My Favourite…Natalie McCambridge
With the clocks going forward and summer within our sights my mind gets restless and my senses provoked at the opportunities ahead where a glass of bubbly will compliment the occasion, the weather or the food to perfection!
However, as we are all very aware in the off-licence industry, similar to shiny new cars and the two sun holidays a year, the oh-too familiar sound of the champagne corks popping was amongst the luxuries to take a pounding. We now save the vintage top shelf bubbly for the important occasions and milestones, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some exceptional sparkling wines of excellent quality and at affordable prices!
When I close my eyes and think of those spectacular summer evenings on Galway Bay, where you can smell the fresh Atlantic Ocean on the breeze and our homegrown delicious strawberries are coming into season, two sparkling wines automatically come to mind, Jean Louis Denois Brut “Tradition” and La Tordera Prosecco. Both of these little beauties will always find a spot on my wine shelf!
Jean Louis Denois is an unheralded star of the Languedoc who makes exciting world-class wines that nonetheless remain amazingly affordable! It is made from a 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, handpicked from the vines at the foot of the Pyrenees in the very southwest of France, this sparkler never fails to deliver every time and what’s more it retails for less than €20.00!
La Tordera Prosecco in its dark green bottle and distinguishing orange string is my favourite summer weather tipple, fresh, light and bursting with flavour, this Prosecco is ideal as an aperitif, with those summer strawberries I mentioned earlier or simply to pop open when the sun is shining and friends are around to analyse the gossip of the day, all sounding very girlie? Funny when the barbeque is sparked up and the beers are cooling in the icebox, the Prosecco is always the first to go! Roll on those summer days!
