Henkell Rose Dry-Sec

Reviewed by: Matt

Cork: Cork

Price: $13

Region: Germany

This bubbly is the perfect accompnaiment to breakfast for dinner. Which is what I had with it. I suppose you could also have it for breakfast, but I recommend the ‘ole breakfast dinner. It tastes bubbly. Smoother then some bubblies I’ve had before. It’s a rose but I can’t tell the difference between that and a regular. But seriously, who can? If you can, this probably is not the blog for you.

The label looks exactly as you would imagine a bubbly, champagne label should look.

As a side-note I recommend clicking on their website above, it’s swanky!

Taste: 3/5

Label: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

Check Henkell out on Facebook and Twitter

Happy post-Valentines, friends! Did you wake up today with a sugar + oxytocin hangover? Have you hit up your local Walgreen’s to score some deals on discount candy? Are you glad you won’t see Sweethearts for another 11 months? Other thots about yesterday’s holiday?

Ours was a lovely, lovely V-day. Rather than battling the Marinafied crowds, we opted to prepare a picnicky dinner (eaten on the bed, natch). Bi-Rite was so crowded that we had to wait in line, as one would wait outside a club. (“I’m wearing jeans,” Alex quipped. “Do you think they’ll let us in?”) Made conversation with the woman in front of us, who lives in the same building as Robert Patterson.* “He’s just opened that new restaurant, and I can’t wait to try it out,” she said — a bit wistfully, I thought, or maybe with the tone of someone obligated to attend a niece’s piano recital. She promised she’d go soon.We waged an epic battle at Bi-Rite, dodging rampaging hippies just there to get farro, goddamnit, and canoodly couples practically making out in front of the olive display. (GET A ROOM! Next time, that is.) Forty-five minutes later, we were prepping dinner. On the menu: assorted cheeses and charcuterie; dates, which Alex pitted and sliced into wedges; olives; radishes, cleaned, halved, and served in a teacup; arugula, tossed with toasted breadcrumbs and the tangiest vinaigrette, sharpened with shallots and capers and grainy mustard; bread: a sweet baguette and a soft, flat loaf crusted in sesame seeds; German sparkling wine; and Boston Creme Pie, with the lightest filling and the most decadent chocolate shell. Membrillo, too, which I cut into thin slices and smashed into the bread before laying down sheets of Manchego.We ate near the heater, our plates and bowls balanced on small tables, our legs tucked beneath us. Watched the Maine episode of “No Reservations,” which I kept interrupting to ask, “Is that how it really is? Is this an accurate representation?” We let our stomachs settle before cutting one slice of the pie — a sharing slice — and finishing off the champagne and then, very late, rolling into bed.

I wished I could stay up late enough to extend the night through the morning, through the next day, into an ever-expanding experience that would not dilute, even with prolongation. That’s not how time works. Instead, I’ll keep the night’s memory as a talisman: a filament, a worn stone, a bottle filmed with the remnants of what it contained.

***

*I think. She just said “The owner of the ramen place on 18th,” that ramen place being Ken Ken and Patterson being Ken Ken’s owner.

Production Methods: 

Methode Champenoise &

Methode Traditionale

The “Champagne Method” is the natural and traditional way to produce sparkling wines. Outside of Champagne, France; this method is typically called Methode Traditionale. The basic process involves first fermenting your base wines until they are dry like a normal wine. Once fermented, the wines are blended and put into bottles, to which has been added a small amount of yeast and an exact amount of sugar called the liqueur de tirage. The bottles are then capped, and a secondary fermentation ensues which creates a small amount of alcohol and carbon dioxide. When the secondary fermentation is complete and the wine is carbonated, the yeast in the bottle must be removed. The bottles are put into A-frame racks at an angle and put through the process of riddling or remuage where the bottles are rotated a quarter turn once a day as the yeast is slowly forced into the neck of the bottle. Once the yeast plug is formed, the wine goes through degorgement where the neck of the bottle is frozen to lock the yeast away from the wine, the cap is removed and the pressure inside the bottle forces the yeast plug out resulting in a clear wine. The bottle is then topped off with the liqueur d’expedition – a combination of wine and sugar. This dosage of sugar is what determines the sweetness of the sparkling wine. Once added, the bottle is corked and ready to age or consume.

Classic examples: Champagne, Spanish Cava, California Sparkling Wines, German Sekt. 

Charmat Process or Bulk Method

To create carbonation in sparkling wines using the Charmat Process, the wine goes under the secondary fermentation not in individual bottles, rather in large, pressurized tanks. This process is more efficient, cheaper, and easier than Methode Champenoise, but the result is a wine of lower quality and less character.

Classic Examples: Italian Prosecco, Italian Asti & Moscato d’Asti, and inexpensive American Sparkling Wines

Dosage Levels & Sweetness:

Most sparkling wine producers around the world use the Champagne system of describing the sweetness level of a particular wine. From driest to sweetest, those classifications are:

Extra Brut – Extremely dry, no sugar at all

Brut – Very dry, the most common style

Extra Dry – Off-dry, very common style

Sec – Lightly sweet

Demi-Sec - Sweet

Doux – Very sweet, more than 5% R.S. 

GERMAN SEKT

- Sekt is the name for sparkling wines from Germany. Although most Sekt is inexpensive and poorly made, high quality Sekt is produced using Methode Champenoise methods.

- High quality Sekt is produced from Riesling, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), or Rulander (Pinot Gris) grapes.

- Fine Sekt is typically vintage dated. 

Next time you’re looking for a great value sparkling wine think of German Sekt as a great alternative, to