Area wineries have the perfect sparkling wines for ringing in ’07.
By: Jessica Loughery and Jillian Kalonick
A quest for the perfect sparkling wine to toast in 2007 does not have to mean braving the masses at the wine and spirits store or making do with that cheap stuff someone regifted to you. Fine sparkling wines are being produced in Bucks County, Pa., and they can and should be enjoyed all year long, according to the folks at local wineries.
Buckingham Valley Vineyards is one of few local wineries offering sparkling selections. Run by Jerry and Kathy Forest, it’s one of the largest in Pennsylvania, producing more than 40,000 gallons of wine a year. Located on 40 acres of land, the winery has been in operation since 1970.
The méthode champenoise sparkling wines are fermented in the bottle, in the French tradition. Mr. Forest also uses a relatively low amount of acid, which he says is important for people who dislike the extremely acidic and harsh tastes of traditional French champagnes. His sparking wines are designed to be a more pleasant, everyday drink, as opposed to something saved for special occasions.
Mr. Forest gave TIMEOFF Bucks County the following rundown on transforming his still wines (80 percent of which are made using Buckingham Valley grapes) into sparkling, bubbly libations:
When a regular, still wine is about seven to eight months old, crystal clear, stable and good to drink, a very specific amount of sugar and special yeast are added. If you add too much sugar, the bottle will later explode. If you add too little, you won’t get those signature bubbles. They then rebottle the wine in champagne bottles, which have a thick wall able to hold a lot of pressure, and seal them up with crown caps.
The bottles are laid down in a dark cellar on their sides for three to five years, where the yeast consumes sugar, making carbon dioxide and a little alcohol. Mr. Forest says the pressure at this point is about 110 pounds per square inch (PSI).
After the three to five years, the yeast causes a line of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The challenge is to get rid of the sediment without losing the pressure. This is done by a process called riddling, during which the bottle is turned so that the angle changes slightly. After turning every day for a month or so, the bottle is almost totally neck down, and the yeast sediment is sliding down the side. Eventually, all the sediment falls into the cap, making the wine crystal clear.
Next is a process called disgorging, which, in Buckingham Valley’s case, means freezing the very end of the bottle at the neck, about an inch or less including the cap. This causes the yeast cells to become trapped in a plug of ice. The bottle is then put in a special machine, which flips the cap off. The ice comes out like a bullet, and the bottle is closed, capturing the carbon dioxide. It all happens in about a fraction of a second.
In the next stage, a dosage of wine, sugar and brandy is added to the bottle to sweeten and mellow the mixture. Mr. Forest says almost all champagne has a dosage; those without represent the harsher selections. At this point, the PSI is around 90.
Finally, the bottles are sealed up with a special, dense cork that holds the air pressure. A wire hood is applied to hold the cork on. The bottles are next laid down for a few weeks or months while the sugar, wine and other ingredients marry, producing the concoctions we consider essential to any New Year’s Eve celebration.
Sparkling wines available this year at Buckingham Valley (all $12.50) include the dry Naturel and the semi-dry Brut. Mr. Forest has sold out of his drier Chardonnay Brut until the spring, but still has the Sparking Riesling, a semi-sweet wine with a fruity character.
Like Buckingham Valley Vineyards, Crossing Vineyards also makes sparkling wine using the traditional méthode champenoise. Its offering, a blanc de blancs ($20), is made from 100 percent sparkling Chardonnay, says Christine Carroll, one of the family owners of Crossing Vineyards.
"It’s a very crisp, dry, toasty, creamy kind of taste," she says. "It’s very popular because it pairs with everything anything from hors d’oeuvres to dessert. When in doubt, if you’re having a dinner party, and you’re just not sure which way to go, serve champagne or sparkling white there’s nothing it doesn’t go with."
The winery, which was established in 2000, cannot yet rely much on its own vineyards to make wines, since its grapevines are not yet mature, so except for a nouveau wine and a soon-to-be-released Vidal Blanc, it uses grapes from other Pennsylvania vineyards. Despite the complications and demands of producing sparkling wines, Ms. Carroll says it was important for Crossing Vineyards to be able to offer at least one bubbly.
"People just love sparkling wine," she says. "They equate it with festivities and celebration. For that reason we wanted to have it for our product line. We host a number of events at the winery where it would be appropriate to serve it… It’s an important wine to have as part of your line."
Sparkling wine will be featured as part of Crossing Vineyard’s Romantic Candlelit Valentine’s Dinners, to be held Feb. 10 and 14, as well as at a "Meet the Winemaker’s" dinner March 17. Though it’s a must-have for special events, Ms. Carroll says wine drinkers are beginning to appreciate it as an everyday choice.
"Once you get people to really taste champagne in the context of one of our classes here, where they stop thinking of it as only for celebrations, then people start to seek it out on a regular basis," she says.
That said, it does lend some of its magic to days other than New Year’s Eve or Valentine’s. "No matter where you are, there’s always something festive about these bubbles," says Ms. Carroll. "You have to share a bottle and finish it. There are closures available, but you can’t keep it in for very long."
Despite common belief, it’s also a wine you can sip for a while without becoming too tipsy. "Generally speaking, it’s lower in alcohol than other wines," says Ms. Carroll. "It’s usually less than 12 percent… You can drink it and enjoy it without feeling sleepy or greatly affected. And you feel the experience more because it has the bubbles and the colors and the glass is a different shape… You really enjoy it because it’s something special."
Buckingham Valley Vineyards is located at 1521 Route 413, Buckingham Pa. Winery hours: Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. noon-4 p.m. For information, call (215) 794-7188. Buckingham Valley Vineyards on the Web: www.pawine.com. Crossing Vineyards and Winery is located at 1853 Wrightstown Road, Washington Crossing. Hours: Daily noon-6 p.m.; closed New Year’s Day. For information, call (215) 493-6500. On the Web: www.crossingvineyards.com. Bucks County wineries on the Web: www.buckscountywinetrail.com