Women Wine Critics Board

It's Time to Sparkle!

Contributed by Katy Budge, freelance writer

With the holidays upon us, it’s time to break out the bubbly! After all, nothing says "festive" like a glass of bubbly, and Champagnes and sparkling wines are also great matches with foods as varied as oysters-on-the-half-shell or roast duckling.

When looking for a Champagne or sparkling wine, you’ll apply the same principles as still wine tasting: look for a wine that’s well-balanced with flavor profiles you enjoy. A sip of bubbly should have a pleasant amount of fizziness, or "mousse", but not so much that your mouth feels like that commercial for scrubbing bubbles. The overall taste should have a kiss of fruit, be clean and refreshing, and offer a pleasant aftertaste. Yes, these are general principles – to find your own specific favorite, your mission is to go forth and taste!

So what exactly is the difference between Champagne and sparkling wine? Well, for starters, Champagne is a sparkling wine, but the reverse is not necessarily so.

Alternative Voices and Thirsty Readers

Like most adventures, this one was born in a moment of tipsy braggadocio. In June, I attended a women winemakers’ night at Jan Manni’s wine shop, The Wine Attic, to pour my own personal production of sangiovese that I produce (almost) every year. As the weather was beautiful and everyone was headed to the beach, the event was lightly attended. So later in the evening there were only five of us—the shop owner and four women winemakers. The topic drifted around to numerical scores and critics’ tastes, and winemaker Elaine Villamin said that although she felt there are quite a few excellent women wine writers, she didn’t feel there were enough women wine critics, and that women’s tastes are still poorly represented. I think at that point I said something stupid, like, well, why don’t we try it?

The loosely but enthusiastically conceived idea originally included wine tasting activities (of course) and reviews, but as we are all winemakers, the peer review issue is a difficult one for us, so the concept has morphed into an online center where winemakers, writers and bloggers can explore alternative methods and voices in wine writing.

We hope this blog will become a center for intelligent and friendly discourse on a range of wine topics, and a place for alternative voices in wine writing to reach thirsty readers. A place where we can explore the uncharted wine territory between a linear land of point scores and pithy reviews, and a wine marketing boudoir of pink websites and labels. Wine writer Daniel Rogov has written a well-researched piece on pregnancy and wine which we’ll be publishing shortly, and we’ll also be hearing from other winemakers, wine writers and bloggers.