Red Sparkling to be Taken Seriously | Folk Notes – Folkways

Folk Notes: Red Sparkling to be Taken Seriously

For some mystery reason, probably the perception of sweetness, sparkling wines are only supposed to be white and pink—here we happily break that misconception.

If one were to type “red sparkling wine” into the internet search bar of choice, one would be perhaps unsurprised to find as a top result the question: “Is red sparkling wine any good?” We tend to think this skepticism has been justified because of the unfortunate proliferation of such drink categories as sweet Australian sparkling Shiraz (yikes), or the oceans of industrial “amabile” Lambrusco—a term that literally means ‘friendly’ in Italian but is a made-up marketing word, meant to convey to Brits and Americans that the wine is semi-sweet without making us feel less sophisticated.

We are happily here to report that, like all sparkling wines, nothing makes red sparkling wines inherently sweet or low-caliber. In fact, industrial Prosecco and Lambrusco and Aussie Shiraz have all been deliberately fashioned with sweetness in order to appeal to the widest possible, easy-going global palate. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but we have something else to demonstrate here: that red wines can just as easily be rendered into bubbly wines as white wines can; in fact, all rosé sparkling comes from at least some red grapes. So, let’s set aside aesthetic prejudices for a moment and take a little stroll through these excellent examples, combining some of the deep-fruit and savory pleasures of still red wines with the exuberance and refreshment of other sparkling. All the below selections are dry, and all of them work as both aperitif beverages and also food pairings – another advantage of the style!