“I really want to impress my date this Valentine’s Day,” a workout buddy tells me between crunches at the gym. “I’m preparing this incredible dinner, sprinkling rose petals all over the table … I’m just figuring out what I can hock so I can buy her a bottle of Dom Perignon.”
“Why Dom?”
“It’s the best, isn’t it?”
Dom Perignon is certainly a brand favorite when it comes to fine champagne, yet you can score several domestic sparkling wines that will impress even the most demanding guest with its pedigree, palate, aroma, and scintillating color for a fraction of the price.
Why is this the case?
Champagne (the term applies to grapes specifically grown in Champagne, France) is a delimited AOC region with many centuries of brand building and an established reputation for age-worthy wines. The “new world” sparkling wines of California and Washington are grown under quality conditions, but do not face the restrictions of their French cousins. New world sparklers are also designed to be drunk young, and are not expected to improve with cellar age.
One of the fastest growing areas of sparkling wine production in America is Washington State, where Domaine St. Michele produces delicious, well-balanced champagne in the Columbia Valley, a region marked by lots of sun, little rain, and the kind of cool temperature that produces wines with refreshing acidity and pure fruit character.
Chateau Ste Michelle offers a Blanc de Noirs with a gorgeous salmon color (it is tinted from very brief contact with the red wine skins) and scent of tangerine, strawberry, peach, apricot – just ripened fruit at its peak. It has an elegant, dry, crisp finish with just enough acidity to keep everything fresh. Serve it as an elegant, romantic aperitif or pair with caramelized scallops, tuna tartare, poached salmon, or luncheon salads.
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