Well it's been a while since my last entry. I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and you found some new wine favorites! While we are now a couple days into the fall season but you couldn't tell with the intense heat and humidity we experienced last night. A great crowd of people with some familiar friends and new faces came to my home for a 6 course wine tasting featuring French wine and some decadant hors d'oeuvres helping us make the transition from summer into fall. Instead of creating one massive blog entry today, moving forward I'll be highlighting the six courses individually with added tips and fun facts.
Brut Champagne, Moet & Chandon Imperial, Epernay, Champagne, France, AOC - $30
Champagne is not just for important celebrations anymore! Personally, there's nothing better to start off a several course meal, or even your weekend brunch than a glass of champagne. Moet & Chandon actually has a really nice crisp taste and isn't overly "carbonated" like some other French champagnes, the bubbles were quite delicate and excited the palatte to get the evening off to a great start. Here are some fun facts about this first course:
Fact 1 - In order for a sparkling wine to be called champagne, it needs to be from the actual region of Champagne in France. This is located a hour or two east of Paris and relatively close to Versailles. French champagne is made from a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. Some bottles of sparkling wine around the world do say "Methode Champagnoise" on the label which just means that they followed the same process as making French Champagne, they just can't call it Champange because it's not from the region in France. A great example of this in American culture is Bourbon can only be called that if its made in Bourbon County Kentucky.
Fact 2 - One thing to note about most champagne is that you won't typically see a year or vintage on the bottle. This is because champagne houses typically blend their champagne from several years so that the flavor tends to be consistent from year to year. So if you really like this Moet, then you can bet it'll taste the same next year and the year after that. Very rarely will you find vintage champagne houses that publish a year on the bottle, but if you do they typically are quite expensive ($80+).
Fact 3 - Moet & Chandon are also the makers of the infamous Dom Perignon champagne. DP typically runs you about $100+ a bottle at the liquor store and probably triple the price in a restaurant. Moet is a lot more affordable and a great quality champagne for the price. If you ever get to experience DP, please let me know what you think and if it's worth all the hype.
Fact 4 - Champagne also has a dryness to sweetness spectrum. The most dry champagne is called "Brut" followed by "Extra-Dry", "Dry", "Demi-Sec", "Sec" and finally "Doux" being the most sweet. Personally I'm a fan of Extra-Dry especially with cheap Champagne (i.e. Korbel). But if you're buying really nice Champagne definitely try Brut it'll be quite crisp on your palette.
Fact 5 - There have also recently been advertised "Natural" Champagnes. This type of champagne can be even more dry than a Brut only because it is purely the juice from the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes and does not include the "dosage" (pronounced dough-sahj) which is the concentrated flavoring that is added to champagne to determine it's level of sweetness. I could go on about the production of Champagne but I'll save it for another time.
PAIRING - Pain au Chocolat - aka "chocolate croissant"
These are a great addition to any brunch buffet or your typical French petit dejeuner (breakfast). My sous chef and fellow French Canadian relative, Christina, used regular Pilsbury crescent dough and rolled a couple squares of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate into them. Bake in the oven on 375 for 13-15min on cookie sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper is great for cleanup as it saves you from scraping off any baked on chocolate. Of course if you have the time and energy in the kitchen you can make croissant dough from scratch and use much more upscale French or Belgian dark chocolate. But who has that kind of time?
Pairing Champagne with any French breakfast bread, especially pain au chocolat, is sure to please your brunch crowd. Who needs orange juice?
Sante!
