Once upon a time, “sparkling wine” was more or less synonymous with three wines: Champagne, prosecco and cava. Today, the term captures a category of wine that’s as broad and varied as wine itself. Fancy a pét-nat from the Czech Republic or Mexico or Maryland? Got you. How about a raspberry-pink, slightly sweet bubbly wine from the French Alps? Not a problem. Bottle-fermented Lambrusco from Emilia-Romagna? Here are five.
So, how does one navigate this new, constantly unspooling word of bubbly wine? Please meet the newer addition to the Punch library of books, Sparkling Wine for Modern Times. Written by longtime Punch contributor Zachary Sussman (who has spent some time here helping us understand why drinking sparkling wine is something of a sport these days), the book aims to offer an enthusiastic look at all the ways in which our ideas about bubbly wine have changed. But importantly, it is a smart, compact guide with sage advice on what to buy, how and what’s behind the methods and labels you’re bound to encounter in today’s wine shops. Plus, thanks to Punch’s resident designer, Nick Hensley, it’s really, really cute. Buy one for your mom, why don’t you? It’s now available wherever books are sold at a bargain $19.99.
