A new directory - house bubbles
Good house champagnes and global bargains, plus an offer for wine students/MWs
Morning bubbleheads,
A friend of mine asked me for some ‘house’ bubble recommendations lately. I went one better, and put down a list of around sixty producers worldwide who make wines roughly £20-40 that are actually good.
There are three categories:
Here it is. Like the other Directories, it’s for my growing band of paid subscribers. I hope I save you all some money.
The Directory - House Bubbles
A lot of affordable sparkling wine is unfortunately pretty bad: conjured-up brands selling odds-and-ends wines under the banner of ‘Champagne’, false-economy fizzes dressed up to look like Premium bubbles from elsewhere…it’s a tough space. The producers I’ve selected below set their stalls by producing good wines that aren’t - or at least aren’t
It’s not a huge list, but there’s a reason for that….I hope it’s useful, and do let me know of any bargains you encounter out there. For my part, I’m looking for clean wines that don’t try and taste expensive, aren’t over-extracted and covered up with sugar, and - in the case of the best here - find their way into my own fridge.
(for some background opinion on why cheap sparkling wines are often so bad, have a look here):
Also, half the seats for our 28th March Bubblehead BYO are now gone, so hurry up if you want to come and pop some corks with me!
A discount for WSET students, Diploma holders and MWs
Anyone studying (or having studied) wine can now receive 15% paid subs at Six Atmospheres, which gets you access to the full Archive, the Directories on Champagne and England, and around half of the new pieces. There’s tonnes in there for students, including pruning, Champagne geology, oak forestry and barrel making in Champagne, the Maillard reaction….This is on trust, folks - I’m not going to be calling up the WSET to verify your candidatures!
Cin cin,
Tom
Argyle in Oergon, USA makes quality traditional method wine. Prices start at about $20 and they produce more complex blancs and roses at around $100.