Six Champagnes Under $100

More Americans are planning to celebrate this new year's eve with a small group of friends at home instead of going out to clubs and restaurants. What better way to enjoy the evening then to share a bottle or two of bubbly by the fireplace.

There's no need to spend a lot of money and feel like you have to have a good time and forcing your better half to dance just because an orchestra is playing. Also, if you order a good bottle of wine at a restaurant, it will cost you twice as much as the one you have at home in the cooler.

Since wine prices have come down in the past couple of months, there are some great bargains out there if you do a little searching. There are some excellent champagnes and sparkling wines under $100.

Perrier Jouet Fleur De Champagne 1998
in the famous flower bottle. Apple and peach flavors with a bit of vanilla and and a trace of citrus. A favorite which can be found for $99. At that price it's a great deal.

Schramsberg 1999 J Schramm
This California sparkling wine in one of my favorites. It's creamy and has the traditional hint of brioche and tropical fruit. Can be found online for $78.

Taittinger Brut La Francaise
Description: A fine, very pure style of Champagne. Has hints of toast and citrus fruits that come together in a style that is almost the essence of Champagne. Crisp, rich and complex. Wine Enthusiast score 92.

Bollinger Special Cuvee Champagne
93 points Wine Spectator: "Complex aromas and flavors of rose, grilled nuts, citrus and a gently oxidative note course through this muscular, full-bodied bubbly. Despite its power, there's a gracefulness. The after tase combines citrus and spice. $47

Louis Roederer NV Brut Premier Reims
WS 90 Pts. - Delicious. Smooth and complex, revealing flavors of yeast, berry, ginger and citrus, allied to a firm structure. Ends with a firm, tactile sensation and an aftertaste of candied citrus. $37

Veuve Clicquot Brut
The famous yellow label. According to Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The NV Brut offers up attractive notes of smoke, tar, rich ripe pears and flowers in a medium to full-bodied style. There is a good measure of persistence..."$ 38

A good bubbly goes well with just about every type of food. It's one of the few wines you can drink from start to finish of a great meal. A dinner of lobster with drawn butter and a glass of champagne is the ultimate treat to start the new year.

Wine Country Holiday Getaway

Napa Valley

December is the best time to visit California wineries. Get your holiday shopping early so you take a break from the crowds at the mall or just do your shopping online. If you have 3 or 4 days to spare, Napa Valley is beautiful at Christmastime. The air is crisp, the holiday decorations are up and the usual crowds on Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail are almost non-existent. The tasting rooms usually only have a few visitors so the people working there have time to chat and answer you questions while they pour. This is a great time to learn about the wines that were harvested in September and are now going through their fermentation process.

Most of the hotels have specials at this time and you can save 50% off the price of a room at your favorite resorts. One of my favorite places to stay is the Silverado Resort. It’s a short drive from the Silverado Trail, which is home to the wineries of the Stags Leap area, known for their world famous cabs.

Two of my favorite wineries are located on the trail. The Steltzner Winery is a small family owned establishment that produces classic Bordeaux varietals. Their Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Select is a delight. Smooth is the word that immediately comes to mind, followed by dark fruit. This wine is in the over $60 category.

The Regusci Winery is one of the few remaining Ghost Wineries left in the Napa Valley. Most of the wineries in the late 1800’s to 1900 were decimated by the phylloxera infestation at that time, which forced most of the wineries out of business.

The tasting room at Regusci is one of my favorites. A large rustic room with big wooden beams and a long wooden bar make it casual and inviting. The winery dogs are always fun to visit with and Regusci dogs, Trixie and Scrappy, are no exception. Of course, the real reason we like to go there is the wine. The zinfandel is a favorite and being a small winery that produces a limited quantity, this big, juicy, California-style wine goes fast. $50 - sells out quickly.

After an afternoon of tasting and sipping, there are several outstanding restaurants that are in the affordable range. It’s almost impossible to find food that isn’t good. Even the old Sizzler serves tasty food!

Depending on how much wine you buy to take home or have shipped, you can have an affordable getaway in Napa Valley. With gas prices below $1.50 a gallon, it makes driving up the coast a treat.

The Hot New Wine for 2009

Chances are, when you think of sherry you think of little old ladies at the turn of the century, sitting in a drawing room sipping wine from small crystal glasses. Well, maybe those ladies knew something we've forgotten- sherry is a delightful, food friendly wine. Today, most sherries that are sold are commercial blends, which ensure consistantcy, but don't offer sought-after complexity. Fortunately, with the popularity of Spanish wines today, that is changing. Consumers are discovering a whole new world of sherries, from the dry, crisp Finos to the oh-so-sweet Pedro Ximénez wines. And, just like Champagne, sherry is only sherry if it comes from Jerez region of Spain.

With today's interest in food and wine pairings, sherry has become a star player - especially with tapas. Tapas are small plates of appetizers such as cold meats, sausage, olives and cheese. According to "The Joy of Cooking", the original tapas were slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips to keep the flies off. Whatever the origin, the pairing of tapas with sherry is a perfect match. In fact, recent scientific studies have shown certain compounds in dry sherries actually accentuate the taste and flavors of certain foods such as cheese, meat, fish and mushrooms.

If you feel adventurous and want to begin enjoying sherries, start with a dry, light fino or Montilla . Serve it cold with proscuitto, salted, roasted almonds or green olives.

A little more full-bodied Amontillado goes great with Stilton or Gruyère cheese or an Oloroso with goose liver pate or beef teriyaki.

Cream sherries, such as Harvey's Bristol Cream, are sweet dessert wines. Try dried fruit or custard to bring out the flavor.

Serve the very sweet Pedro Ximenez at room temperature. The raisin-like flavor is great for dipping a biscotti to finish off a meal.

The good news is a good quality sherry won't break the bank. You can find a bottle of Don Fino for less than $12.

Sandeman Amontillado Sherry Medium-Dry Character is a more full-bodied wine. Because a small amount of PX (Pedro Ximenez) is added late in the aging process, it has a touch of sweetness. Under $18.

To round out the sherry experience, try Osborne Sweet P.X. It has a nice brown sugar smell and taste. Great over vanilla ice cream or in a glass to linger over by the fireplace. The alcohol content is 17%, so sip it slowly. Under $20.

Prince Charles’s Aston Martin Runs on Wine

It is certainly a vintage vehicle. And now Prince Charles’s beloved Aston Martin DB6 is running on vintage too. A nice little white from a vineyard in Wiltshire, to be precise. The car - which is kept at Highgrove and clocks up just 300 miles a year - averages ten miles a gallon, the equivalent of 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile. The grapes used for Charles’s fuel have already been fermented into wine on an English vineyard near Swindon, Wiltshire.

Italian Sparkling Wine

Asti is a lovely town, set in the gently rolling hills of Piedmont, in northern Italy. The craggy, limestone soil there is ideal for growing grapes.

A semi-sparkling wine with about half the carbonation of a typical sparkling wine, Moscato d’Asti is light and crisp and relatively low in alcohol, about 5 to 7 percent.

Drink Moscato d’Asti with warm peach cobbler topped with a big dollop of mascarpone. Mmmm.

Moscato d’Asti not only makes an exceptional dessert wine but is also versatile enough to have as an aperitif. Served alone, it is one of the most refreshing wines in the world, and one would be hard pressed to find something better for a hot summer day.