Wines of the Week: Champagne Lanson White Label Brut and Ferrari Brut
Wine: Champagne Lanson White Label Brut
Grapes: Chardonnay (60 percent), pinot noir (40 percent)
Region: Reims, Champagne, France
Vintage: NV
Price: $39.99
Availability: Lee’s Discount Liquor
In the glass: Lanson White Label Champagne is a light, butter-yellow color in the glass with an even, colorless rim and fine bubbles rising in straight lines from the bottom of the glass to the top.
On the nose: It has a lot of lovely white fruit and pear character, just like a Swedish pear cider with underlying elements of elderflowers, soft citrus rind and wonderfully ripe sweet honey suckle nectar, apricot flesh and peaches.
On the palate: The immediate approach of this fruit-forward Champagne has you thinking it might be demi-sec (sweetish) in style. But when you realize that it was made using only the first — alcoholic — fermentation and nothing else, you come to appreciate the loads of white fruit, sweet pear meat and the nectarine. This “nouveau” style of Champagne exudes charm and freshness, yet retains some classical elements from the great House of Lanson.
Wine: Ferrari Brut
Grape: Chardonnay
Region: Trento, Northern Italy
Vintage: NV
Price: $19.99
Availability: Lee’s Discount Liquor
In the glass: Ferrari Brut has a light lemon-yellow color in the glass with a firm, clear rim and vigorous bubbles showing lots of natural carbon dioxide.
On the nose: There are notes of bread dough, nuttiness, fresh crushed walnut, white fruit and warm toast intermingled with soft white currant character, definite chalky minerality and hints of white flowers and crackers — all a great homage to the wines of Champagne.
On the palate: There are lots of forward apples, Bartlett pears, crispy toasty bread with a sweetish midpalate and rounded, yet slightly short, finish that belies that this was made in northern Italy and not in Champagne.
Odds and ends: This is my annual bubbles column, the 16th I’ve written for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. I have again selected a couple of different choices for the holiday and year-end week.
Champagne is my favorite drink and one of the only beverages that can simultaneously deliver joy and a stress-free experience. There is a certain reverence involved with opening Champagne — many of our lives’ milestone moments seem to involve opening a bottle of this legendary liquid. You never hear people say: “At our daughter’s graduation, we popped a bottle of beer to celebrate …”
To celebrate the holidays, we tend to get emotional and bring out the good stuff. So Champagne is top of mind as we shop for a celebratory libation.
In this rendition of my bubbliest-things-in-life column, I have chosen two different, yet equally delicious bottles of bubbly.
The first is a true Champagne — only wines coming from that region in France and produced under its stringent regulations can be labeled as such. My pick is the Champagne Lanson White Label Brut. It comes from what’s arguably one of the most venerable Champagne houses and is interesting as it is more “new world” in style, given that it has not undergone malolactic fermentation, a secondary fermentation that produces the more bready and doughy notes in Champagne.
This one is all fruit-driven and has perceived sweetness on it, although it is officially brut, or dry as it is known in English.
My other chosen sparkler isn’t from France and therefore isn’t real Champagne per se. But it’s so elegant and classy, it can easily masquerade as the real deal. It is Ferrari Brut from the venerable house of Giulio Ferrari in the Veneto in northern Italy.
Giulio Ferrari is one of the greatest Italian sparkling wine producers. This wine is made with the “methode champenoise,” which mimics the method used in Champagne. If your friends ask what you had for Christmas, you can say, “I had a Ferrari.” They’ll be impressed and might start a lively conversation …
Both bottles are great representatives of Champagne and sparkling wine. Whichever you choose, you’ll have a memorable, merry time.
Remember to chill them to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit before drinking them and serve them in white wine glasses rather than Champagne flutes, for maximum enjoyment.
Happy Holidays.
Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.
