BostonZest

We Toast February 2023 with Colorful, Romantic Memories and Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Champagne

We have fond memories of enjoying many bottles of Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Champagne in the flamboyantly colorful Upstairs at The Square in Cambridge. 

We added a bright backdrop to this month's bottle to honor the design of this much-loved and sadly-missed restaurant.

For those who have never seen this space, here's a link to an Eater Boston article with images. As you click through, pause at the photo of the bar where we used to sit alongside the man in the picture. He was almost always there.

Often when we dined, Frank (or "Frank who went to New York," as Ed always calls him) was behind the bar. He was one of those great bartenders who knew the food and the wine and always made you feel welcome.

One day we noticed a bottle of Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Champagne on the wine menu for less than we had paid in a wine shop. We asked Frank if this was a typo. He consulted the wine buyer and confirmed the price. While that supply or oversupply lasted, we enjoyed great Champagne at sparkling wine prices.

In 2009 we wrote about the food and wine and called this place "a well-rounded favorite." In that article, we also reminisced about the first version of this establishment saying,

"When we first met UpStairs, it was "UpStairs at the Pudding" and was housed in the Hasty Pudding building a few streets over. We adored lunch or brunch on their garden deck. They do have patio seating at the new location, but we must admit we still miss that hidden garden surrounded by Cambridge homes and businesses."

You might have a delightful surprise at either restaurant when the Harvard Krokodiloes streamed into the room and began an a cappella serenade!

Here is what this Champagne house says about this wine:

Grape varietal: Pinot Noir 100% aged an ideal minimum of 5 years.

SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS
"Elegant, with colour changing naturally from a pretty raspberry hue to salmon pink.
A precise nose of extraordinary freshness and a wide range of red fruits: raspberry, redcurrant, strawberry and black cherry. A fresh and sharp attack for this supple and rounded wine. On the palate, it offers the sensation of plunging into a basket of freshly picked red berries."

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's Wine and Spirits for ~$100 with a six-bottle discount.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by various methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2009-2023 Penny Cherubino (Bottle with glass courtesy of Laurent-Perrier)

We'll Toast January 1, 2023 with a Bottle of Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvee

If we were forced to choose a favorite Champagne, it would be Bollinger. We haven't enjoyed a bottle of Bolly for a while and decided to open another year of toasting each new month with the warm memories of past bottles of Bollinger. 

We love the spirit of Lily Bollinger, who managed this great house for many years and established its worldwide reputation. She said, "I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it—unless I’m thirsty." 

We've enjoyed this pinot-forward champagne many times in many places. As we raise our glasses to toast the new year, we'll remember toasting the ocean from a deck overlooking Provincetown harbor.

We've shared bottles with friends at home and on our roof deck. We toasted the reopening of some of our favorite restaurants, on April fool's day 2021. During the past three years, we've raised glasses of Bolly with friends on computer screens because it was not safe to do so in person.

So many sparkling wines remind us of other times and other places. We hope to share a few of these bottles and the stories that made them memorable in the year ahead.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our bottle (on sale) at Gordon's Wine and Spirits for $74.99.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2017- 2022 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

We Toast December 1st with Memories of Dining Out and Discovering Champagne Pierre Gerbais at Little Whale!

The latest Champagne to make our favorites list is Champagne Pierre Gerbais Grains de Celles Extra Brut. This year we were able to dine outside until Mid-November. Each meal called for a special celebration since we didn't know when we'd be switching over to takeout at our favorite spots. 

By now, you all must know how we love discovering new sparkling wines. Even if it seems a wine will be out of our comfort zone, we'll try it when it was selected by one of our wine mentors. When we discovered a half bottle of this Champagne on the wine list at Michael Serpa's newest restaurant, Little Whale Oyster Bar, we ordered it even though it was described as "Extra Brut."

Here's What We Learned From the Importer Becky Wasserman:

"Champagne Pierre Gerbais is a fourth generation domaine in the Aube. It is spearheaded today by the 20-something Aurélien Gerbais, a handsome-nerdy-hipster winemaker who is unnervingly self-assured for his age, yet soft-spoken and humble. At Gerbais, there are old vines, organic vineyard management, intelligence, respect, passion, relevance, training and drive enough to take this house to the very top of a small band of visionary champagne makers in the Aube who include Aurélien's friend and neighbor Cédric Bouchard, and the small houses of Marie Courtin, Jacques Lassaigne, Ulysse Collin, Horiot, Vouette et Sorbée, etc."

The blend is unusual at "Pinot Noir (50%), Chardonnay (25%), Pinot Blanc (25%)"

This bottle had a lot going for it. It is Pinot forward, as are many of our favorite sparklers; it has Pinot Blanc, one of Penny's favorite varietals; and it was a Michael Serpa pick, which we consider highly recommended. 

We've not been able to find this wine locally but plan to see if we can repeat our meal of halibut, swordfish, and beet salad with a bottle of Champagne Pierre Gerbais Grains de Celles Extra Brut as takeout from Little Whale today. Remember you can support your favorite restaurants who offer wine to go by occasionally adding a bottle to your order. Let's hope the state continues to allow this option to help restaurants make it through the slow winter season.

UPDATE: Yeah! They had a half bottle on hand! We bought it to recreate our meal. However, Penny was craving the chowder, so we shared the sword, beet salad, and chowder!

We enjoyed our first taste with a bottle at Little Whale for ~$60

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2022 Penny Cherubino 

We Toast November 2022 and Friendship with Breathless Blanc De Noir

Once again, we'll toast a new month with a bottle of sparkling wine that was a gift from friends. This time it is a bottle of Breathless Blanc De Noir that long-time pals David and Peter brought from California on their recent visit. 

