10 bubbles to toast to 2021 and hope it's better than 2020
You will have, it is possible, more than ten reasons to toast and leave behind this rare, unusual year (fortunately); a year in which you have suffered and learned, surely, in equal parts. We celebrate the 2020 that is leaving; we celebrate the coming 2021 and toast with ten champagnes Y sparkling wines that pair perfectly with happiness.
1.BOLLINGER PN VZ15: BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO BEAT THIS YEAR IN DISASTERS
After how we've been through it, it's time to pay tribute. One of the good ones, of course, taking out fine artillery and dedicating himself to enjoying himself without thinking much more. He lives the present and open yourself, today, this piece of blanc de noirs from the house that makes 007's favorite champagne . A pinot noir whose initials VZ indicate the town where most of the grapes come from, Verzenay, Grand Cru de Champagne , and the year that forms the basis of this jewel, 2015. One more step from the house that you have in Pinot Noir his queen grape and that he manages , judging by the complexity, the finesse, the freshness, the delicacy and the quantity of fruity, spicy, floral and mineral nuances, with a superb mastery. Seriously, it will be one of your best toasts. Chin Chin! (RRP: €89)
Bollinger
Bollinger P.N. VZ15
Bollinger P.N. VZ15
2.MOSKA-TELL: BECAUSE EVEN FROM THE WORST MOMENTS YOU CAN LEARN SOMETHING
You're fed up with listening to sell-out self-help authors and (sometimes so overrated) success gurus. that opportunities arise from crises . And you think that… well, that… that they may be right: they have made you an ERTE, but it has given you time to study that course that you always wanted to do; you have been locked up at home, but that has allowed you to get closer to your partner; you've been forced to come back at a certain time, but you've made the most of it when you've been away. Anyway, why don't you open a sparkling muscatel , a grape that sounds like church wine and that, in this case, it comes with a bottle cap as if it were a beer… But you open it and enjoy its sweet point, its aromatic strength and its tickles in the throat. fruit of its elaboration by means of the ancestral method (a single fermentation that leaves the wine with a kind of very refreshing needle). You relax and… yes, you start to see the good where before you only saw the bad. (RRP: €15)
Farm Fuentegalana
Moska Tell
Moska Tell
3.MONTESQUIUS 1918 ROSÉ BRUT NATURE GRAN RESERVA: BECAUSE IT IS POSSIBLE THAT IN NOTHING WE WILL SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
The wait is long, it becomes almost as long as the aging of this singular cava, which reaches 11 years in rhyme, that is, lying in the dark of the cellar galleries . And it is that as there is no evil that lasts a hundred years, in the end the wine sees the light, and we begin to harbor hope and think that it is enough of this practical joke that leaves behind so much suffering. You uncork, you sniff its wild and ripe fruit aromas (it uses Monastrell, Trepat and Pinot Noir, a curious mixture of Mediterranean and Atlantic grapes) and you let yourself be carried away by that lively and forceful drink, which takes you out of your reverie to make you think that the best is yet to come. (RRP: €24.95)
Montesquius
Montesquius 1918 Gran Reserva Brut Nature
Montesquius 1918 Gran Reserva Brut Nature
4.RECAREDO TERRERS: BECAUSE YOU HAVE REALIZED THE ENORMOUS VALUE OF SMALL THINGS
To Mata family, owner and founder of Recaredo , the same thing happened to them when they decided to take small steps (in this wine rush is absolutely useless) and advance in viticulture and production to offer purer wines. They left aside the imported varieties to bet on the native ones and in the field, they began to follow the dictates of biodynamics and to protect biodiversity, to intervene less in the production... And these advances have been noted in their sparkling wines, under the corpinnat stamp . East terrestrial , made with the trio of whites typical of the Penedès (Xarel lo, Parellada and Macabeo) happens 34 months in the bottle before coming to light , and no sugar is added to preserve its message, loaded with nature, mineral and herbaceous notes, fresh fruit, very light toasted notes and a voluminous and full mouthfeel, pleasant, fresh and long. Little things that, as the song said, make life worthwhile. (RRP: €19.90)
Recaredo
Recaredo Terrers
Recaredo Terrers
5.AA10: BECAUSE YOU HAVE LEARNED THE VALUABLE TIME WITH YOURS
The family has gained an unusual relevance this year; including, of course, that chosen family that are friends . We have missed all of them, longed for their kisses and hugs, spending time with them at times when it seemed that the world was ending. And that has made us highly value quality time with them, sharing sorrows and joys and toasting together. Few things better than some serious and complex bubbles like this AA10, a cava that alludes in its name to the decade of aging that passes until it is bottled , a tribute to time, to waiting, to the reward that is obtained when impatience does not betray. It is an opulent cava, with balance and texture , which highlights the value of every second, a message that, after this year, has been burned into our hearts. (RRP. €110)
High Alella
AA10
AA10
