Sparkling Wine / Food Pairing

We should have more sparkling wine with our meals. In the U.S. sparkling wine is about celebrations where you have a glass or three at weddings and a couple holidays. That's a real shame because it belongs on the dinner table, too.

Having boring ol' turkey burgers for dinner? Want to make it sexy? Open the Champagne! (or other sparkling wine).

In some ways sparkling wines are the best food pairing wines there are. Some reasons why:

1. They have high acid which generally is what you want in a wine that will stand up to a meal.
2. They are lower alcohol than most other wines. That's also good for food--and other reasons.
3. They don't have any sort of in-your-face flavors that will overwhelm the food. They do come in very dry to dessert sweet so you have to pick the right sugar level (dosage). Most Bruts, Blanc de Blancs, and Blanc de Noirs, and many rosés will work just fine.
4. Many sparkling wine are reasonably priced. I would avoid most of the under $10 ones for your dinner, but there are lots of American sparklers at about $20 that are great such as Roederer Estate and Gloria Ferrer. Some others to check out are Argyle, Domaine Carneros, Iron Horse, Mumm Napa, and Schramsberg.