I always say if you want wine to drink top wines like Champagne or Brunello, you gotta be prepared to pay for it. Apart from a few rare exceptions, the quality wines from those areas start in the $60+ range. Sure, $30 Champagnes exist, but they’re not any good. They are mostly industrial sized companies who buy fruit (or already crushed juice) in large volumes at bargain prices from sometimes hundreds (if not thousands) of growers and just make money entirely through economies of scale, not through producing quality. Generally speaking, the land prices in these famous regions are so high that the overhead really precludes any producers from making inexpensive wines. And by basic supply and demand, when regions get enough hype, they can justify increasing their prices.

But even if having a $25 budget for quality Champagne is an impossible task, it’s very possible to get an outstanding bottle of great Traditional or Champagne Method sparkling wine in that price range. Same goes for alternatives for many other famous wines like Burgundy, Sancerre, or Brunello di Montalcino. So today we’re going to look at some alternatives to famous expensive regions that really compete in quality and style at fractions of the price.

SPARKLING WINE

You may have heard that Champagne can only be called Champagne if it comes from Champagne. This is true, and too often people incorrectly use “Champagne” as a blanket term to refer to any kind of sparkling wine. Champagne is specifically from Champagne, and the good stuff ain’t cheap. But don’t worry, there is no shortage of truly amazing bubbles made in the same traditional method all around the world:

CAVA, SPAIN

After Champagne, the next most famous place for producing traditional method sparkling wine is the Penedes region of eastern Spain, just south of Barcelona. While the production is similar, the climate and grapes are different. Penedes is warmer than Champagne so it needs higher acid grapes to maintain the same fresh crispness the wines are famous for. Here they use Xarel-lo, Macabeo, and Parallada instead of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Nobody is going to put the best of Cava up against the best of Champagne, but for an awesome glass of sparkling with that same elegant citrusy, toasty, biscuity character you only get from sparkling aged on it’s lees (spent yeast cells), Cava is undoubtedly one of the best values. Our Cavas from Giro Ribot winery are an excellent example of this. They’re grown organically and have been super popular with restaurants since we started importing them over 10 years ago. Some restaurants have never taken it off their lists because it’s hard to find a better one! The Cava Reserva is aged longer for more of that toasty champagne character, whereas the regular Brut is a touch sweet for a slightly fruitier and rounder style. And the Rose is just plain awesome. Click through for details on these three:

CAVA ‘BRUT’, NV | $20.99 x6
CAVA ‘BRUT’ RESERVA, GIROT RIBOT, NV | $21.99 x6
CAVA ‘BRUT’ ROSE, GIROT RIBOT, NV | $22.99 x6

CREMANT D’ALSACE, FRANCE

Just an hour train ride east of Champagne is the Alsace region of France. Here they are most famous for amazing Rieslings, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris, but also for a Champagne Method of sparkling called Cremant D’Alsace that uses Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and uniquely often focuses on Pinot Blanc. There are “Cremant” wines made all over France in various regions: Cremant de Jura, Cremant de Bourgogne, Cremant de Loire, etc. And they can all make exceptional sparkling wine at a fraction of the price of Champagne. We represent Domaine Zinck, where Philippe, the 2nd generation grower and winemaker has taken over from his father Paul, turned the vineyard organic, and reached new heights in quality and accolades. They’re definitely one of the most famous Cremant producers and worth checking out these 2 links to his wines that we currently have in stock:

CREMENT D’ALSACE BRUT, DOMAINE ZINCK, NV | $34.99 x6
CREMENT D’ALSACE ROSE, DOMAINE ZINCK, NV | $34.99 x6

SINCERITÉ, NOT SANCERRE

Sancerre and it's surrounding vineyards.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Sancerre. But like most famous regions, it’s getting to be so expensive. Don’t get me wrong, if you can afford it it’s certainly worth it, but there are other similar options. About 2 hours drive south of Paris is the town and region of Sancerre in the fairy tale landscape of the Loire Valley with all rolling hills and historic villages. Sancerre is often seen as ‘ground zero’ for the Sauvignon Blanc grape, and is its most famous appellation. The Pouilly-Fume region across the river from Sancerre used to be the go-to alternative for top French Sauv Blanc at a better price, but now it’s just as expensive too! Luckily, we work with Domaine Joseph Mellot (the oldest winery in Sancerre) who wanted to create an affordable alternative when their top wines were becoming a bit expensive for many people.

Fun Fact #1: Domaine Joseph Mellot is over 500 years old. They’re the oldest winery and restaurant in Sancerre and they have records of famous people like Voltaire eating eating at a past family restaurant.. The current restaurant was opened in 1882 and is still open today. Fun Fact #2: we had a 500 year birthday party for the winery here in Ottawa with the Mellot family at Play Food & Wine back in 2013. I even did a little blog post about it back then!

