My favourite champagnes + yummy champagne cocktail recipes

One of the best sounds in the world is the pop of a champagne cork. I’m quite a fan of bubbles. Who isn’t?

As the weather warms up and the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival draws nearer, I’m sharing my favourite drops.

For drinks with the girls

• Jansz
• Domaine Chandon
• Prosecco (preferably from the King Valley, such as Brown Brothers or Dal Zotto)

For a splurge

• Pol Roger  – served at the wedding of Harry and Meghan
• Bollinger – the booze of choice for Patsy and Edwina from Absolutely Fabulous
• Veuve Cliquot – means “widow Cliquot’, named after its founder, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin who successfully ran the winery after her husband’s death

For the races

• Moët
• Grant Burge 

On a budget

• Aldi’s Veuve Monsigny – it’s an award winner and really good!
• Trilogy
• Yarra Burn

My two favourite champagne cocktails

Cassis champagne cocktail

• 80 ml Crème De Cassis
• 750 ml champagne or sparkling wine
• 8 sugar cubes (optional, but they look cute)
• 8 champagne flutes

Place a sugar cube in each flute, add two teaspoons of Crème De Cassis in each glass and top with bubbbles.

Strawberry sparkling cocktail

• 80 g icing sugar
• flesh of one lemon
• 250 g of hulled strawberries
• 100 g ice cubes
• 100 g Cointreau or grand Marnier
• 1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine

Blend sugar, lemon, strawberries, Cointreau and ice cubes in a high speed blender or Thermomix (20 secs, speed 9).

Add bubbles and mix (Thermomix: 5 secs, speed 1).

Serve in sugared glasses with a strawberry on the rim.

Interesting trivia I found on the internet

• UK prime minster Winston Churchill drank a glass of Pol Roger daily at 11am
• apparently, the old-fashioned wide-brimmed glass was styled after Marie Antoinette’s breast
• the wide-brimmed glasses aren’t used much these days because the large surface area of the liquid means the champagne goes flat quicker (they look cool though, don’t they?)

How to be a wine snob and annoy people

• correct their pronunciation of Moët. It is pronounced mo-wett (you include the t) because Moët is Dutch, not French.
• point out that they are incorrect when they call sparkling wine champagne (we all know only true champagne comes from Champagne region in France, we don’t need a know-it-all butting in, yeah?)

Storing, serving and pouring tips

• add water to your ice bucket because it makes it easier to submerge the bottle in the ice
• glasses should be flat on a surface when poured, not tilted
• leave the wire cage on the cork when you open a bottle, just loosen it first
• six twists is the ideal number to twist the wire cage
• if the cork flies off when you open the bottle, it’s a sign the temperature is too warm (but you’ve opened the bottle already, so what are you gonna do?)

Cheers!

Dianna