AficioNada

Did you eat dough as a kid? Oh how I loved it.

Correction, I LOVE it. As in, are you baking a pie right now because I will tie on an apron, drive over and HELP you if so?  

I’m not talking about sweet doughs, although I have enjoyed several thousand spoonfuls of pre-baked chocolate chip, peanut butter, sugar and gingerbread cookies (my favorite) over the course of the last 28 years.  No, I am talking about homemade bread, pie crusts and even some pasta doughs. I once snuck a package of uncooked Pepperidge Farm phyllo pastry from my mom’s freezer, hid it under my pillow while it thawed and then ate the whole thing that night when I went to bed. If only it had made me sick. Then, maybe my obsession with raw bread products would have been nipped in the bud right then and there.

Instead, I have grown up with – ahem – unconventional tastes. I have this theory, however, that my lifelong love of yeasty, egg-y foodstuffs stems from the fact that as a child, the only culinary time I ever spent with my mom involved baking. If she was engaged in any other sort of cookery, I wanted nothing to do with it. Why? Darn if I know. 

What I do know is that this childhood infatuation with dough has resulted in a ridiculously soft spot for dry champagnes, cavas, proseccos and sparkling wines. Especially champagne. Big boy houses like Charles Heidsieck and Delamotte/Salon. “Grower” champagnes like those from Jacques Selosse, Pierre Peters and Larmandier-Bernier. Sigh.  If I had a million dollars, I would not buy me a monkey. I'd buy case after case of Charles Heidsieck's '99 Brut Rose, Veuve's 1998 La Grande Dame and as many bottles of 1979 Bollinger R.D.Extra Brut as I could get my hands on. 

When you have such ridiculous (not to mention selfish) infatuations as this one, you start to think that nothing can outshine your object of desire. So obviously, I never thought an American sparkler would be able to compete with the delicate, golden fizz royalty that is champagne. Then, I attended Bubblepalooza at San Francisco’s Bubble Lounge, tasted the ’05 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs and...ate crow.

This was not my first encounter with the ’05 Schramsberg. But, it was the first time I had tasted it side by side with some gorgeous vintage champagnes (including a 1997 Salon, which was hidden beneath the Delamotte table). The Schramsberg host splashed an ounce in my glass. I sniffed – spun-sugar lemons. And I tasted – roasting chestnuts and something warming and deeply nostalgic.

Bread dough. And not just any bread dough. This was the scent of covered yeast rolls rising on the countertop. It was fragile. Collapsable. It was the scent I attributed to the kinds of champagnes I can't afford.

Perhaps I was caught up in the moment. Perhaps I’d tasted one too many bubbly delights that evening. Or, perhaps I’ve been giving champagne more glory than it deserves, although I'm not going to let one American bubbly shatter my entire champagne belief system.  While I tasted some other remarkable American sparkling wines that evening, none of the others wowed me quite like that Schramsberg. And certainly none of them made me wish for a Christmas tree stuffed with case after case of champagne, like my surprise favorite, the '95 Charles Heidsieck I mentioned earlier.

Still, that tasting reminded me that we are making some great sparkling wines in the U.S., and not just in California. It is with that in mind that I leave you with three fantastic American-made sparklers, just in time for all those Chistmas toasts (I know, so un-PC) and holiday parties.

1.   Schramsberg, 2005 Blanc de Blancs: Rising bread dough, apricots and lemon peel scents and flavors and gorgeous gossamer bubbles for only $35? That, in itself, is worth raising a glass to. After 43-plus years, this Napa Valley producer has mastered the art of making fizz. If the recession has put you on an even tighter than usual holiday budget, try Schramsberg's Mirabelle Brut Rose.

2.   Iron Horse, 2004 Classic Vintage Brut: Yes, yes. Iron Horse’s Wedding Cuvee is the most popular. Yes, it’s apricot-colored and berry delicious.  And yet, I am a sucker for the Vintage Brut’s wild lees-and-apples aromas. With just a touch of strawberry. Mmmm, like a tart in the oven (yes, there’s a carb-trend going on here). Another wine that falls in the $30 to $35 price range, this sparkling wine from Sonoma’s cool, fog-shrouded Green Valley is well worth the tiny splurge.

3.   Westport Rivers, 2002 Westport Brut: I think this wine is fast being replaced by the 2003 Westport Brut. Although I have not had the latter cuvee, if it is anything like the 02, it will smell lightly floral and taste like pears and flaky, butter-y pastry crust.  A friend and I did a tasting of almost every sparkling wine in the Westport Rivers line. While this Massachussets winery makes some decent sparklers, the Westport Brut is the only one that sweetly sings to me.