Spumante vs. Champagne: Battle of the Bubblies

January 03, 2011

When you pop a cork this holiday season, there’s a good chance that the bubbles in your glass won’t be French. Hard times, it turns out, can sometimes be good times — especially if you’re a producer of Italian sparkling wine, or spumante. While the recession has taken some of the fizz out of France’s champagne industry, in Italy, the bottles of bubbly have been flying off the shelves.
According to the Italian farmers’ association Coldiretti, exports of spumante jumped 22% in the first half of 2010 — much of that thanks to demand from the U.S. — following a year in which Italian growers outproduced the French region of Champagne for the first time. Even as winemakers in France cut their number of bottles by 44% in 2009 in the face of slumping sales, exports from Italy surpassed domestic consumption.Italy’s main competitive advantage, so far, has been price. The bulk of the country’s sales come from prosecco, a relatively cheap sparkling wine, easy to produce and often of low quality. While a bottle of Dom Perignon will ring in at well over $100, after having spent years in the cellar, a good prosecco takes just a few months to move from vine to wineglass and rarely costs more than $15. Some cheaper brands — suitable for mixing into cocktails — can run for much less. “The price is fundamental,” says Giuseppe Carrus, a sommelier and co-editor of the Gambero Rosso guide to Italian sparkling wine. “Most people who drink prosecco aren’t thinking about that particular drink from that particular region.”
Now, however, some Italian winegrowers are trying to show they can take on champagne at its own game, producing upmarket bubblies from vineyards speckled across the foothills of the Alps. Northern Italy’s mountain climate — crucial for producing a quality wine — approximates that of the Champagne region some 500 miles to the northwest. “We’re able to take advantage of the altitude,” says Camilla Lunelli, head of communications for the family-run Cantine Ferrari, the largest spumante producer in the Trento region of Italy. “We’re ready to compete with whatever’s in the glass.”

Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2039544,00.html

Leading Philippines Wine Supplier Yats Wine Cellars based in Clark Philippines with outlets in Angeles City, Subic Freeport and Manila Philippines has been not only a wine shop for fine wines covering all major wine regions but also a source of reliable and useful information about wine, wine appreciation, wine accessories, wine and health, food and wine pairing and all other matters relating to wine and its appreciation. This Philippines Clark Freeport based Wine Supplier and Wine Shop frequently holds public wine tasting events in Pampana Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City, Subic Bay area, Makati, Fort Bonifacio and other areas in Philippines capital city Manila. Private Wine events such as private wine tasting and private wine dinners are also designed and organized for private clientele for their wine loving guests.

This wine shop in Angeles Clark Philippines is also renowned for a very unique product called Vintage Beer which many characterize as “Champagne beer” because it comes in a bottle with a Champagne stopper and metal restrainer. Vintage beers are top-of-the-line luxury beers bottle-conditioned for a slow fermentation to take place inside the bottle, a process that is very similar to Champagne which is designed to not only create the bubbles but also for an amazing complexity and depth of flavors.

For fans of Port and Sauternes, this wine shop in Clark Pampanga has a large selection of vintage port, Sauternes and Barsac as well as Eiswein/Icewine from Austria and Germany. Likewise, there is a good selection of Vintage Champagne at the wine shoppers’ disposal in the cellars of this wine shop in Clark Pampanga.

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila
Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple: after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave. From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City. From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.

Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
0922-870-5173 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

Wine@Yats-International.com

YATS Wine Cellars
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Chay

Best place to buy wine in Clark Pampanga outside Manila near Subic and Angeles City Philippines is Clark Wine Center. Visitors buy wine in Manila and Pampanga should not miss stopping at this wine shop for a few bottles of fine vintage wines to bring home.