Champagne On A Beer Budget: 3 Cheap Alternatives To Champagne - Weekly Wine Picks Ep. 3

I'm Amanda and you are watching the Zambiband YouTube channel. Hello again, my wine-loving friends, and welcome back to another week of your weekly wine picks. I'm Amanda and I am going to be bringing you some really exciting value wine that you can find on wine.com. If you're just joining us and you've never seen this before, this is the part where I bring to you two, or in this case, three fantastic wines that I found for you that you can find on wine.com. The whole purpose of this is to make all of these wines really accessible wherever you are in the country. Whether you're in Pennsylvania, or in Texas, or in Oklahoma, or California where I am here, you can go and order them yourself. It's just a great way for me to centralize everything and give you guys great value picks that don't cost a lot to ship, and I think are fantastic. As you can see, I am decked out in my champagne pj's this week. I am really excited because I am a girl who loves her bubbles, but unfortunately, I don't always have the money to spend on champagne, especially when it comes to things like bridal showers and parties. For example, I was throwing a couple bridal showers last year, and I was, of course, tasked with finding some great bubbles, so of course, wanting to impress my friends, I wanted to find something that was really, really delicious, but also wouldn't break the bank. That's why I picked the sparkling wines that I picked today. I wanted to even the playing field, so I'm bringing you three sparklings that are made in the same way. They're all made in the champagne method, so we're not tasting any Proseccos today. They're all 12% alcohol, and they're all low dosage, so they're going to be on the dry side of things. This is the organic root from Korbel, made with organic grapes. I was reticent to try this sparkling. Korbel in the past have been a producer, I have not, but in 2016, it made it onto the Top 100 Wines list at number 73, and it was the organic root, the one that we're trying today, and I said, let's give it a try. This wine, on wine.com, is $13.99, and I have to tell you, it's not bad. This is actually pretty good. I mean, haters going to hate, but for a sparkling wine that's less than $15 that you can pretty much find anywhere, on the nose, it's really apple-y, it's kind of zesty, there's a roundness to it, it's bright, there's a little bit of a creaminess on the palate, it is a dry sparkling, it doesn't taste like anything that's going to give you a hangover, you don't feel the burn of the alcohol, and I actually think this is all things considered kind of quality. There you go. Also, you might be wondering why I am tasting these out of a white wine glass and not a flute. I just prefer white wine glasses. The flutes, I can't really smell anything in there. It's small. And I can see through the wine, I can see, I can move around a little bit, I get to read aromatics, so for sparkling wine, I just prefer to use a white wine glass. This new sparkling has been my little secret for a bit now, and this is the Gourette from New Mexico. So the last one, the Corbelle, was from California, this one's going to be from New Mexico, and they specialize, like Corbelle, in making sparkling wine. The family actually has a champagne house in Champagne, in France, and they've been around since the 50s, but they started in the 80s making sparkling wine in the Champagne method, and this one, the Gourette Brut, is 75% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir, so the traditional Champagne blend. I've loved this sparkling for a long time, I think it's one of the great values you can get. They make a Blanc de Noir, they make a Blanc de Blanc, they make a Rosé, they make Simple Vineyard, but the Brut has always been my favorite, I just think it's classic and it's fantastic. It's really apple-y, just like the Corbelle was, but it's a little bit more citrusy, it's a little more lifted and bright. The acid's definitely higher on this than it was on the Corbelle, so if you're someone that likes something a little bit rounder, a little bit softer, do the Corbelle if you like a little bit more brightness and acidity. The Gourette Brut is awesome. This is actually the sparkling I served at my sister's bridal shower, and it went over great. This is $14.99 on Wine.com. This ships pretty much anywhere, just like the Corbelle, I haven't had any issues shipping this anywhere to Pennsylvania or to Delaware or New Jersey, anywhere on the East Coast I can typically get this. So I really, really love this sparkling, I think it's just an awesome value and they do such a great job. So, on to the next! For our third and final act, we are heading back over the pond to France for our last sparkling, but we're not going to Champagne, we're actually going to the region of Burgundy for this. So we are doing the JCB No. 21 Cremant de Bourgogne. So whenever you see Cremant, that just means that it is sparkling wine from a different region in France, made in the Champagne method. So in this case, it's Cremant de Bourgogne. It's sparkling wine made from Burgundy within their specifications, but it's still made in the Champagne method, just like the other two. These should be nice and cold. I had them in the refrigerator for a little while and then I put them in the freezer for a few minutes just to get them nice and chilled, but you definitely don't want to leave them in there too long because they will explode. And twisting from the bottom, holding on to this top, and off we go! Yay! I really hope you're loving my PJs as much as I am. I really don't think there is any more appropriate outfit to wear today. Alright, so JCB No. 21 Jean-Charles Boisset, sort of a legend here in Napa Valley. He owns a bunch of different wineries, a couple different tasting rooms, specifically one in Yachtville that if you're in Napa, you should definitely check out if it's wild in there. They do such a great job. But this is a sparkling wine from France, made in the Champagne method, so we've got Chardonnay and Pinot Noir here. And off the nose, a little bit more earthiness. So where you had apples and really nice Meyer lemons, citrusy, a lot more bright fruit, you've got a little more earthiness on the nose here. There's a lot less fruit. It's equally as dry across the board. These are all about the same dryness level. I would say on the ripeness scale, you've got the Corbel at the highest amount of ripeness, the Gruette a little bit lower than that, and then the JCB a little bit lower than that. The acid actually is a little bit higher in the Gruette, which is surprising. I actually find this to be a little bit rounder and a little bit less acidic. And this is actually the most expensive one. This is a little over $20 at about $21, $22 on Wine.com, depending on which state you're buying it from. A really great way to enjoy sparkling wine without having to spend $50 or $100 or $200 in champagne. You can go to these other regions in France and get excellent, excellent quality at about a fraction of the price. And it's fantastic. You know, it's easy drinking. It's lifted. It's bright. It's got acid. It's got weed. It's got minerality. And for $20, you really can't beat it. All right, guys. That wraps us up for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't mind my champagne pajamas too much. But if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you have any comments or suggestions, if there's wines that you would love me to try, please put them in the comments below. And then, as always, if you like what I'm doing and you like my channel, make sure to subscribe. I will see you next week for some more weekly wine picks. Until then, happy drinking, drink responsibly, and I'll see you soon. Thanks for watching.