John
Euclid's

Sparkling
Wine
Review

CRACK A COLD ONE

          The one serving bottle of sparkling wine (187ml) is not new. These little bottles have been riding on trains and in planes and resting on hotel bars for a long time. However, there is a new species of the mini-champagne now available in attractive little bottles and cans—yes cans—hitting the shelves in what may be a renaissance of the mini. The new mini-sparklers come as well packaged, small champagnes supplied with straws for easy sipping right from the bottle. No champagne flute needed. For the Fall Issue I tried with a female friend of mine four different mini sparkling wines—Pommery POP, Sofia blanc de blancs California, Martini & Rossi ASTI, and Friexenet Cordon Negro. This turned out to be great fun.

         First, we opened a very glossy four-pack of Pommery POP ($34.99/ four-pack), which contained four well appointed blue bottles with real foil, cork stoppers with wire cages, white labels emblazoned with “POP” , and four cellophaned straws in blue or black with POP written near the top. Interestingly, the carton did not explicitly reveal the sweetness range of the contents. Though, the little bottles do say extra dry on the front. When uncorking the bottle, it did not pop, but the contents most certainly were full fledged French champagne with a nice acidity and mild sweetness. Using the straw certainly made for fun sipping. As a note of caution, the straw acted like a little bubble chimney, which if left unattended would siphon off your wine slowly leaving your POP all over the table. POP tasted great in the straw, but bypassing the nose by drinking with a straw did diminish some of the toasty flavors of the wine and focused more attention on its semi-sweet mouth filling qualities. The bottle may be small but the contents are all grown up with the sexy packaging and high price, POP qualifies as a very decadent party favor.

         Sofia blanc de blancs California ($19.99/ four-pack) enters as another new player in the confectionary sparkling wine category. Sophia like POP presents a stand alone, no champagne flute needed, beverage with aggressive style and packaging. Sophia comes in a glossy red four-pack or red cans. Each can has a matching red, very well designed telescoping, articulated straw attached via some gummy clear glue. The Sofia can even has an expiration date--a first in my experience for any sparkling wine; perhaps this practicality was picked up at the Sophia cannery in Indiana. The wine itself fits the packaging—very light with pleasant bubbles and some mild citrus notes. Again sipping from the straw diminishes some of the wine’s character, but the straw does enhance the fun factor. For experimental purposes, I poured a little Sofia in a glass and found few bubbles and tasted more of the Chardonnay character. The low fizz fits the can and straw format, and Sophia did not have the bubble chimney effect POP did, which could be due to the lower carbonation. My tasting partner commented that the packaging and presentation of Sofia is “very girly.” In contrast, she noted that POP looks good on both sexes (Take note gentlemen). All in all, Sofia delivers light, fun sparkling wine in a four pack just perfect for a couple of ladies to complete their party plans.

         Martini & Rossi appear to be jumping into the mini-sparkler marketing war with ASTI Sparkling Wine. ASTI comes in a $3.95 per blue plastic wrapped, gold foiled bottle. This wine unlike POP and Sofia has a low alcohol content at 8% compared to the approximately 11% in the other two. Under the gold foil one finds a gold plastic screw cap. ASTI appears to be aggressively staking out territory in the mini sparkling wine genre by placing their bottle in ingenious little racks that attach to the inside face of glass cooler doors placing these little sparklers clearly in front of the other wines with the catchy phrase “flirt with fizz.” However, no straw is provided, which makes this mini a less portable bubbly unless you want to drink it from the bottle or find a straw. The real problem with ASTI though is the taste. My tasting partner described the only sip she would take as “exhilaratingly awful.” ASTI tasted like sweet, rotten fruit with mild bubbles. Needless to say we only managed a few sips. At a dollar a bottle less than Sofia, it is hard to imagine how ASTI can compete.

         Finally, we tested mini bottles of Freixenet Cordon Negro, which is the mini dose of the widely available 750ml Cordon Negro. Like the big bottle, the little Cordon Negro has the distinctive black bottle with black foil over cork and cage. The mini Freixenet comes in a nice three pack for $7.99, but sadly no straw was included. However, we supplied our own straws and found the mini-Cordon Negro to be delightful. The wine tastes great in a straw, not diminishing the classic crisp, clear favor of Freixenet. Freixenet really should step up and provide three straws for their mini tri-pack. The Cordon Negros are fun and super convenient for a picnic, a party, boating or anytime you would want some bubbly but not the hassle of glassware and a big open bottle of wine.