The world of sparkling wines is vast and the king of sparkling wine is Champagne. When I sat down for a seminar at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, the glasses in front of me looked like Champagne and had some of the same mineral, citrus and brioche aromas. But, in fact, it was not Champagne in front of me. Nor was it Italian sparkling wine or California sparkling wine. It was, in fact, British sparkling wine, a category that I had been hearing about but had not had the opportunity to taste, until now. British Bubbles are a very exciting category which I wrote about in the Napa Valley Register, which you can read here, and I look forward to continuing to explore British Bubbles in the future.
I took a look at the glasses on the table. The liquid was a pale gold with a stream of small bubbles. The nose ranged from mineral and citrus to apple and brioche notes.
A simple guess was that Champagne was in front of me. But it was not. I had eight glasses of British Bubbles in front of me as I sat down for a seminar at Pebble Beach Food & Wine titled “Oysters, Pearls and British Bubbles” led by Champagne-lover Kim Beto, Sommelier Tim Smith, an American living in England, Master Sommelier Joe Spellman and English-born Master Sommelier Laura Rhys. Kim recalled a few years ago when Chef Gary Danko first asked him about English bubbles. He had no answer then but today, make no mistake that British Bubbles is a serious category of wine.