6.CAN SALA: BECAUSE YOU MAY GET NEW IDEAS TO RETRACK YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Something like this has happened to this digging, bearing the surname of the family found at the origin of Freixenet , although it is no longer linked to the brand of the Christmas ads. Yes it is to the founding family, the Ferrer Room , who have decided to give a new impetus to estate sparkling wines like this one, from Mediona, in the Penedès , and elaborated in the founding winery of the Ferrer Sala. Reinventing yourself is not something new, and in a critical moment, it is an excellent solution to not let yourself be dragged by events. And if the result comes out as round as this wine, opulent and voluminous, complex, full of fruity, toasted, herbaceous and dried fruit aromas, well welcome reinvention . (RRP: €69)
Freixenet
can room
can room
7.VILARNAU XAREL.LO CASTANYER: BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD TIME TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE BREAD AND PASTRIES
You got down to work when you saw that the confinement thing was going on for a while and spending so much time in the kitchen did not seem overwhelming, but rather a golden opportunity to change the scenery, or what was the same in confinement times, room. and you have discovered the value of crafts , the enjoyment that it can give you do things with your own hands . And craftsmanship is also what rests in the elaboration of this peculiar cava. In this case, the expertise of the boatmen who have created the chestnut boots in which the Xarel lo wine raw material for this cava . When serving it and approaching the glass its beautiful aromas of ripe fruit and pastries begin to come out, slightly floral and very elegant touches and, once in the mouth, it runs creamy, unctuous, deep... Come on, go to the kitchen and have some of that walnut cake that you just took out of the oven. (RRP: €35)
Vilarnau Xarel.lo Castanyer
Vilarnau Xarel.lo Castanyer
Vilarnau Xarel.lo Castanyer
8.SINGULAR XAREL.LO BY JUVÉ & CAMPS: BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW TO VALUE WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT
The bad moments are what they have, which sometimes serve to rough up your own life and begin to strip you of everything that harms or hurts you, including pseudo-friends, bullying bosses or disciplines that you do not feel like submitting to at this precise moment. Outside toxicity. keep it simple and go ahead . This grand reserve cava made solely from Organic Xarel lo It is committed to this, without the simplicity of the message implying that there is no great work behind it, on the contrary, to make the great white cava shine like this, mastery in viticulture and production is required. Fruity, citric, fresh and lively, direct and wide in the mouth, it is a pleasant and elegant cava. , capable of accompanying you in those moments of reflection where you feel comfortable in solitude, with the satisfaction that you have gotten rid of the ballast and are beginning to move forward. (RRP. €13.50)
Juvé & Camps
Singular Xarel lo by Juvé & Camps
Singular Xarel lo by Juvé & Camps
9. MESTRES VISOL: BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO LEAVE ROOM FOR HOPE
Sure, without her. What do we have left? Enjoy the moment with a cava like this next door , with their intense nuances of ripe white fruit , with touches of flowers and a citrus dot colors life and digs a small tunnel where we thought there was no exit. It is a hedonistic cava, for conversation or shared food , whose base wine has passed a time in the barrel before fermenting for the second time in the bottle . And that is uncorked and makes the time happy, because you finish it without hardly realizing it. (RRP: €19.90)
Masters Visol
Masters Visol
Masters Visol
10.AA AUS ROSÉ 2020. BECAUSE YES, THIS F YEAR IS GOING FOREVER
Say goodbye to him as he deserves, with a wine whose Monastrell grapes (which in Alella is known as Mataró) they have been evolving in confinement, they veraisoned in the strangest summer of our lives and were harvested in moments of maximum crisis due to outbreaks around the world. But everything happens, and this year too, so opening a wine like this, with subtle bubbles that come from its elaboration by the ancestral method, its fruity, primary flavors and a lively and tasty texture will make you want to leave 2020 behind at the same rate you finish the bottle , yes, with a good company. And to receive 2021 as it deserves, hoping that yes, it can be MUCH better .(RRP. €10.50)
High Alella
AA AUS Rosé 2020
AA AUS Rosé 2020
BONUS TRACK: RELICS OF BARBADILLO
Because to close this year well, you need a sherry with power . I couldn't miss the opportunity to say goodbye to this year without talking about a sherry, one of our most precious little liquid jewels, sometimes too unknown, almost as much as it is appreciated by the most geek winelovers. And this bonus track is a tribute to some wines that have seen wars, pandemics, phylloxeras, climate change... and they remain as silent witnesses of the life that passes in the tranquility of the boots that keep them , the darkness over the cellar, waiting for the moment to be bottled and begin to give joy to those who are lucky enough to drink them. The Relics of Barbadillo , one of the classic sherry treasures, comes to light this year in a different format (37.5cl, half a bottle), more typical of its character of almost forbidden nectar ( 256 wine labels of four categories, amontillado, palo cortado, oloroso and PX ) and with labels that pay homage to the care with which Barbadillo preserves these wines . Each of the labels is handmade by a calligrapher, who has searched its essence to draw it on paper and show it from its prism.
But what really matters is the wine, the essence, which is what remains in the memory. And toast to the good, why else?
Barbadillo
Relics of Barbadillo
Relics of Barbadillo