Tasty TJ Turkey Day Bubbly – for $9.99?!

Winco – Champagne Bottle Stopper

Fast facts:

• NV Trader Joe’s Reserve Brut Rose´ North Coast (California)  $9.99 (Purchased@Trader Joe’s; California)

When serving a special meal (and the Thanksgiving feast certainly qualifies) nothing quite sets the mood like offering your guests a glass of bubbly as an aperitif served with appetizers, or with the main event itself.  Here’s one that is perfectly satisfying and refreshing and is a remarkable value to boot.

In the glass the wine presents with bubbles that are a bit more coarse and aggressive (careful about pouring this one too fast) than one would find with champagne.  But once it settles into the glass, you will be treated with a wonderful ambrosia of fruit flavors including apple, pear, strawberry, cherry and raspberry. It also has the traditional and welcome notes of creaminess.  What’s not to like?

Some things to note about this label:

1. It is a Brut Rose´- the “brut” designation means its going to be dry, not sweet or off dry.  As for “rose´” well, you  know what that means, and you can see for yourself in the photo above that these bubbles are “pretty in pink.”  (Isn’t she?)
2. North Coast is a broad and encompassing AVA which incorporates all of the wine growing regions north and northeast of San Francisco.  In other words, some of the best wine regions in all of California.
3. Methode Champenoise – interestingly, this French term was outlawed in the EU in 1994. More recent French bottlings feature the terms methode traditionelle, methode classique or methode traditionelle classique.  Whatever the term applied, they all mean that the wines were produced in the intricate traditional method where the wine is fermented in the bottle.  This is the good stuff!
4. Lastly, you will note that despite the hat tip to the French, this is labeled Sparkling Wine, not champagne, and there is a very, very good reason for this. Champagne is a specific wine producing region in the northeastern corner of France. California sparkling wine is not champagne. (For that matter, Spanish Cava is not champagne.  Nor is Italian Prosecco.  Even the relatively new and relatively good sparkling wines from across the channel in England can not claim to be Champagne.)  But we consumers make the mistake frequently.
5. There is no vintage declared, which is not an uncommon thing with all wines sparkling.  That is what the NV refers to in our description in the Fast Facts section above.

Speaking of capital C Champagne (the region) and champagne (the beverage), the French rely upon three grape varieties in their production of champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  Those three same grape varieties comprise the blend in this Trader Joe’s sparkling wine.

Did we mention that it’s just $9.99 a bottle here?  This is a good wine to stock up on as you not only have to get through Thanksgiving, but the December and New Year’s holidays as well!

We normally publish our weekly posts on Thirsty Thursdays, but are breaking with that tradition to get this into your hands in advance of the holiday.

We wish you all a peaceful and restful Thanksgiving holiday, and are grateful for all the kind words and encouragement that we have received from many of you throughout the year.

Cheers!