Spirits	Egalitarian Bubbles & Good Whiskey by Paula Paradise

From mid November to January 1, those of us in wine retail find our lives tossed upon the high seas. Long work hours are followed by stiff appearances at dinner parties already on the dessert course. Frantic errands are performed to assuage the guilt of absenteeism at home, while glimpses of free time grow dim. Days of listening to satellite-transmitted Christmas carols eventually carve lyrical ruts into our subconscious. In the morning, I awake to the drone of my thoughts replaying—“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane…” Pasted to the dropped ceiling of winter skies, a massive paper cut-out of reindeers and a sleigh casts its black humor—welcome to the holidays.

On the upside, the ample hours I spend at the wine store allow me to snoop around every shelf, investigating overlooked items and delighting in novel bargains. This time of year, I am happily storing up suggestions for the various wine and spirit dilemmas that occupy my customers. Hopefully, I may also encourage them to stray from the beaten path and try something new. This year’s project has been to devise buying tips for cutting some of the costs (but not the joy) from the popular categories of sparkling wine and whisky.

Although many consumers are aware that producers of quality sparkling wine exist outside the province of Champagne, France—Schramsburg from California, for instance—the question I am more likely to be asked, “Is there any decent sparkling wine in the $10-$15 range,” occurs with particular frequency this time of year. Inevitably, I suggest cava and prosecco, which represent two of the best deals in sparkling wine. Cava is a refreshing, somewhat earthy sparkler from Spain, while Italy’s prosecco is a dainty sparkling wine with an alluring, frothy texture. Cordorniu’s brut cava offers remarkable complexity, as does Nino Franco prosecco, one of the first ever imported to the US by the Italian specialty importer, John Given. These two styles of sparkling wine are widely available and generally cost between $8-15/bottle. Other bargains worth seeking out in the under-$20 range include Crémant de Loire or Crémant de Bourgogne. These French wines are made outside of the Champagne region, but employ similar methods of production. Gruet from New Mexico and Mumms from California represent reliable domestic deals. Graham Beck from South Africa produces a fantastic value at $15.

Sparkling wine is also a great replacement for beer if you want a carbonated beverage, but not the feeling of fullness that accompanies most domestic microbrews or Belgian beers. My motto: A party never flops that begins with bubbles. Now with the loads of money I’ve saved you on sparkling wine, please prepare to shift those funds to your whisky budget.

Scotch prices are steep and climbing—$50 and up for a top-shelf single malt is not atypical. The much praised Lagavulin 16-year, available for $45 only six years ago, now rings in the New Year at over $70 a bottle. The same is true for the best XO cognacs. In order to find some alternatives to these marketplace favorites, I began by seeking out those under-the-radar products retailing for less than $50. Regardless of the type of spirit, my search focused on barrel-aged products that do not receive massive marketing campaigns and are thus largely overlooked by the consumer.

A truly great spirit must have the smoothness and depth of complexity required for sipping. Extraordinary aromas and flavor along with an ephemeral, slightly oily texture are the keynotes of top shelf liquor. Armagnac, cognac’s country cousin, continues to impress me with its smoky, suave character. While they are not to be procured with pocket change, unabashedly offer your staunchest single malt Scotch critic a dram of single malt Irish whiskey. Connemara, a peated single malt, is smoky and robust, while Knappogue, an unpeated style, is a slightly fruitier version of Islay whisky. An exciting novelty on the shelves this season is a single malt whisky from Virginia called Wasmunds. Their high-end single malts are pot-stilled whiskies made from 100 percent malted barley. Wasmunds and a handful of other US-based distillers are challenging the notion that only Scotsmen can produce single malts.

A propitious buying opportunity is to be had in the bourbon category. Bourbon distillers are seriously striving to alter their perception in the marketplace as a belly-up-to-the-bar-for-a-shot product. The price-to-quality ratio of aged, single-barrel bourbons is extremely high. I am enthralled with the elegant Black Maple Hill, which possesses an honest, natural, amber-red color from its white oak cask aging. If you’d rather a whisky that delivers more power, try Rowan’s Creek small batch or Pappy Van Winkle’s 15-year, but be prepared to light a cigar.

Or if you just want something to serve neat alongside tiramisu or chocolate cake, try the robust, vanilla-scented Appleton 12-year dark rum or an aged brandy from Spain like the velvety, mahogany colored Gran Duque de Alba—selling at $50, this brandy holds its own with any XO cognac. Granted there is plenty of blended Scotch and VS cognac for under 20 bucks, but don’t expect to sip them without screwing up your face like a reindeer pulling itself out of a sooty chimney, as the roughness of the drink clobbers your palate.

An important consideration to keep in mind when shopping for wine and spirits is the effects of supply and demand on price. If a product is trendy, then the value-to-quality ratio dips. For the holidays, I recommend exploring new products, and do not be alarmed when you find yourself saving a few dollars. While leapfrogging from one social gathering to the next, I keep things festive with a casual sparkler in hand, but for those cozy, late evenings at home, I recommend a dram of something that encourages a grateful, slow moment.

Paula Paradise is a wine consultant at Prime Wines in Kenmore. She is a wine educator and holds an Advanced Certificate from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.