Of all the spirits, champagne shares a specific connection to celebration. Bubbly is stored in a high pressure bottle that adds a nice build up to its signature pop and then the fizzy fun can flow freely much as revelers anticipate the midnight toast on New Year’s Eve and then release a torrent of toasts, kisses and “Happy New Year” wishes.
First, it is important to note that while champagne is a sparkling wine, all sparkling wine is not necessarily champagne.
Authentic champagne is named after Champagne, France, the region where the grapes are grown, fermented and bottled. It is said to get its unique flavor from the mineral rich soil in the region.
According to European law, the only labels that are allowed to include the name “Champagne” must be bottled within 100 miles of this region, which is close to Paris.
Champagne is made from a unique base of grapes that include Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes. Experts claim that roughly 90 percent of all blended champagnes use a ratio of 2⁄3 red and 1⁄3 Chardonnay mixes.
The production methods of champagne are also strictly controlled by the Appellation d’Origine Controlée. This certification dictates how a producer may grow the grapes and how the grapes can be harvested and processed known as méthode champenoise, a process that is said to have been invented by a monk named Dom Perignon. This procedure involves double fermentation in bottles and creates an earthy, yeasty flavor.
Other notable types of sparkling wine include Italian Prosecco and Spanish Cava. sparkling wine can be made just about anywhere grapes are grown. Sparkling wines are often double-fermented in steel containers instead of bottles.
Other sparkling wines besides champagne make their own impressions for various reasons including cost and preferences of flavor.
Though in the name of fidelity to ritual, straight champagne is preferable for midnight toasts, you can turn expectations on their heads by mixing boozy cocktails with the fizzing liquid.
The French 75 is a popular cocktail that mixes gin or cognac with the bubbling elixir that bears the distinction of being one of a handful modern staple cocktails to be developed and perfected during Prohibition.
The drink gets its name from a French artillery piece then infamous for its hard hitting reputation garnered on the battlefield during the Great War. The name was popularized by “Lost Generation” writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The drink should be served as cold as you can stand it perhaps best advocated for in the 1946 Howard Hawks film “the Big Sleep,” based on the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name. When the aging and sickly General Sternwood, played by Charles Waldron, asks private eye Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart in one of his most iconic roles, how he takes his brandy. Marlowe quickly shoots back “in a glass.”
To which Sternwood says, “I used to like mine with champagne. Champagne as cold as Valley Forge and with about three ponies of brandy under it.”
That’s a stiff drink, but a more modest recipes will certainly pack enough of a punch. Cocktail historian David Wondrich recommends you make the drink as follows:
French 75
• .5 oz of lemon juice
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 oz of london dry gin or cognac
• champagne, chilled
Muddle the liquor, sugar and lemon juice and shake well over ice. Pour into an ice filled collins glass and top off liberally, but carefully, with champagne.
