Foreign Fizz for Under Fifty
OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS or so there’s been a flood of fantastic new fizz flowing into our country from foreign shores, and for us sparkle-fans, that makes us very happy dishies indeed. New Zealand, in spite of its tiny population, has always had a huge thirst for expensive French Champagne, and we’ve always been huge supporters of our own home-grown sparklers. However for those wanting to branch out and sample the best bubbles from beyond without breaking the bank, where does one turn? Well turn to the next page for a start, because we’ve hunted around New Zealand’s growing group of importers and distributors to find the most excellent examples of foreign fizz for under fifty bucks. And boy have we discovered some doozies. From an entry pool of 35 wines, 11 earned gold medal status, 14 earned silver and 8 won bronze – so the value-for-money quality out there in the kiwi marketplace is at an all-time high. Which is brilliant news because a corka Christmas is just around the corner.
Many sparkling wines around the world follow Champagne’s lead by using the traditional method
