Claude Cazals Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cuvée Vive,
Extra Brut

Dear Reader,

tasting wine and making wine are what this Bitch has been doing as a professional for a long time. That is, before the longing for a child and a more standard life, became stronger than the search for the perfect wine. This means her tasting is not up to a professional tasting level right now, since this demands much more tasting than she does today. But, still she knows her tastes very well, she loves wine and she can write and say whatever she wants, since she is not affiliated with anyone. She buys her own wine, and she is very happy to share her findings with you, Dear Reader. If she gets sponsored wine, it will be brought to your attention and her writings will be what she finds in the bottle.

As a Norwegian wanting to do more that taste wine, she went searching for a place to learn to make wine, and ended up at one of the world leading schools in its field, UCDavis, CA, USA. There she learned everything the industry had to offer. She then went off searching for the perfect grape, the perfect method, and the perfect wine. She is not totally sure if she has found the perfect wine yet, it has been close, but it is like the Holy Grail search, if you find it, what is next?

So here we go. The Bitches love Champagne, it is a joy to drink and it fits for most occasions, and it fits so much more food than you think.

This is a wine she tasted just weeks ago, in preparation to find the perfect summer wine! As you maybe know, it is only wine produced from grapes grown in the Champagne region in France and has a second fermentation of the wine in the bottle to create CO2; carbonation or bubbles,which is  allowed to be called Champagne.

Claude Cazals Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cuvée Vive, Extra Brut made from 100% Chardonnay grapes , with alcohol level at 12,00%, sugar level at 2,00 g/l and acid level at 7,80 g/l.

Bubbles in Claude Cazals Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cuvée Vive, Extra Brut

The first thing I look at when I open up a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine, is how the cork works its way out of the bottle. I always try to take it out very controlled, I do not like to give good wine to the floor or other places. To cut the top of the bottle off with a sword or knife or whatever are used to make a cool looking spray of wine, is not her style. She would love to shower in Champagne one day, but till then she likes best to drink it.

So, cork controlled up, and then poured slowly in a glass. The cork should have a lot of force behind it, it should be hard to control when popping out. Depending on how sweet and how old the Champagne is, she pours it either in a standard Champagne flute or a coupe modeled after the breasts of Marie Antoinette, or at least this is how the story goes. But these Champagne coupes was designed much earlier, and it fits mostly the sweeter Champagnes. Since Champagne looses its bubbles very quickly in these glasses, it is better to have it in a flute, if you don’t want less bubbles and less burping!! The coupes are for show, glamor and cool effect. It also gives the wine plenty of air, which can help an old wine quickly come to its perfect state. Who hasn’t seen a glass tower made of these glasses and Champagne being poured from the top glass and the Champagne is running like a river down in the other glasses below on TV?

I like to look at the bubbles, the shape of them and if they are plentiful. As you can see from the picture above, the bubbles was small, round and very delicate. The Champagne was very fresh; it had lime, lemons and green, small apples as a base, and at the end it had a little bit of a nutty, coca, burnt oat smell to it.  In this Champagne it was a perfect round up to a very delicate and beautiful wine.

Absolutely a summer Champagne!!

Cheers, Dear Reader

ABitch

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