This bottle is from their private stash. As members of a number of wine clubs at nearby vineyards, they have access to wines that may not be available to the public. So while our bottle is from a single vineyard Reserve, we’ve linked to the Breathless Blanc De Noir that you could purchase. 

Over the years, we’ve shared a lot of wine with these guys. They know we love pinot-forward sparklers. They share our love of supporting small family-owned and operated vineyards. They also have excellent taste in wine and live in an area where they can visit nearby vineyards on weekends. We often check with them before we purchase wines from that area. 

Here's what we’ve learned about Breathless Sparkling Wines.

This vineyard is owned and operated by three sisters and honors their mother. 

They say, “Guided by the expert hand of award-winning winemaker Penny Gadd-Coster, the sisters are dedicated to sparkling and still winemaking in the time-honored French method. By employing this méthode champenoise—the traditional second fermentation in the bottle—and using the finest select Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay grapes, Breathless sparkling wines pair beautifully with all of life’s moments, from the everyday to the extraordinary.”

You can learn more about Penny Gadd-Coster’s philosophy and work with the Breathless team in the video below.

Here’s something else we learned from Peter and David. If you are visiting the West Coast and plan to bring back  wine, you might want to choose Alaska Air as your carrier. They offer a deal where you can, “Check a case of wine for free when you fly from 32 West Coast cities.” 

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino

Photos: ©2022 Penny  Cherubino 

We Toast Family Vineyards in August 2022 with a Glass of Nino Franco Rustico

We've been toasting all the wonderful people who help us enjoy wine this year. In August, we raise a glass of our house sparkler, Nino Franco Rustico, to the Franco family and others like them who continue the traditions of family-owned and operated vineyards. 

This family is proud of their four generations of winemaking and DOCG designation.

They say:

"The grapes of Nino Franco come entirely from the territory of the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene denomination. They are harvested by hand and vinified within the historically most suitable area of Prosecco, recognized by the disciplinary as the pinnacle of high-quality production. The parcels of Nino Franco, all no more than a few hectares wide, stretch within the Municipality of Valdobbiadene, yielding the winery’s single vineyard labels: Riva di San Floriano, Nodi and Grave di Stecca, “Grand Cru” Prosecco wines tightly bound to the territory of origin."

Cheers and thank you to all the families who work together to raise the grapes to make great wine. In this day of corporate buyouts, they choose the protection of traditions over making some fast cash.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's Fine Wine and Spirits for $23.99.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2005-2020 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

For Our July 2022 Toast We Raise a Glass of Guy Larmandier, Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs to Great Importers!

Today we will toast all the great wine importers whose work and skill have introduced us to great wines with a glass of Guy Larmandier, Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from Neal Rosenthal Wine Merchant.

This is one of the few Blanc de Blanc or all Chardonnay Champagnes we like. We would normally select a Pinot Noir forward Champagne. However, the very fact that this one was from Neal Rosenthal made us try it.

Neal Rosenthal describes it, "From this renowned grand cru in the southern tier of the Cote des Blancs, Larmandier’s Cramant is textbook stuff: beautifully brioche-y, yet with a driving floral elegance and an effortlessly pungent minerality characteristic of Chardonnay grown in a place where it’s truly at home."

When you find a wine you love, turn the bottle around and look at the back label. A few of our favorite importers like Neal Rosenthall, Kermit Lynch, and Oz Wines make it easy by proudly displaying their identification in an easy-to-find fashion.

Sometimes you'll have to hunt for the information. To find great importers you can also ask your local wine mentors. For us, a wine mentor is someone who adds to our ongoing education in all things wine and wine-related.

If someone has a great wine list, they probably have a few importers that they depend on to provide a dependable selection of wines that fit their palate. 

We've also enjoyed half bottles of this lovely Champagne at Select Oyster Bar over the years. It's not always on their list but when it is, we recommend you give it a try.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our half bottle at Urban Grape for $42.00

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2022 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

Our June 2022 Toast Will Be in Praise of Half Bottles

Once upon a time, we were known to friends as the couple who always had a half bottle of something sparkling chilling in the refrigerator if they had a reason to celebrate! We bought cases of the very well-made but relatively inexpensive Gruet Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir to pop open when someone landed a new account, received good news, or simply felt like a quick celebration of a lovely day. 

Memories of these spontaneous toasts sent us out to stock up on more half-bottles of great sparkling wines.

At the Urban Grape, we chose three selections: NV Bruno Paillard Premiere Cuvee Extra Brut 375ml (Champagne, FR) at $40, NV Guy Larmandier Cramant Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs 375ml (Champagne, FR) at $42, and just for fun the Hakutsuru "Awa Yuki" Sparkling Sake (Japan) at $8.

We popped open the Bruno Paillard for a quiet anniversary celebration.

It was highly recommended by the Urban Grape staff as a Champagne that would fit our taste. It is a fabulous food wine and stood up to the big flavors of our stinky cheese, salumi, and focaccia. It was a spot-on recommendation and we'll pick up a couple more bottles on our next South End walk.

Here are the labels for a few 375ml bottles of old favorites we'll add to our next Gordon's Wine order!

 

 

When dining out, we love enjoying great bottles of wine with friends. However, when it's the two of us, we choose from the wines by the glass. We would love to have more half-bottle options on wine lists. That will only happen when more of us order the half-bottles restaurants do offer. We enjoyed this half bottle of Deutz Classic Brut Champagne on the Select Oyster Bar patio!

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

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Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast...

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What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2022 Penny & Ed Cherubino ( Labels courtesy of Gordon's Wine)