Toast to 2022 with champagne for that splurge on maximalist luxury, local sparkling wine in champagne cocktails, or Methode Cap Classique
Grab your champagne flutes or saucers and make your way to the local wine purveyor. 2022 has been a roller-coaster of seismic world events, moving moments, and lots and lots of load-shedding. But, there are so many things to celebrate.
Champagne and celebration are inextricably linked, it’s hard to imagine a celebration without an iconic pop of the cork and tasty tingle of tart, bubbly wine.
Toast to 2022 with champagne for that splurge on maximalist luxury, local sparkling wine in champagne cocktails, or Methode Cap Classique, now repositioned just simply as Cap Classique sans the Methode (CC), for South African prices according to French traditions.
Brunch with Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial
‘Tis the season for mimosas. December is a great time for brunch and brunch is the moment for mimosas. Moët & Chandon (pronounced mow-ett), is a classic bottle of champagne. Outside of eggs benedict or fluffy flapjacks, the cocktail is the piece de resistance of brunch.
Elevate your mimosa game with the Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial. It’s the elegantly mature older sister to Moët & Chandon’s classic impérial champagne. She is bold and gold with bright fruitiness, just like the mimosa in hand.
Decadent decade of Dom Pérignon
“Vintage champagne only” is Dom Pérignon’s standard. Vintage at a basic level refers to the year the grapes are harvested, but vintage wines are stored and preserved often for many years. For those manifesting more Dom Pérignon in their life, don’t just celebrate 2022, but the decade from 2012 to 2022.
Dom Pérignon’s last vintage harvest is the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2012, which is perfect to ring in New Year’s Eve celebrations. A bottle of Dom is a once in a lifetime bottle for many, but why not subscribe to painter Francis Bacon’s words: “Champagne for my real friends. Real pain for my sham friends.”
A bottle of Dom Pérignon is by no means a humble bottle of champagne by price nor bottles produced, such is the weight of the world in 2022. But, it is an understandable and human impulse behind the desire to find comfort in celebration with a sturdy bottle of champagne.
50 million bubbles in Le Lude Brut
Decades of generational French winemakers have the standard for champagnes and sparkling wines around the world. But it’s this pairing of generational knowledge and savvy marketing that puts French champagne on a pedestal.
But, South African winemakers also produce some of the finest bottles of MCC in the world by following the French Methode Cap Classique using South African grapes. Named the best MCC in South Africa by the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards, A bottle ofLe Lude Brut is a great bottle to toast to on a trip in the winelands of the Western Cape.
Straight out of Franschhoek, Le Lude says: “[MCC] implies a natural sparkling wine bottle-fermented in the age-old European tradition to develop the magical sparkle driven by over 50 million tiny bubbles found in each bottle.”
An elegant pour of Le Lude Brut is a great way to satisfy your champagne taste with a South African price tag.
250 years of Veuve x SMEG
When 50 Cent sang “Go shawty it’s your birthday”, he was looking for a reason to “pop [a] bottle full of bub”.
Ageing is an integral step in creating the finest champagne, it truly ages like fine wine. To celebrate the art of maturing nicely or the birthday of an icon the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Fridge x SMEG is a funky choice. The collaboration is about elevating the everyday through collectible moments and design.
As a birthday gift, Christmas gift, or celebratory toast, the Veuve Clicquot mini Smeg fridge is a playfully designed moment of celebration.
Babylonstoren Sprankel + sparkling grape juice
Bubbles may feel special, but sparkling wine shouldn’t only be for celebrations. For centuries, power and money in the Champagne region have flowed through the big Champagne houses, creating a rather stiff mood around legacy champagne Maisons.
Then South Africa’s Babylonstoren enters the chat with Sprankel, a great local choice to start the festive season with. “Sprankel” might be one of the most fun words to say, right after the word “bubble” because you can’t say either of these words in an aggressive tone. It’s impossible.
Babylonstoren only produced 5 000 bottles of Sprankel, making popping a bottle a special sipping experience. Sprankel is the answer to the question, “what if we have fun with our bubbles?”
Bablyonstoren also answers the call to the non-alcoholic drinkers who also like some bubbles. The farm’s sparkling grape juice is a sweet bottle of bubbles that is refreshingly cool for hot summer nights.
The hallmarks of a great MCC Babylonstoren-Sprankel