In our line of work, I'm sure you can understand how naturally professional life overlaps with personal. Well, earlier this week I pulled out a bottle of sparkling wine to have with dinner. My husband asked, "What's the occasion"? The occasion was - I had been in the mood for bubbles! I wanted some flavor-filled, frothy goodness to embrace the gorgeous day and lingering, still-warm evening, and also assuage a good but very busy work week. Of course, it didn't hurt that I was serving nicoise saladfor dinner - with artichokes and eggs, two of the "buzz kill" foods in the world of wine because they are nearly impossible to pair successfully, unless you have bubbles, of course.
Indeed, sparkling wine has been on my mind of late. Next week we are hosting a spectacular wine tasting class at The Table in Cambridge. The theme is the Art of Food and Wine Pairing. I'm a big proponent of starting a tasting with some sparkling wine and do it as often as the occasion allows. It's both practical and palate-pleasing.
Think of it: guests almost never arrive all at once but a good hosts always wants to have something they can offer when people do arrive. I'm sure I've said it here before. Serving up sparkling wine is a great way to begin; it's festive and sets a tone and the stage for more excitement to come. And it's great when you're serving some harder to pair nosh, or when there's an assortment of items on offer. In its very make-up, sparkling wine is arguably the most versatile wine made.
Of course there is still tremendous variety within the category - which keeps things ever-interesting for us wine pros and enthusiasts! While over dinner we had a sparkler from the Limoux region of France, next week's tasting will feature Cava. Why? Well... you'll just have to join us!
~ Rebecca