Lost and Found

Wing Night Sauce Selection,
feel free to mix'n'match!

 So there is a moderately good excuse for this post being late. Not a great one, mind you, but oh well. This past Thursday we celebrated Champagne Thursday and Wing Night simultaneously. I forgot my journal for tasting notes, and so used a piece of paper. I then proceeded to lose said piece of paper until Sunday. 

Wing night was a success, we had it at the farm, and Drew and Sarah joined us. Shane won (did you know that Wing Night is competitive? Yeah, some of us make ourselves sick trying to win...), he had 21 wings, 3 pepper poppers, and a self proclaimed although unverified 8 cookies. Drew was a close second with 20 wings, 3 poppers and 3 cookies. 

In any case, the bottle chosen was the bottle that Drew and Sarah gave to us for our wedding. We thought it would be a nice treat for everyone. 

September 24, 2015

This week we had the lovely Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec Champagne. This bottle is sweeter than the Brut we had a few weeks ago. This made it a big hit with the guests of Champagne Thursday. 

Off the top, it has a sweet smell, like ripe yellow apples or a over ripe pear. It has a dark straw colour, and a moderate amount of bubbles. 

In first tasting, the apples are still there, as are the ripe pears. Shane and Sarah also tasted oranges, almost reminiscent of triple sec. 

It's wing night, gotta bring the
reaper sauce

My mom, who doesn't drink much champagne, and really can't do much in the way of bubbles or dry wines, weighed in with "That's nice", which is a bigger deal than it seems. When we've celebrated with her in the past, she has a few sips from one glass and then goes back to whatever she had been drinking before. She said she could drink this for an evening, finished her glass, and had another! I think given the sugar content, drinking this for an evening would leave you with a wicked hangover in the morning... 

I found this one didn't quite have the volume of bubbles I'd have liked, which gave it a smoother mouth feel. As this is a sweeter champagne, the lack of bubbles, although smooth, also gave it a somewhat syrupy mouth feel. 

Because who doesn't want to say
they've drank Veuve straight from
the bottle? Class it up, folks!

Drew and Sarah had tried the brut a while back, and found it very dry. They didn't like it, even with orange juice (I know! The sacrilege!!). They quite enjoyed this one, so that leads me to make the following statement: If you aren't sure that you like dry champagnes, and want to try a Veuve Clicquot, go with this demi-sec rather than the brut. It pains me to say that, because Shane and I both preferred the drier variety, but I think if you are trying to appeal to the greater population, the demi-sec is the way to go. This isn't to say that we didn't enjoy this bottle. The atmosphere was primed to enjoy the bubbly, and we thoroughly did. It was lovely, and I would argue that, for our amateur palates and noses, it has more depth of flavour that the brut, it was easier to pick up on the different fruity notes and aromas than the brut. 


Tyson was absent from the Champagne Wing Thursday, so sad, I know. He and Magic (my parents' dog) don't get along very well, and so he stayed home. That didn't stop us from bringing him his cork though, so don't worry. He enjoyed it briefly, chewing it in half quickly and then discarding it. 

Verdict: Yes, it was a big hit with the guests of Champagne Thursday, it went over better than the brut would have with this crowd. That being said, Shane and I prefer our bubbly a bit drier. 

~S

• Brand: Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin S.A.
• Type of Grape: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay
• Sweetness: 45g/L
• Price: $74.30
• Tasting Notes: Hints of yellow apples, ripe pears and sweet oranges. Pairs quite nicely with medium spicy wings which cut through some of the sweetness.