Champagne Stopper

What do you do why you can't finish a whole bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine and yet don't want to pour it out? You can't just put it back in the fridge and let it go flat. Vacu Vin won't work on Champagne bottles. Even if you could get the cork back in the bottle, doing so would be positively stupid. And it's an old wives' tale that putting a sterling silver spoon in the neck will keep it fresh. Not to worry! The wine accouterments industry has come to the rescue once again. The contraption shown to the right has a rubber stopper that fits into the neck of the bottle and two hinged metal brackets that have ledges that fit under the ridge of the neck and hold the stopper in place. The one pictured is manufactured by Pedrini, but there are many similar things on the market, all for $7 to $12 or so. It works pretty well for a day or two. It won't keep an opened bottle fresh for weeks, but nothing could. If you ever buy Champagne or sparkling wine for anything other than just parties, you should buy one.

Last Night's Tipple, Part II

Costco sells more wine in the United States than any other retailer. I will repeat that just in case you didn't catch it the first time: Costco sells more wine in the United States than any other retailer. That's pretty amazing, especially when you consider that Costco can't sell wine in all of their stores due to the liquor laws in some states and that wine isn't even close to being Costco's focus. I suppose that it was just a matter of time, then, until Costco came out with a Kirkland Signature private-label line of wines. And what they're offering under the Kirkland Signature label isn't just some generic juice from the Central Valley of California selling for $10 for a 2-liter box. There's a Kirkland Signature Super Tuscan, a Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a Kirkland Signature 10 year old Tawny Port. And a Kirkland Signature Champagne. And I'm not talking about some cheap bulk sparking wine labeled Champagne -- this is honest-to-goodness French Champagne. Was it any good? Heck, I didn't know, but curiosity forced me to give it a try. What's the worst that could happen? It could be crap, and I could have wasted my $20. Not a terrible risk, if you ask me.

The label says that the Champagne is made by Janisson for de Bruyne and that it is imported by DC Flynt. I won't try to portray myself as any sort of wine expert, but I do know that Janisson and de Bruyne both have good reputations in Champagne and that DC Flynt generally imports good stuff. As chance would have it, at some point in the past year, I had a bottle of pretty good Champagne with the de Bruyne label also made by Janisson and imported by DC Flynt. After trying this bottle, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Kirkland Signature Champagne is exactly the same juice as the de Bruyne bottle made by Janisson. I was pretty impressed with the Kirkland Signature bottle. It was fruity and tart without being sour and nasty, and I think that I may have detected some of that bready yeastiness that professional reviewers always talk about with Champagne. There are no absolute bargains to be had in Champagne; but relative to other Champagne at close to this price point, this wine was a good value.