Time to pop some corks and say goodbye to the worst year ever. Even if we have been fortunate to find some silver linings in all the 2020 chaos, I think overall everyone can agree that we’re ready for 2021 and the hopeful return of some normalcy to life. So let’s raise a glass from our at-home lockdown New Year’s Eve celebrations and bid good riddance to 2020 and cheers to a more social 2021!

Sparkling at the Byward Wine Market - 60 George Street, Ottawa.

Since we have no shipments coming from Toronto this week, this week’s feature is all about Sparkling Wines from the Byward Wine Market since we have a great selection of various sparkling in various sized bottles at the shop! And as an added feature, if you’re staying in for New Year’s and you’re interested, we’ll send you the credentials to hop on a Zoom to kick off NYE with a Sparkling Wine tasting for anyone who bought a bottle of bubbles from us to celebrate with. More details on this below, but it’s free, you just need to have picked up one of our bottles of Sparkling and send me a note that you want to join!

Whether you want to join our Sparkling Zoom or just grab some bubbles for your own evening, follow this link to the Byward Wine Market and click on the SPARKLING tab to view our selection. We have France, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Spain, and California all represented. From baller magnums of Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru Champagne, to mini half-bottles of Brut Rosé Champagne, to the very best value Cavas ever. They’re all specifically chosen by me and all are awesome in their own right. Below are a few quick favourites to highlight, and if you want to brush up a bit on the different styles of Sparkling Wine, check out my Sparkling Wine 101 post for a quick primer on the main styles and differences.

CHAMPAGNE BRUNO PAILLARD:

Bruno Paillard and his daughter Alice poring over vineyard maps.

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.

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 $84 and Veuve Cliquot is $74.95 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.

Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Premier Cuvee’, MV Extra Brut, $84 + HST
Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Rosé Premier Cuvee’ MV Extra Brut, $109 + HST
Champagne Bruno Paillard ‘Blanc de Blancs’ Grand Cru, MV Extra Brut, 1500ml, $295 + HST

BENJAMIN BRIDGE:

They have been putting Nova Scotia and Canada on the international stage for top tier, Champagne Method, sparkling wine for over a decade. They are in the Gaspreau Valley, which is a sub valley of the Annapolis Valley on the Bay of Fundy. Started in 1999 by owner Gerry McConnell in consultation with Peter Gamble and Anne Sperling, husband and wife winemakers/consultants from Ontario, then also consulting with top Champagne winemakers from Piper Heidsieck, and later Champagne Agrapart. These top Champagne houses saw the incredible potential of Nova Scotia’s unique terroir and microclimate and were excited to contribute their knowledge and experience.

Most Champagne houses have a Non-Vintage (NV) blend as the staple in their lineup. This is Benjamin Bridge’s take on their house NV Brut. They started their reserve pot in 2002 and the latest vintage to be added was 2018, so they have 16 years of vintages blended in together! And while they do have several outstanding vintage wines, this is their main house style, and it does not disappoint! This wine has a beautiful minerality from the incredibly complex geology in the soils intermingled with notes of citrus fruit, lemon rind, hints of smoke and brioche. And their ‘Brut NV Rosé’ is equally as delicious and complex. If you love Champagne and you’re curious about top Canadian talent, you’d be remiss not to try these out. And at half the price of entry-level Champagne, it’s a win-win!

If you’re looking for something a little funkier, their Pet Nat has been one of the best selling wines we’ve had in the shop since we opened. Unfiltered, hazy, and raw it’s shows lots of citrus, floral, herbaceous, and mineral notes from the 100% Geisenheim grapes. Like the label says: “Cloudy and Wildly Delicious.” It’s nothing like the Traditional Method sparkling that Benjamin Bridge is known for, but something really fun, funky, and natural…even though all their wines are organic and low intervention. Check out more details here.

Benjamin Bridge, NV Brut, Nova Scotia, $41 + HST
Benjamin Bridge, NV Brut Rosé, Nova Scotia, $44 + HST
Benjamin Bridge, Pet Nat, 2018, Nova Scotia, $38 + HST

GIRO RIBOT CAVAS:

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 and the Rose is dry, fruity, minerally and fresh. In other words: just plain awesome.

CAVA ‘BRUT’ RESERVA, GIROT RIBOT, NV, $24 + HST
CAVA ‘BRUT’ ROSE, GIROT RIBOT, NV, $25 + HST

SPARKLING TASTING ON ZOOM:

This idea is still evolving, but here’s this scoop:
1. If you already have, or are going to, purchase any bubbles in person or online from the Byward Wine Market for NYE.
2. Send me an email here and let me know what you’ve bought and that you’d like to join the Zoom tasting.
3. I’ll email you back the credentials and you can tune in and join us on New Years! I’m thinking 9pm might be the sweet spot—after dinner and before late night celebrations.

For wine shopping the Byward Wine Market is open 10am - 7pm all week until New Year’s. We have in-store shopping available for takeaway, and you can also order online for pick up or delivery. Just follow this link and hit the SPARKLING tab. Just don’t forget to add an item of food from the SNACKS page to make it legal. We operate under a restaurant license so need to sell food with any wine to make it legal.

Thanks so much and Happy New Year!

Andrew Rastapkevicius