I’m usually an odd duck when it comes to wine and holidays so on Sunday I opened a sparkler when Katrin sent the news about the WSJ wine column ending after 12 years. I figured I would open something completely different for the New Year and then I remembered a bottle of sparkling Shiraz in my parents’ refrigerator. So I stopped in and greedily asked for it back.
It’s not the bottle itself but the concept I love. I fell for sparkling shiraz and anything made with grapes other than the traditional three in Australia where I was delighted to find a large variety of sparklers served by the glass at almost every watering hole we visited.
When I came across Lorikeet at the NH State Liquor store I swooped in. However, I opened it with reservations–it was $8/bottle. And that was before the rebate.
I was so excited I took numerous trips around the state (and several out of state) looking for other sparkling reds and managed to find a few more bottles of the Lorikeet to tide me over.
And so without much flourish I opened it before dinner. As before, I found it to be a deep purple color with a slight effervescence. It tastes like ripe (maybe overripe) blackberries although it packs some acidity to alleviate the sweetness. There wasn’t much of a finish.
It’s innocuous; an alternative for those who want to celebrate but either fear or detest sparklers. It certainly doesn’t taste like “jewels” which is how my mother described the vintage sparkling shiraz from Leasingham that I brought her back from Australia.
If you prefer to spend much, much more, my brother tells me there’s a print coupon for Costco (in the SF area) that buys you a bottle of Cristal for $156.