They call this wine ‘Sincerité’ as it is a nod to the style of Sancerre wines, but uses Sauvignon Blanc grapes from their vineyards in less expensive areas of the Loire Valley. It still carries with it a really nice fresh minerality, crisp acidity, and all the elegant herbaceous grassy, citrus notes that you expect from the region, but for less than $20. It’s not from Sancerre, but is a tribute to the region’s style by it’s oldest producer. Click here for more details:

JOSEPH MELLOT, ‘SINCERITÉ’ 2018 | $18.99 x12

BURGUNDY ALTERNATIVES

OK, let’s be honest, there is no real alternative to good Burgundy. But if we’re pushed to find Burgundy-like Pinot Noir around the world in more affordable areas, there’s plenty. The thing that makes Burgundy special is it’s insanely nuanced terroir. From the perfect climate to the crazy diverse soil structures. They say Pinot Noir is the greatest translator of terroir in your glass, so choosing where to grow it is really important. It will grow anywhere, but it does best in cooler climates on limestone or other interesting mineral-driven soils. Famous Burgundy alternatives are Oregon, New Zealand, and right here in Ontario. But even while those $25-$60 wines are values relative to increasingly expensive Burgundies, they’re still not everyday-priced wines for most Pinot lovers. In this case we look to interesting terroirs in emerging economies like Chile and Argentina.

Rio Negro winding through Patagonia’s wine country.

Chilé’s ‘Casablanca’ region was it’s first cool climate wine producing area. It’s just outside of Santiago, further north and closer to the equator than you’d expect good Pinot to be grown, but with some elevation and the extremely cool breezes from the Pacific Ocean it creates beautifully balanced Pinot Noir. Then hop over the Andes Mountains to Argentina and drive south for a day and you’ll land in the Rio Negro region of Patagonia. We’re not talking iceberg and penguins far south, but where the foothills of the Andes meet the Patagonia desert, and the Rio Negro flows through giving life to a thriving fruit and wine business. While Malbec is most famous in the northern regions of Mendoza and Salta, here Pinot Noir is what’s most interesting. Both regions are cool climates and both create wines that show typical “Pinot” terroir characteristics with some earthy, mushroom, herbaceous forest type notes. And both the Echeverria Family from Chile and Humberto Canale from Argentina are some of the oldest producers in their whole countries. Considering both wines are under $20, well worth a test drive to be any Pinot lover’s ‘daily driver’.

ECHEVERRIA, PINOT NOIR ‘GRAN RESERVA’ 2017 | $19.99 x12
HUMBERTO CANALE, ‘ESTATE’ PINOT NOIR 2018 | $19.99 x12

VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO

Love Brunello di Montalcino? Of course you do, everyone does. Love paying Brunello prices? Maybe not so much. I wouldn’t necessarily waste my money on a bargain barrel cheap Brunello, it’s not going to be reflective of why this region is so awesome. You really do have to ante up and pay the $50-$80 a bottle for this epic stuff. BUT, there is a very legit, less expensive alternative, that some like even better. About a half hour drive east from the town of Montalcino (where Brunello is produced) is the town of Montelpulciano. This is not to be confused with the Montepulciano grape from the Abruzzo region of eastern Italy. This is the town of Montepulciano in Tuscany and they produce wine from the exact same clone of the Sangiovese grape as they do in Montalcino for Brunello. It’s called Sangiovese Grosso, but in Montepulciano they called it Prugnolo Gentile. Otherwise they have very similar climate and soils. Long story short: Brunello started becoming a thing in the late 1800’s and since the 1960’s has steadily rose to prominence eclipsing Chianti as the most famous wine in Tuscany. But if you look back historically, the wines of Montepulciano were first mentioned in 789 among references by wine advisors to Pope Paul III as “very perfect” and “suited to the tastes of gentlemen”. Then 1000 years later in 1787 were given the title of being “Noble” and referred to as the king of wines. And that’s the name the appellation still holds today: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Unfortunately the region saw waning quality in the post-war era and was losing prestige while Brunello was gaining. Since then Vino Nobile producers have pulled up their sox and even changed some production regulations in the 1980’s. Today they make a wine that is produced in nearly the exact same way as it’s more expensive cousin down the road. Many Vino Nobiles have a more traditional profile of earth, tobacco, and mushroom coupled with the black cherry and licorice or balsamic, overall tasting very similar to Brunello but selling at half the price. They are released with enough age on them to be drinking really nicely now, but can also last for many years in the cellar. The Vino Nobile from Fattoria Del Cerro is a perfect example to try out from an acclaimed historic estate. They also own a top winery in Montalcino called La Poderina, so they’re experts in Vino Nobile and Brunello traditions.

FATTORIA DEL CERRO, ‘VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO’ 2015 | $32.99 x6

Just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday delivery is Wednesday at 9am. Please reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re looking for something else.