as like any other wine dessert wines come in a variety of styles and flavors for example they can be flowery, fruity, peachy, herby, acidic and can even taste of berries. Do not let this put you off because the simple addition of dessert wine to accompany a dessert can lift the dish from being unremarkable to sublime. Generally you must ensure that the wine you are going to serve is not sweeter than the dessert you are going to serve.

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Zinfandel Wine Club

 

Zinfandel Wine Lovers – Click Here

The great American success story. Spicy rich complex wines, particularly in Sonoma; hulking monolithic offerings from Amador and elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada range.

 

Zinfandel is the first grape that comes to mind when you think of American wines. This is because of the diverse range of wines that America produces from one grape variety. You can choose to buy Zinfandel wines online, such as Ports, robust reds through to delicate off dry-sweet blush/white wines.  Although we hear of it as “Americas Grape” in the 1970’s Zinfandel was declared to be the Italian vine Primitivo since then DNA testing has proven that both vines are in fact descended from the Croation vine Crljenak Kaštelanski. It is thought that the vine was first introduced to America in the 1830’s.

Popular red Zinfandel Wine Club choices include:

• Dashe Zinfandel
• Chase Family Zinfandel
• Hendry Zinfandel
• Neyers Vineyard Zinfandel’
• Ridge Zinfandel
• Rombauer Zinfandel
• Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel

Zinfandel wine gains its flavor from the climate conditions under which it was grown. The ripeness of the fruit has a major determining factor in the flavor. In cooler climates the wine produced has the predominantly red berry flavor of raspberries in contrast to this wines produced in hotter climates tend to taste of blackberry, anise and pepper. Red Zinfandel wines can be paired with a large range of dishes from grilled/roasted/barbecued beef, lamb, pork through to cheeses, tomatoes, mushrooms and eggplants.

White Zinfandel is not a grape variety but a blush wine produced from Zinfandel grapes. The grapes have their skins removed from them early on in the fermentation process this produces a much lighter wine with less tannin and a more delicate flavor.

Red Zinfandel and White Zinfandel are both produced using the same grape. White Zinfandel is a very popular easy to drink delicate off-dry or sweet wine and is often an entry level wine that may lead to a consumer becoming interested in other varieties.  Red Zinfandel is a much more robust, rich wine strongly flavored with tones of blackberry, anise, plum and pepper.

California’s Central Valley produces most of the grapes for White Zinfandel production. The climate and method of production produces a much sweeter wine than the traditional European Rosé. The White Zinfandel is a high production wine for immediate consumption.

Of the 100 varieties of grapes grown in California, Zinfandel is one of the top seven. Zinfandel had always been thought of as an “American Grape” until the 1970’s when it heritage came into question when it was thought that Zinfandel was actually Primitivo that is grown in Southern Italy.  Much research has been carried out into the DNA of vines over recent years and current research indicates that Zinfandel probably originated in Croatia, the research continues with the possibility of tracing the vines heritage back even further possibly to Albania or Greece.

White Zinfandel is best served around 54 to 59F whereas Red Zinfandel should be served at around 65F. Zinfandel is well suited to be served with many dishes. White Zinfandel can be paired with light dishes of creamy pasta, with fish, pork, and other white meats. In contrast to this if you buy red Zinfandel wine online, it can be paired with more robust and spicy flavored dishes including grilled/roasted/barbecued beef, lamb, pork through to cheeses, tomatoes, mushrooms and eggplants.

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