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AFFORDABLE SPARKLING WINES: THRIFTY SHOPPER’S GUIDE 2019

affordable sparkling wines

The festive season is here! Time to head to your local wine merchant and stock up on holiday tipples. Before you panic about what to buy, check out my thrifty shopper’s guide to the best, affordable sparkling wines of 2019.

If you are a curious minded wine lover and would like to know how sparkling wines get their bubbles, how to tell a dry from sweet style, and why fizz makes us festive, check out my sparkling wine primer article here.

Alternatively, if you prefer to curl up with a nice glass of wine and video I’ve also got you covered. Simply scroll down below my recommendations to learn all about Cava, Crémant, and other great affordable sparkling wines.

Now let’s get down to my thrifty shopper favourites for 2019’s best affordable sparkling wines. These wines were selected from a series of recent industry tastings:

Villa Sandi Il Fresco Prosecco DOC (Italy)

Classic Prosecco aromas of pear drop and peach, mingle with subtle floral notes on this light, easy drinking bubbly. The palate is clean and fruity with large, smooth bubbles, and a subtly off-dry finish. Great lower alcohol option at 11% abv. Perfect for cocktails.

Where to buy: SAQ (15.25$), LCBO (15.95$)

Bodegas Sumarroca Brut Nature Gran Reserva 2015 Brut (Spain)

Seductive nose featuring toasty, biscuity nuances, roasted almond, and baked pear. Fine bubbles and moderate acidity give way to a broad, ample, creamy textured mid-palate fairly brimming with toasted, ripe fruited flavours. If you like a leesy, ripe, brut style of bubbly, this is a steal at under 20$.

Where to Buy: SAQ (17.15$)

Château Moncontour Cuvée Prédilection Vouvray Brut 2016, (France)

This Vouvray sparkling wine offers excellent Chenin Blanc typicity with its nervy, high acid and aromas of red apple, raw honey and beeswax. Really zesty and light on the palate, with vigorous bubbles and a bright, fruity finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (19.80$), LCBO (try the Tête de Cuvée Brut Vouvray: 19.95$)

Bailly Lapierre Crémant de Bourgogne Réserve Brut (France)

Lovely orchard fruit, ripe lemon nuances on the nose underscored by delicate notes of brioche. Brisk acidity and vibrant bubbles lead into a medium-bodied, subtly creamy, moderately concentrated core. Quite a ripe fruited, rounded finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (21.00$), LCBO (19.95$, also available in half bottles)

Juvé y Camps Reserva de la Familia 2016, Cava Gran Reserva (Spain)

This Gran Reserva Cava, aged 36 months on lees, is quite a serious bottle of bubbly for the price. Lovely patisserie notes, mingle with ripe pear and yellow apple notes on the nose. The palate is fresh, broad, and pleasingly textural with nutty, honeyed nuances, well delineated, persistent bubbles, and a very dry, lifted finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (22.00$)

Bernard Massard Chardonnay Brut (Luxembourg)

A delicate, attractive nose offering hints of acacia, lemon, and apricot skins, with very subtle leesy undertones. Crisp, light and quite elegant on the palate with really vibrant pear and apple flavours, fine bubbles, and a touch of refreshing bitterness on the dry finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (23.60$), LCBO (try Massard’s Cuvée de L’Écusson: 19.95$)

Patrick Piuze Non Dosé Méthode Traditionnelle (France)

Quite a complex aromatic array for the price, featuring notes of lemon curd, yellow apple, bread dough, and wet stone. Racy and taut, with a moderately concentrated core of oxidative honeyed, nutty flavours. Very harmonious, with ripe fruit providing a nice counterweight to the vigorous mousse, mouthwatering acidity and bone dry finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (24.15$) – also available in magnums!

François Mikulski Crémant De Bourgogne 2016

Very elegant, Champagne drink-a-like bubbles from a fantastic Meursault producer. This blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and a dash of Aligoté is aged on its lees for 18 months. It has enticing lemon, yellow apple, biscuit aromas on the nose. The palate is really crisp and lively, with well delineated bubbles, a layered citrussy mid-palate and dry, lifted finish.

Where to buy: SAQ (27.35$)

Cave Spring Blanc de Blancs Brut Sparkling (Ontario, Canada)

This excellent Niagara cuvée regularly adorns my list of great value sparkling wines. Very elegant, with alluring toasty aromas, underscored by lemon, green apple, and floral hints. Mouthwatering acidity and fine, vigorous bubbles and an initially tightly knit structure give way to a smooth, creamy mid-palate. Lots of finesse on the finish.

Where to Buy: SAQ (29.90$), LCBO (27.95$, on special!)

Reviews Wines

Breaking out of the wine rut

Bernard-Massard
Photo credit: Bernard-Massard

It is easy to get stuck in a wine rut. We know what we like and the temptation is to just pick up more of the same, reliable labels…the same way we always buy Coca Cola or Oreo cookies. But while the majority of ingestible consumer goods are painstakingly crafted to taste exactly the same from one batch to the next, wine is a much more elusive beast.

Even producers of large scale commercial brands aiming for consistency of style admit to some vintage variation from year to year. You just can’t beat nature. Despite all the tools in the modern winemaker’s armory, a vintage with non stop rain and cool weather through out the growing season is just not going to produce the same wine as a hot, sunny year. And this is a good thing! It is one of the key factors that set wine apart and make it so endlessly fascinating (at least to geeks like me…).

