Sparkling Wines in Shanghai

Meal:

Smoked Salmon on Orange slices (Phillip), 

Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Nar), 

Home made Fusilli and Cheddar (Dory), 

Green Salad (Dory),

Tiramisu (Takeout)

Wines Tasted:

1. Lindeman's Bin 25 Brut Cuvee, 12%, ¥165, 
2. Seaview Brut,11%, ¥138
3. Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir, 11.5%, ¥150
4. Perelada Brut Reserva Cava, 11.5%, ¥148
5. Cava Parxet Cuvee 21 Brut, 11.5%, ¥130

Overall Impressions:

These wines were all in the range of $21-$26 USD, but as with everything in China, you don't always get what you pay for. Our guests were fairly consistent in uniform liking the Lindemans - it had a noticeably more complex flavor profile, the flavor changed in the mouth (in a good way), and there was a pleasant aftertaste. One of our guests was from Melbourne, and he said that Lindemans at home was a a $5 bottle of wine! I think that's the price of being a wine-imbibing expat in China.

The Seaview and the Jacobs Creek wines were OK, and they would be fine at a party where they would not impress or offend.We were reminded of "house sparkling wines" while drinking these two.

One guest remarked that the Perelada had an "aspirin" flavor; another noted a metallic aftertaste. These are not desirable qualities in wine.

The Parxet Cava scored the lowest, although not by much, and we all thought that "there's nothing there", no flavor, no aroma, really, not much going on at all.

The most interesting thing about the evening was the pairing of food with sparkling wine. In our house we usually think of sparkling wine as an aperitif, something to start the evening.  In fact, when we host these wine tastings for other wines we always start with a glass of some sort of sparkling wine to get the taste buds "in the mood", so to speak.

The winners in the food pairing department were the smoked salmon on orange slices as an appetizer and the Mac and Cheese. Several people noted that after the salmon and oranges the wines "woke up" and the flavors were both better and more plentiful.