Ah, champagne wishes and caviar dreams. We grew up hearing that this was the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Well, not so anymore.
Since 2005, the US has banned imported caviar. Sorry Beluga. You may be the best on the world market and the priciest, but you are paying the price for over-fishing the Capian Sea and endangering the Beluga Sturgeon.
So, what is a group of women who want to taste champagne (and sparkling and cremant) with caviar to do? Go to Wegman's, of course! Isn't that where everyone gets their caviar? All kidding aside, caviar is not a rich man's delicacy any longer. The restriction on the import of caviar has allowed the US market to boom. There are all kinds of caviar available in most grocery stores at many price points. We tasted Black Tobiko Caviar, Pacific Salmon Caviar, and Hackleback Caviar. The first 2 were $9.99 each for 1.75 ounces and the last one was $39.99 for 1 ounce.
We tasted the caviar on spoons, with plain water crackers, on blinis, with creme fraiche, & chopped egg; though not all together :0) We tasted them from most expensive to least. The Hackleback was fishy tasting and salty, but was the only one we could actually press against the roof of the mouth to squash. The Salmon caviar was the largest and the only orange one. Those babies popped in your mouth! Not very fishy and the least salty of the three. If they weren't so big, I would have probably enjoyed them. The Tobiko was the most enjoyed though it did have to be chewed.
The blinis were yummy and I don't think there was much, if any, creme fraiche left. Once we were done with the caviar, we moved on to chocolate and things progressed smoothly. Champagne is not what you should drink when you are having sweet desserts as the taste of the champagne will be over powered by the sugar in the dessert. Our chocolates were higher in cocoa (70% and up) with the exception of Gearhart's Fine Chocolate Sampler (16 count), but by the time we got to that, it wasn't about the wine anymore :0)
So, what did we pair with what and what did we drink? Here's the line up (all of them are Brut - always use brut or extra brut champagne/sparkling/cremant when pairing with caviar)!
We simply cannot do a champagne and caviar tasting if we do not have a real champagne! I wanted to make sure that we were tasting different ones from a year ago and I wanted to keep the price points reasonable, which is getting harder and harder to do with champagne. If you want to know the difference, see the January 2012 tasting notes.
This lovely bottle is the low end sibling of the Perrier - Jouet line - you know it, it has the hand painted flowers on the bottles at the $80 price point and up. Our bottle was NOT hand painted because I am cheap. This bottle cost $39.99 @ Wegman's. It was wonderful. A true champagne and round and smooth in its own right with just the right amount of bubbles. We poured this when we tried the Hackleback caviar and the two complimented each other nicely. The champagne definitely off-set the saltiness of the caviar.
Next up, also from France but NOT a champagne (see the Jan '12 tasting notes - the French are very particular about this designation as current events show) is a Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Blanc from the Henri de Villamont house. What does all that mean? It is a white wine made from white grapes (remember, all wine presses white. It is the contact with the skins that produces the color). In this case, the grapes come from the Burgundy region of France so that gives a pretty strong impression that they are all chardonnay. As this was made outside of the Champagne region, it cannot be called a champagne so it is a cremant. Originally, cremant meant that it had fewer bubbles than champagne and that was true of this one, but that is no longer true across all cremant labels. This bottle was quite enjoyable and very similar to the previous one. For $14.99 @ Wegman's, this is a "keep on hand" kind of sparkling.
Time to come to America. I have not had a single sparkling from Australia that I liked (too dry), so I purchased 3 from America. I completely messed up the pricing at the tasting. Guess that is what I get for not having the receipt right in front of me! There is a difference between French champagne & sparkling and American and it is noticeable! While this was still drinkable for all but one of us, it wasn't as good as the bottle before it. At $17.89 @ Wegman's, I would rather spend less to get the French stuff. It was good, for American sparkling, but not almost $20 good (told you I was cheap).
I can't pronounce this one especially not when it is the fourth bottle :0) It sounds German, but is 100% American sparkling made in the traditional method, meaning the methods developed in the Champagne region in France. That is supposed to make you think it is as good as the French bubbly. It wasn't. While this did get consumed, I believe the bottle only got emptied because there were a couple people still eating caviar and all the other bottles were done. This bottle cost $19.99 @ Wegman's and is an absolute do NOT buy!
We have arrived at the cheap seats. Chandon is the American daughter of Moet et Chandon and was the first French owned sparkling vineyard in America. They use the name because they want Americans to make the connection back to France. I have been highly disappointed by their offerings over the years, but read that this particular sparkling paired very well with Tobiko caviar (it did). So, I spent $13.99 @ Wegman's for this bottle. I had no expectations of it (kind of like a bottle of Freixenet). The bubbles were okay and they didn't disappear with the first sip, so that is good. The taste was a little drier than a brut really should be, but it wasn't offensive (like the Scharffenberger almost was). I could drink this again, but, for a dollar more, I can have the French stuff that, while not labeled as champagne, tastes just like it!
Final thoughts - I love champagne and sparkling wines. There is something about a bubbly chardonnay that rises above the troubles of the day and makes you smile. Sharing it with wonderful friends takes it to a whole new level. This is not a special occasion beverage just as your china should not be for special occasions. Every day that you wake up is a special day and worthy of celebrating! Always keep a bottle of bubbly chilling at home and yes, use the china for pizza once in a while!
