Champagne.....What's All The Fizz?

Not our regular selection

So, let us start out by saying two things.  First, Champagne for our purposes here = Sparkling Wine in all its many constituents (typing one word instead of two = lazy).  Second, our consumption of fine French Champagne consists of one glass of Dom Perignon, half a bottle of Perrier-Jouet, and a few bottles of Moet-Chandon.  Other than that we are under-educated bubbly drinkers.  We have certainly had sparklers from California, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, and Chile.  We've had Cava from Spain and Prosecco from Italy.

With all that said, in all those bubbles, we have never had an out of body experience when comes to Champagne.  Don't get us wrong, the Perrier-Jouets and Moets were an experience (and a good one at that) but we haven't seen our wow-o-meter go off the charts with bubbly.  Some of it is definitely preference but putting that aside we do note that a lot of sparkling wine seems to be missing balance.  Either it is too tart on the finish OR it has some residual sugar that adds weight to what we would expect to be a lighter wine.

The bubbles tend to create an interesting mouthfeel (obviously) but most of the time we get a super high kick of acidity at the end which dries the throat (aka cleanses the palate?).  There are very few instances we have seen where there is balance in the bubbles that makes us stand up and take notice.

So what makes a wow-worthy sparkling wine?  We, like many other wine folk, do not believe it to be a special occasion drinker at all.  It can and should be an every day wine (at the right price point of course).  There are those for whom sparkling wines are the be all and end all.  Of note, Gary Vaynerchuk has said his desert island wine is not Bordeaux or Barolo it would be Champagne.  Interesting.

What are we missing?  Is it that you need to spend big bucks to get that experience?  Do we need to stick to the traditional méthode champenoise style wines to get there?  Either way, what should we be drinking to get us to the 'Wow'?  We totally understand that there is a lot that goes into making sparkling wine so we get some of the higher prices out there but as a style of wine it has just not hit us in a place that makes us purchase it on a regular basis.  Sparklings have been in the midst of a 'wine trend' for some time now but we have definitely not gotten wrapped up in that yet. 

We would love some feedback and input.  Favorite Sparkling Wine/Champagne?....no budget constraints.  What would you recommend for us to try to give us that which we have been missing?  That one does have a budget constraint. :) 

We will try and give a few a go over the next little bit, but a push in a direction would be greatly appreciated.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon