2008 Andre Spumante Sparkling Wine

Key doke. As I mentioned in my last post last night's NYE Bash went bust so we started off 2009 with a champagne (er, sparkling wine) breakfast. I know, I know. Andre Spumante isn't from Washington and that's what sorority girls drink when they want to take a step up from Cosmo's and Sex on the Beach. Well, it was cheap and I hate dry champagne so there.

The bubbles make my tongue tickle!

Attempt at a foam shot. FAIL.

Instead of starting off with the color I'll talk about the bubbles because that's what everyone thinks of when dreaming about sparkling wine. There was a good amount of bubbles going into this wine and the flavor balanced it out enough so that I didn't get the feeling I was drinking seltzer water. I couldn't get a good shot of all the foam but it got quite foamy. Brad said I needed to pour it in the glass at a 45 degree angle, but I've misplaced my protractor.

The color was extremely pale, even less than flax. This was the color of castor oil, have you ever seen castor oil before? It stinks to high heaven but this was the color. Look at the ridiculous amount of snow out my kitchen window too. Ugh.

The nose was weak and sweet. Maybe it was too cold but it smelled like cheap apple juice and flowery air freshener spray. Not like gas station bathroom but more like if you got an air freshener for your car named apple blossom, and you were smelling it after it was all dried out. Some people get off on that, but it was a wee bit artificial for my liking.

The taste was SWEET! I'm talking Karo syrup sweet not righteous sweet. I will admit that I enjoyed the lightness and crispness of it, like biting into an apple then chasing it with an unripe pear. Then imagine what those would taste like if next door was an apricot orchard so all the fruit took on a hit of apricot or maybe even peach. That's what it tasted like.

This really reminded me of a Gewürztraminer or Riesling in some aspects because the taste reminded me of the fragrant nose, tons of floral aspects to it as well. I give this 2.5 stars because I hate dry champagne more than cheap champagne and this was definitely not dry. And the best thing to do with cheap sweet sparkling wine is to add some cheap orange juice and make mimosas.