So with the knowledge that you can’t rely on your Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to taste exactly the same every time you purchase, isn’t it time to mix it up a little? Wouldn’t it be fun to show up at the next dinner party with a wine that no loud mouth can claim to know better than you, or suggest that an alternative winery in that region makes a better version? Here are a few interesting countries/ regions to think about…

Wouldn’t it be fun to show up at the next dinner party with a wine that no loud mouth can claim to know better than you?

Luxembourg. Yes, it is easy to forget about this teeny, tiny country of just over 500 000 inhabitants that would fit into Canada almost 4000 times over. Nestled in between the border of North East France and central Western Germany, it might (reasonably) seem too cool a climate for quality wine production. And yet, on the other side of the Mosel river, Germany produces incredible whites that have been revered for centuries.

Luxembourg grows much the same grapes, but produces wines in a drier, more nervy style. Its international reputation is largely based on its fine Brut Crémant sparkling wines. As per Champagne, Luxembourg sparkling wines are produced using the traditional method of secondary fermentation in bottle. The resultant wines are generally quite dry, with elegant, vinous aromatics, lively acidity and subtle creaminess. They make the perfect apératif wine, at a fraction of the price of many comparable bubblies.

Hungary. While the sweet wines from Tokaji are world renowned, the dry wines of the region are less well known. And yet the grapes that comprise the noble rot versions lend themselves well to dry wine production. Furmint is thought to be the off-spring of the almost extinct Gouais Blanc variety, making it a half-sibling of Chardonnay and Riesling. Dry Furmint is noted for its firm acidity, light to moderate body and smoky, citrus, orchard fruit aromas. Hárslevelű , the secondary blending grape in Tokaji, is a bigger, more full bodied white with spicy, floral aromatics.

Greece. It seems like more and more Greek wines are popping up on liquor board shelves these days, so perhaps this is a little less exotic for some. Unfortunately, many think only of the pine resin flavoured Retsina when they consider Greek wines. Excellent dry whites, rosés and reds are in abundance in all corners of the mainland and islands of this sunny paradise.

Excellent dry whites, rosés and reds are in abundance in all corners of the mainland and islands of this sunny paradise.

The white grape Assyrtiko of the Aegean Islands, thrives in the volcanic soils of Santorini, where a light, crisp, mineral-edged style is produced. The most widely planted red is Agiorgitiko (pronounced: Ah-yor-YEE-te-ko). The style is a little harder to pin down as, depending on the region and winemaking style, it can range from soft and smooth, to fairly robust and tannic. The majority of commercial styles feature fairly low acidity, plush, plummy fruit and rounded tannins; best served slightly chilled.

Bulgaria. Though it may be hard to believe today, Bulgaria was the second largest wine producer world-wide in the early 1980s. Anti alcohol regulations put in place in the region by Gorbachev, followed by the demise of the country’s communist regime led to a sharp decrease in vineyard cultivation. Production levels have crept back up in recent years, with foreign investment in the now privatized vineyards. While volumes remain far lower than at their heyday, the quality is far superior.

The Thracian Valley in Southern Bulgaria has a moderate, continental climate ideal for producing hearty, fruit-laden reds. While the area is best known for full-bodied, oak-scented Cabernet Sauvignon, wineries are increasingly diversifying their offer to include interesting indigenious varieties like the bold, spicy Mavrud or earthy, fruity Pinot Noir.

Here are a few of my recent, great value finds (What do VW, PW and LW mean?  Click on my wine scoring system to find out).:

BM_Cuvee_de_lEcusson_rose_136x520   PajzosTokaji    cq5dam.web.1280.1280 11885377_is

Photo credits: Bernard-Massard, Château Pajzos, LCBO (Argyros bottle shot), SAQ (Soli bottle shot)

Bernard-Massard Cuvée de L’Ecusson Brut Rosé NV – 88pts. VW

Pretty, salmon coloured pink colour. Inviting aromas of ripe red berries and subtle floral undertones feature on the nose. Lively acidity defines the palate, with tart berry flavours lifting the palate, and a subtle creamy mid-palate weight. The bubbles are fine and persistent. Dangerously easy drinking; pairs really well with sushi.

Where to Buy: SAQ (20.65$), not currently available at the LCBO, but the white is a bargain at 18.95$)

Château Pajzos Tokaji Furmint 2015 – 89pts. VW

Pale straw in colour. The nose opens with moderately intense aromas of lemon curd, hawthorn flowers and orchard fruit. While light in body and in concentration, the rounded structure provides a nice counter weight to the bracing acidity, making for a very refreshing white. Sweet citrus and faintly grassy flavours feature on the finish. Amazing value for the price, in a very classy package.

Where to Buy: (SAQ: 15.15$)

Argyros Assyrtiko IGP Santorini 2015 – 90pts. PW

Pale straw in colour. Intriguing nose featuring anis, saline aromas, citrus and underlying herbal notes. Tangy and fresh on the palate, with crisp, lemony acidity, a light, linear structure and lingering saline, citrus notes through the finish. Unoaked, well balanced and utterly drinkable.

Where to Buy: LCBO (22.95$), SAQ (22.15$)

Soli Pinot Noir Thracian Valley 2014 – 87pts. VW

This is an interesting little Pinot Noir, with a smoky-edged, earthy, moderately concentrated red and black berry profile. The fresh acidity is nicely counterbalanced by medium weight, bright fruit and ripe, just slightly chewy tannins. Serve chilled, with grilled, herb crusted meats.

Where to Buy: (SAQ: 15.30$)