Sparklers For Your New Year’s Eve Celebration

Recommendations for bubbles and a singular caviar on the last night of the year

Ringing in the New Year circa 1930 and, strangely with a cup of coffee?. (Photo by FPG/Hulton … [+] Archive/Getty Images)

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While it’s a couple of days away from the New Year’s clock countdown, it is on for choosing the bottles with which you’ll celebrate. Here are a few to consider for ringing in the new year.

CHAMPAGNE, BECAUSE OLD SCHOOL IS COOL. Alfred Gratien is a family producer in the bubbly business since 1864. The Cuvee Paradis Brut 2015 ($135) of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir was aged eight years and delivers a lush style of an exotic tropical-fruit wine with a refreshing underline of saline. Have this with dense fishes like monkfish or lobster, even crab cakes. The sister bottling of Blanc de Blancs 2015 ($80) is 100% Chardonnay, a lighter, more delicate offering featuring green apples, citrus and some chalky undertones. This can go sweet or savory—or, on its own.

Barons de Rothschild Blanc de Blancs ($85) is the signature bottling of the house (est. 1853), produced from 100% Grand and Premier crus vineyards in Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Forty percent is reserve wine. This is a rounder, richer expression of citrus, white fruits and brioche that will play nice with lobster. The 2012 “Rare Collection” ($209)—also 100 % Chardonnay and sourced from Grand Cru parcels in Avize, Cramant, Oger—rested on it lees for eight+ years, has citrus and white orchard-fruit markers, but also some pleasing spice and candied ginger notes. The Concordia Brut ($64) is the more entry-level bottle of this trio, made from 85% Grand and Premier Cru vineyards and a 60/40 split of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It’s a little denser in texture—I found the bubbles a bit larger and persistent—and there’s more of a white floral and tropical-fruit note. Good pairing partner with rich or dense fish like monkfish or scallops, some preparations of salmon.

The traditional choice for ringing in the year has emnduring appeal

Producers

Lanson “Le Rose” ($48) from a house established in 1760, is a fruity and delicate way to start the evening – a pretty raspberry-inflected wine with soft bubbles that will pair with pretty much anything on your appetizer spread. A sister bottling, the 2021 “Le Vintage” ($131) is a nearly even split between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, from 100% Grand and Premier Cru vineyards. Ten-plus years of aging gives this a deeper yellow color, toasty notes of brioche and makes it a good pairing partner with sauced light meats or a cheese plate.

Louis Roederer “Collection 244” is a blend of the three traditional Champagne grapes from a house founded in 1776 and run by the Roederer family since 1833—slightly more weighted toward Chardonnay—from the house’s three estates of which 54% are from the 2019 harvest, 36% from reserve wines and 10% from plots used for Cristal. It has a very ripe and juicy fruit expression, leaning more toward stone fruit and earthy notes. At SRP $34, it’s an easy price point to manage if you want a little affordable pizzazz on your table.

A trio of French-inspired California sparklers

Domaine Carneros

FOR AN ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO CHAMPAGNE, look to California, which has a sparkling wine tradition based on French producers, Domaine Carneros in Napa Valley, founded by the Taittinger family, among them. Heck, they even have a French-style chateau on the estate! Three I reviewed last month bear repeating. Named for the courtesan and mistress of Louis XV, the Cuvee de la Pompadour ($40-42) is a sprightly fruit- and floral-forward Brut rosé, slightly more weighted toward Pinot Noir. Fresh strawberry and bright cherry jump out of the glass along with those lively bubbles and this fun quaff is good for early toasting or accompanying canapes. The estate’s very affordable signature Brut ($38) offers a core of yeasty, creamy roundness backed by orchard fruits, perky lemon and grapefruit notes, and a tinge of almond nut skin. Le Rêve (“the dream”) is appropriately named. This 100% Chardonnay ($125) from very select parcels represents the estate’s top winemaking, aged for six years. The result is a deeper, ethereal expression of brioche and caramelized buttery baked apples, sweet baked pear, marzipan, nut skin and bright ginger spice notes. Any of these wines are a hit with oysters or caviar.

Tsar Nicoulai caviar goes with blini and bubbles.

Tsar Nicoulai

If you want to stay stateside, try a selection of caviar from Tsar Nicoulai, a San Francisco based sustainable, producer of small-batch, Eco-certified caviar (and a “Green Best Choice” from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program). It’s said that the staff sing to the fish on the farm just south of Sacramento in Wilton, Calif. The wide range includes several styles of caviar, roe and whitefish, and they deliver nationwide.

ITALY HAS NUMEROUS OFFERINGS FOR A BUBBLY EVENING. Few wine drinkers need an introduction to Prosecco, possibly the most popular sparkling wine on earth, but they may not know that the region in northeast Italy offers a sophisticated level of the wine, grown at higher elevations.

Take five: Italian sparklers for your party

Producers

Mionetto’s Luxury Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG ($22) is a super affordable wine that encapsulates both the quality of the region and the light-heartedness for which Prosecco is known. Also from Valdobbiadene is the Adami “Vigneto Giardino” Valdobbiadene DOCG Rive di Colbertaldo Asciutto ($29+/-), the first single-vineyard Prosecco ever made with some century-old vines. Rive is the pinnacle of quality winemaking, at the highest elevations, and this one underwent two fermentations in steel with some lees contact to give it a more yeasty component.

Heading a bit west to the Trento DOC, you’ll find Ferrari, a family-owned and operated producer of a large range of quality sparkling wines. The brand aligns itself with luxury, so in and out of Italy, it is associated with high-visibility events such as fashion shows, Formula One racing and the Emmy Awards show. At $30 +/-, the signature Brut is a modest entry into the line, made from 100% Chardonnay and offering a clean and direct line to the fruit—here, green and yellow apples. Unique to this and other sparklers from this region in the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains is an underline of sage-y herbal elevation. Fine bubbles, a yeasty note that doesn’t interfere with the freshness.

Staying the quality course is Franciacorta, a region that mimics Champagne in grape selection, rivals it in quality, yet has its own identity. The Ferghettina Franciacorta Rosé Brut DOCG ($75) is made from 100% Pinot Nero (Noir) and comes in a striking bottle that looks great on the table. What’s in the glass tastes great, too, and tastes as pretty as it looks. This has a very fine line of bubbles, more defined berry fruit notes—strawberry and raspberry—and a sturdy structure. A good one for soft cheeses and shrimp prepared most any way.

Go even farther west to Piedmont for Enrico Serafino’s “Oudeis” Brut ($37 +/-) hailing from the Alta Lange DOCG. Driven by Pinot-Noir driven (85%), this is a more full-bodied style, deeper in complexity and color with riper orchard fruit and brioche flavors. Made in the Metodo Classico, this fermented in the bottle, with aging on lees for at least 36 months.