Sparkling wine

I mean, I don't know how he writes otherwise, but it was clearly a heavy editor's hand in this.

Very simplistic, almost insultingly so, like, simplistic talking about champagne, which... you know, again, what a historical context, right? What the whole, the whole techniques and the whole technology of it, et cetera, and what it started with sparkling wine in the world and everything.

And I didn't see any of that in the book.

And I was so disappointed and I thought, okay, This is my project.

And we can talk about that too with Antonio Carbone.

So as far as technique and what I'm looking for, a lot of it is sort of a sense of something pulling in some directions that I know I want to go in, and then it's the researching and writing together.

Switching gears slightly then to some of the specifics of Prosecco and Prosecco Superiore and also about sparkling wine in general, you wrote that we are, in a sense, hardwired for sparkling wine.

And I think I know... exactly what you mean by that.

Panels have been a vital part of the festival and part of Andrew Sullivan's vision for the festival from the start.

Today's episode is focused on sparkling wine in California.

I moderated this panel with the idea that California sparkling wine is really on a great run lately.

The styles have really matured.

Wines are being produced in a wide range of styles from pet nets showcasing minimal intervention and fresh styles to single vineyard vintage dated examples, giving us a snapshot of a vineyard through the producer's eye year after year.

There'll be wines poured throughout the panel.

All right, everybody, we're about to kick this off.

It's the first panel of the festival this year, and it's on sparkling wine.

And then it's famous for the Italian Champagne.

The famous Spumanti comes from that area.

Asti Spumanti.

Yes, we know.

Asti Spumanti.

Yes, I recognize that.

That's the way you say it in English, too, Lorenzo.

Asti Spumanti was one of the first wines exported to the U.S. that have made the known.

I mean, if it's kidnapped by your mother, I mean, I, you know.

Look at this photo of Chrissy here when he's pouring the Spumanti.

Look how upset she is.

She's still stuck in a fucking house with some bloke pouring her some shit bloody... sparkling wine.

Yeah.

It went well with the Prosecco, but then it went equally well with the Sparkling.

That Sparkling is really holding up, isn't it? That's fantastic.

I always overlook goat cheese.

Oh,

Okay.

Okay.

Sparkling.

So I kind of walk to there, basically.

Well, it's interesting, and I'm sure that in the early days, interesting but also challenging because you were marketing and selling an American-made sparkling wine, not from California, not from New York.

It was from New Mexico, so you had to sell New Mexico.

Yes, absolutely.

You had to

sell sparkling wine, but you had the right name.

Absolutely, yeah.

The Gruet name was unknown.