How to get around Champagne shortage

The charms of Champagne are many.

Those fine French wines from such top houses as Louis Roederer, Billecart-Salmon and Krug swirl with complexity, offer cellarworthy longevity, and of course fetch top dollar — starting at around $90 a pop, when you can find them.

Even lower-priced Champagne from such houses as G.H. Martel, Tarlant and Nicolas Feuillatte offer easy elegance and immediate pleasure, but they’ll still set you back more than $40 a pop at the LCBO.

What’s more, Champagne has been experiencing reduced crops, supply chain issues and soaring global demand recently resulting in global shortages.

You can still find Champagne at the LCBO, but supply is strained. It’s a situation you’re bound to bump up against eventually if you’re a lover of that fine French fizz and want to trade up.

The good news is Ontario makes brilliant bubbly, too, made in the Champagne style.

Like that famous French region, wineries here make spectacular sparkling based on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir made effervescent using the labour-intensive traditional method.

This method involves producing a still wine, bottling it, creating a second fermentation in bottle, disgorging the spent yeast and topping each bottle up before corking it. The traditional method helps

Ontario’s terroir is well-suited for producing world-class bubbles, and some of the best bottles from this province cost less than even the most inexpensive Champagne

create the kind of complexity and finesse for which the best sparkling wines in the world are known.

Of course Champagne, like all wine, is an expression of its place, too — or so-called terroir. Terroir refers to the soil, climate, weather, vineyard aspect and grape variety from which a wine came, as well as the grape-growing and winemaking practices applied.

So to call sparkling wine from Ontario or anywhere else a Champagne look-alike would be an oversimplification.

But Ontario’s terroir is well-suited for producing world-class bubbles, and some of the best bottles from this province cost less than even the most inexpensive Champagne. So if you’re a fan of fine fizz, it should be squarely on your radar.

To see for yourself, taste these three outstanding bottles of sparkling wine, two of which are widely available at the LCBO.

The NV 13th Street Winery Methode Traditionnelle Cuvée Rosé Brut VQA Niagara Peninsula (Vintages Essential and winery $29.95) is an exciting blend of 54 per cent Chardonnay and 46 per cent Pinot Noir.

In the glass, the wine shines deep coral and the fragrance calls to mind bakery-fresh strawberrycustard tarts.

It’s the kind of wine you want to just keep nosing. Then, when you finally take a sip, the attack is enchanting.

Tightly stitched flavours beam in lifted and pure, loosen slowly to reveal a touch of raspberry jam, a twist of lemon zest and butter croissant — then slowly retreat and leave behind a fine sifting of stone.

The wine’s well-toned fruit laced with shimmering acidity tastes clean as a whistle, crystalline and elegant with a soft, creamy mouse lending texture to each sip.

The effect is crisp and dry, lively and refreshing — but not too lean. It’s a bargain. Score: 93

Henry of Pelham Estate Winery is well-known for its sparkling wine. And the NV Henry of Pelham Cuvée Catharine Brut Rosé VQA Niagara Peninsula (LCBO and winery $32.95) on shelf now does not disappoint.

It begins with the immediately compelling scent of homemade strawberry jam on buttered, crusty bread then sweeps in with mouth-filling generosity.

The fruit tastes delicate, poised and intricately woven with toasty, biscuity notes of baked apple, a whisper of violet, poached strawberries and a touch of cream before tapering to a long, toasted meringue finish.

Made from about 75 per cent Pinot Noir and 25 per cent Chardonnay, this pale, rose-gold sparkling is an exciting expression of Ontario. Score: 93

Of course a fraction of the wine produced in Ontario reaches shelves at the LCBO, and you’ll find some excellent bottles available only at the wineries themselves.

A case in point is the NV Malivoire Bisous Brut VQA Beamsville Bench (Winery only, $34.95). Shining the colour of sunlit straw, this blend of 59 per cent Chardonnay and 41 per cent Pinot Noir starts with the warm, inviting fragrance of marzipan and butter croissant before streaming in with rich vinosity shot through with delicate effervescence.

Flavours flit from baked apple to lemon curd to baked biscuits with light allusions of salted roasted almond and toffee underpinning the fruit and lingering on the finish. Score: 92

All three bottles noted here are non-vintage-dated, meaning the fruit came from more than one vintage.

Blending wine from different years allows a winemaker to achieve a signature taste profile for its non-vintage cuvée, so it tastes fairly consistent year to year.

And that spells reliability.

A final tip: To make the most of a sparkling wine, serve it in a white wine glass rather than a flute.

The tall, narrow shape of the flute concentrates the CO2, which can burn the nostrils when nosing the wine. Also, don’t overchill a good bottle of bubbly.

You want it cool but not ice cold because a deep chill can hide all its marvellous complexity.

CAROLYN EVANS HAMMOND IS A TORONTO-BASED WINE WRITER AND A FREELANCE CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST FOR THE STAR. WINERIES OCCASIONALLY SPONSOR SEGMENTS ON HER YOUTUBE SERIES YET THEY HAVE NO ROLE IN THE SELECTION OF THE WINES SHE CHOOSES TO REVIEW OR HER OPINIONS OF THOSE WINES. REACH HER VIA EMAIL: CAROLYN @CAROLYNEVANSHAMMOND.COM