sparkling wines

Sparkling wine's rarely inappropriate for an occasion, but there's also hardly a time more fitting to drink it than during the holidays. For a particularly memorable gift, I'll occasionally indulge friends in an over-the-top bottle of bubbly, but with all the festivities that go down between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I typically turn to wines with value.

Overall, American bubbly offers more bank for your buck than French champagnes, and among West Coast sparkling wines, one can hardly get a better value than with Schramsberg. Vintage bubbly is less common and more expensive, but this wine house offers a reasonably-priced selection. Sommelier Eugenio Jardim recently turned me on to the 2006 Rosé ($30).

The blush-tinted bubbly is one of the few left to be hand-riddled in production, and it has a bright, yeasty nose that conjures images of the season's best harvest — apples, pears, cranberries. Like Jardim said, it'd be ideal with Winter squash soup — but it's great alone, too. What are your picks for sparkling wines with value?

When it comes to hostess gifts to bring on Thanksgiving, there are seemingly endless ideas. But what should you bring if you've been invited over to dinner by the ultimate hostess? My advice: come with a bottle of Beau Joie Champagne.

This lattice bottle, which is encased by a copper suit of armor, might be the most stunning bottle of wine we've ever seen — and it's sure to be the talk of the table. What's more, that jacket isn't just a gimmick; the casing (made from 100 percent recycled scrap copper) helps to keep the Champagne colder for longer and easier to grip when pouring. It's recyclable after use, too — that is, if you can bear to part with the bottle in the first place.

But what's in the bottle is what matters — and thankfully, it's quality stuff. Made from 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay grapes from France's Epernay region, this bubbly has a yeasty, bread-like bouquet, light body, and a zippy finish. At about $80 it doesn't run cheap, but it's a hostess and holiday gift easily rolled into one. What's the most standout bottle of bubbly you've ever had?

Preparing Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd is no small feat — so come turkey day, take any opportunity that arises to make things easier on yourself in the kitchen. Add to the festivities by pouring guests a seasonal cocktail that makes use of ingredients you're apt to already have on hand, like sparkling wine, orange juice, and fresh cranberries. I happened to have tangerine juice and leftover Rosé in my fridge, so I used that instead; the outcome was a deeper blush color. Want a basic, adaptable drink recipe that'd be delicious at the Thanksgiving table? Then read on.

According to Nielsen, the volume of sparkling rosé produced has grown by nearly 22 percent in the last year — if you're looking for a solid jumping-off point for pink sparklers, a good place to start is Martini & Rossi. The Italian house is known for its Prosecco, Asti, and Vermouth, but this year also launched a reasonably priced Sparkling Rosé ($14).

The bottle's deep coral color is inviting, but it's the flirtatious blend of Malvasia, Brachetto, and Moscato Bianco that's unique. The Malvasia lent a hint of apricot, the Moscato Bianco: lingering sweetness, and red Brachetto: a bright salmon color. The end result was a bouquet of pomaceous fruit that ended with a very off-dry finish.

Martini Sparkling Rosé is also raising attention to breast cancer this month: Make a donation online to The Pink Agenda through the rest of October, and the wine house will match it. What's your favorite blush bubbly?

Despite the fact that many guests in Aspen had a chance to hit up the tasting tent five times, the last 30 minutes of the last Grand Tasting on Sunday rapidly deteriorated into a crowded, debaucherous food and wine free-for-all. In the midst of it all, we stumbled upon an Australian wine table that had been completely abandoned: there the whites and rosés sat, on ice, ready to be enjoyed, but there was no one there to pour them. It was as though the whole wine team suddenly took off, afraid they would miss their 15-hour flights back to Australia.
As the old adage goes, one person's trash is another person's treasure. While we still had the time, we dug into quite a few varietals. The most beautiful to stare at and to drink turned out to be the 2009 Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato ($10 for 375 ml) from Victoria, Australia. I've long loved the sparkle of a good Moscato d'Asti, but I'd never before come across a sparkling pink Moscato. The combination of Muscat Alexandria and Black Muscat contribute to the ballet slipper hue, and the wine is wildly easy to drink, with a floral-spicy perfume, red fruit flavor, and long, lingering, well-rounded finish. I can't wait to seek it out here in San Francisco. Have you ever had a sparkling pink Muscat?

I like to think that there's no such thing as too many berries, but the other day I found myself with a surplus of strawberries. So what was a girl to do? Why, make a spiked sparkling strawberry punch out of them, of course!

This punch is brilliant, because it calls for items — orange juice, Prosecco, berries — that someone like myself often has on hand anyway. And because it makes a lot, it'd be grand at just about any group occasion.

Can't you envision it looking so elegant in a giant punch bowl at a springtime graduation party or bridal shower? For the easy, crowd-pleasing recipe, read more.

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and based on my initial experience with Portuguese sparkling wine, I've been very impressed. Recently I sipped a truly wonderful sparkling, Luis Pato Bruto Espamante ($17), at a tasting led by Eugenio Jardim, sommelier at Traci Des Jardins's San Francisco restaurant Jardinière. "To me, it's inexplicable why Prosecco and Cava would be more popular than this," he commented. I couldn't have agreed more.

The brut bubbly isn't overly perfumed, but just aromatic enough, with fruity-floral notes of apricot and peach and a nice dry finish. With its feminine flavors and pale straw hue, it brought to mind a ballerina fluttering in a tulle dress. It's rare in Portugal to see single-varietal wines, and this is no exception. I didn't recognize the grapes (Maria Gomes is a muscat-like varietal, and Arinto, a lemon-tinged, high-acid grape), but that was irrelevant after one sip. Have you ever tried a Portuguese sparkling wine?