Is there such a thing as "house champagne"?
I recently posted a question concerning restaurants practice of having "house wines."Do restaurants also serve "house champagne"?
22-25, M
Top | Newest First | Oldest First
ArishMell · 70-79, M
I think the term "champagne" is regionally-protected now for a range of wines, but wines that have acquired a strange mystique, so a restaurant might not use the 'house' word even if commercially true. Just to keep up appearances.
Champagne is only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region of France, and there are perfectly good fizzy white wines from English vineyards.
In the end it is a matter of taste and wallet - even if you can afford it, spending silly money on fizzy fermented grape-juice counts for nowt if you don't like it, however it's raved over by the "lifestyle journalists" and foodie snobs.
.
The argument over using "champagne" generically goes back decades, to the 1960s-70s fashionable 'Babycham'. This is a sparkling perry - a pear wine and from English-grown fruit. The French vintners objected to its English manufacturer advertising it as "Champagne Perry". It is still made, or will be made again, back in the hands of the Showerings family who invented it though first using Swiss-grown fruit, at their factory on Somerset.
......
(If you want the other end of the scale, I have seen in some supermarkets, cut-price red wine dispensed from big tanks into 1l and 5l plastic bottles, as if paraffin.
I tried it. It was very dry and rough, even to me, a non-"expert" assuming there are "experts" in wine; and it is probably intended for cooking not drinking.
Where are these supermarkets selling this style of gone-off grape-juice? In France.)
Champagne is only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region of France, and there are perfectly good fizzy white wines from English vineyards.
In the end it is a matter of taste and wallet - even if you can afford it, spending silly money on fizzy fermented grape-juice counts for nowt if you don't like it, however it's raved over by the "lifestyle journalists" and foodie snobs.
.
The argument over using "champagne" generically goes back decades, to the 1960s-70s fashionable 'Babycham'. This is a sparkling perry - a pear wine and from English-grown fruit. The French vintners objected to its English manufacturer advertising it as "Champagne Perry". It is still made, or will be made again, back in the hands of the Showerings family who invented it though first using Swiss-grown fruit, at their factory on Somerset.
......
(If you want the other end of the scale, I have seen in some supermarkets, cut-price red wine dispensed from big tanks into 1l and 5l plastic bottles, as if paraffin.
I tried it. It was very dry and rough, even to me, a non-"expert" assuming there are "experts" in wine; and it is probably intended for cooking not drinking.
Where are these supermarkets selling this style of gone-off grape-juice? In France.)
emmasfriend · 46-50, F
Several restaurants use the word "house" to designate the wines they sell by the glass.
So a glass of champagne as an aperitif will be "house" - from a bottle which may have been open since yesterday. If you want Krug, you'll have to buy a whole bottle !
So a glass of champagne as an aperitif will be "house" - from a bottle which may have been open since yesterday. If you want Krug, you'll have to buy a whole bottle !
Royrogers · 61-69, M
@emmasfriend I like your style 😃
4meAndyou · F
They have sparkling wines, which are quite nasty and cheap.
Royrogers · 61-69, M
Some consider the sparkling wines from uk are often good
MartinII · 70-79, M
They do, very frequently.
Cabernetfranc · 80-89, M
Some do.