Drinking in the peak summer heat is all about keeping things crisp and fresh. It’s when light beer eclipses IPA’s and stouts, when whites and rosés out-perform reds, and when the effervescence of sparkling really shines. There are so many great styles of sparkling for all different tastes and budgets, and here’s a few favourite recommendations in each style:

CHAMPAGNE

As I’ve written on here before, you may know that Champagne can only be called Champagne if it comes from Champagne. But too often people incorrectly use “Champagne” as a blanket term to refer to any kind of sparkling wine. Champagne is specifically from the Champagne region in France, and it ain’t cheap. As legend goes, it was a monk, Dom Perignon, who first invented sparkling wine. And as far as we can tell, that’s a half truth. Ancestral sparkling wines existed long before that. But he is credited for having invented the Champagne method (also known as the traditional method outside of Champagne) using a second fermentation. What does that all mean? Click here for a quick rundown on the Champagne Method and sparkling wines in general if you’re less familiar.

I usually advocate for an amazing Crement, Cava, or Canadian Sparkling wine for something inexpensive and excellent, but sometimes you just gotta go for the real deal. And one of my personal favourites is a relatively new Champagne house, one that was started in 1981.

Bruno Paillard came from a long line of French wine brokers, going back to 1704. At first Bruno followed his father’s footsteps, and father’s father’s footsteps in the wine brokerage business. He learned a lot about wine and grew a great appreciation for Champagne. Eventually he decided he no longer wanted to be an armchair quarterback (so to speak) and needed to get into the game himself. There hadn’t been a new Champagne house start up in nearly 100 years and Bruno was inspired to start a new one that would take purity and elegance to the next level. Only 6 years deep into his wine brokerage career, barely established, without any money, he sold the Jaguar he had worked so hard to purchase and used the money to buy his first load of grapes and rent some cellar space in 1981. Almost immediately his small batch wines drew attention.

Bruno Paillard and his daughter Alice poring over vineyard maps.

As early as 1988 top wine writers like Hugh Johnson said that Paillard had “a small but prestigious young champagne house with excellent silky vintages and non-vintages”. He began buying vineyards whenever he could and he eventually built his own state of the art winery where they still are today. Bruno Paillard became one of the most important trail blazers in Champagne over the last 100 years. He pioneered several important quality measures like putting disgorgement dates on the back of NV bottles and served as the President of the Commission for the Protection of Champagne over 20 years. He is also the only Champagne House to now own over 50% of his own vineyards and the rest are all long term leases he’s had for over 30 years. Most Champagne houses (as opposed to grower-producers) only own about 10% of their own vineyards and buy fruit for the rest. His wines are a great value for the extremely high quality. I think of this as Krug wines at Moet prices. Considering that his ‘Premier Cuvee’ Extra Brut MV is $79.99 and Veuve Cliquot is $74.99 to me is a no-brainer. On top of that, everything is organically grown and certified sustainable too! I could write an essay on why Bruno Paillard is so great but I’ll stop there for now. For more info check out his website, it’s such a rich resource of information and a fun read for Champagne geeks, click here for a link to that. If you need any more evidence that his stuff is amazing, the world’s top wine critic, Jancis Robinson served his wine at her wedding. Mic drop.

We currently carry these 4 wines from Bruno Paillard:

Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Premier Cuvee’, MV Extra Brut | $79.99 x6
Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Rosé Premier Cuvee’ MV Extra Brut | $104.99 x6
Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Blanc de Blancs’ Grand Cru, MV Extra Brut | $139.99 x6
Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Blanc de Blancs’ Grand Cru, MV Extra Brut, 1500ml | $269.99 x3

PET NAT (OR METHOD ANCESTRAL)

Benjamin Bridge Pet Nat bottle and cans (now sold out)

If you’re up on the lingo or if you checked out my little Sparkling Wine 101, you’ll know there’s not much official difference between Pet Nat and Ancestrals. Maybe an unfiltered or undisgorged character to it, but that’s not even official or consistent. So let’s go with it being a stylistic name, leaning towards the raw natural wines that have been leading the organic charge of the last 10 years or so. And that is perfectly fitting for Benjamin Bridge from Nova Scotia who have been blazing a new trail of ultra premium quality in the Gaspreau Valley for 20 years. For more on them, check out last week’s post on Cottage Wines. I’m re-featuring the Pet Nat from last week again this week because the cans have sold out, but 750ml bottles just arrived and they’re such perfect, easy summer bubbles!

Juxtapose this Pet Net to something like Bruno Paillard Champagne and it’s comparing apples and oranges. Yes they are both sparkling, but one is meant to be extremely refined and elegant and the other is meant to be more raw, earthy, and juicy. Both excellent in their respective styles and categories, but decidedly different. I had a client last week who was new to Pet Nat pick up some of the cans not having ever had Pet Nat before, and not really knowing what to expect beyond my description. She wrote me a lovely little note with some tasting notes later that were bang on and I thought I’d share: “I found it interesting in a really good way. It definitely has a bit of funk and a surprising amount of flavour (almost off-citrus or floral if I ate flowers lol). I really like it, thanks for the intro to it.” I think that perfectly sums it up. But if you want a more technical analysis click below for how they describe it at Benjamin Bridge. And these bottles will be gone in a few weeks, so if you’re interested let me know now before they’re gone!

Benjamin Bridge, Pet Nat, 2018 | 250ml Cans (sold out!), 750ml bottles just arrived! $34.99 x12

PROSECCO

Prosecco has surely become the world’s most consumed style of sparkling wine. There are oceans of this stuff produced. And a lot of it is not really that great, but a lot of it is really great and perfect for what it is meant to be: easy going fun bubbles that don’t break the bank. They’re not meant to be the aged, leesy, sophisticated wines of Champagne. They’re meant to be the bottle you bring to the cottage, beach, or always keep on hand in the fridge ready to go for when some of your bubble shows up to social distance together. Having a good go-to Prosecco is a must have for anyone…unless your budget allows for having a good go-to Champagne instead lol. For a bit of variety, here are my two favourite Proseccos at the moment:

Cabert, Prosecco ‘Extra Dry’, Friuli, Italy, NV | $18.99 x12
This is exactly what you expect for a classic Prosecco. The counter intuitive category of “Extra Dry” is actually one level sweeter than “Brut”. But the bubbles and crisp acidity keep it fresh while the touch of sweetness rounds it out for a nice balance. This was a popular one with restaurants and has now become a go-to for many people at home since the pandemic!

Astoria, ‘Fashion Victim’ Sparkling Rosé, Veneto Italy | $19.99 x6
Astoria is a famous Prosecco house right in the heart of the Valdobbiadene. They make various Proseccos and other still wines, but this one is made from grapes grown outside the Prosecco zone in Veneto. And as the story goes, the owner’s daughter was in the fashion industry and when he was looking to name a wine after her he decided to just call it the fashion victim and give it a unique bottle. Every time I open one of these for friends or clients, everyone wants a case. It has such nice balance and drinkability. It’s made from the traditional Glera grape with a small amount of Pinot Noir added in for the colour and complexity.

CAVA

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

If you’re not into sparkling, that’s alright, we’ve got lots of other options for you too. How about a curated mixed case? Or maybe some Big BBQ Wines? Check out the full list of past newsletters archived in the FEATURES section.

Lastly, just a reminder that deadlines for ordering Mixed Cases for Friday is Tuesday at noon, and Wednesday at noon is the deadline for regular cases for Friday delivery! Feel free to send me a note with any questions directly through the CONTACT page.