I've heard there are people who don’t enjoy sparkling wine. I’m sorry if you are one of them, but perhaps we can convert you. This month is dedicated to effervescence. Because Mardi Gras. I believe that there is no greater concentration of collective happiness on earth than that which is experienced during Carnival season each year. The levels of intellectual, political, and emotional complexity around the holiday itself provide occasion for many feelings—outrage, surprise, delight, discomfort, curiosity—but the exuberance of the day itself…it’s more than one can explain unless you’ve born witness.
The sensation of bubbles is the most appropriate accoutrement to what we all seek on Mardi Gras morning. At the shop, we’ll be closed, each of us parading in some wonderful direction, but let this lineup of bottles carry you from Krewe de Vieux and Muses to Skull & Bones and St. Anne’s + beyond. —LP
Furlani “Alpino Macerato Frizzante” Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy 2023
We’ve always supported Furlani’s wines, a producer way up above Trento, that charming Tyrolean city in Italy’s Dolomites where mountain herbs grow wild and skiers zoom through snowy peaks. Here Matteo Furlani makes a cadre of many wines we delight in—fresh, easy pinot noir, juicy orange, and frizzy red. The Alpino Macerato is a fragrant blend of muller thurgau, traminer, and sauvignon blanc that sees skin maceration for two weeks making it a proper orange sparkling. It’s not a pet-nat though; rather than fermented fully in bottle, it’s fermented in a steel tank with a second fermentation kicked off by frozen must (or the fresh juice of crushed grapes). The result is a remarkably vibrant wine whose skin contact belies its light, zippy vibes. A bottle meant for a late afternoon parade or a pre-evening march on the porch.
Lini 910 “Lambrusca Riserva” Emilia-Romagna, Italy NV
Y’all like lambrusco. Almost every Monday, when I go in to scan the shelves and think about orders for the week, I am shocked at how much sparkling red wine is consumed each week. Part of this, I think, has to do with our (mostly) fantastic weather. In New Orleans, there is rarely a moment that cold, sparkling red wine is not appropriate. Even in the summer, y’all don’t slow down on drinking red wine—you just want cold, cold red wine. The other part I chalk up to living next to St. Pizza, our most wonderful slice-slinging sibling. If there were ever a pizza wine, it is lambrusco. Juicy, zippy, high-acid, easy, it’s just the thing to pair against zingy tomato sauce and melting cheese.
Lini is a classic producer in the heart of Emilia-Romagna, one of only two places that lambrusco can be produced. We almost always carry their white lambrusco as well as the rosato (a great spritz wine). This gilded bottle is made using the estate’s best culls of lambrusco salamino and ancellotta. Deep, dark, purple, savory, it’s meant for the neutral ground barbecue meats, late night cheeseburger runs, and to-go pies from St. Pizza.
Avinyó Cava “Brut Reserva” Catalonia, Spain 2021
I’ve written a bit before about Cava here, so please do skip ahead if you know my soapbox. So much of what is called “cava” is mediocre sad bubble schlock. And, as with so much of the wine on our shelves, we aim to reveal to you another version of what a wine can be. Avinyó, located in the Penedès region of Catalonia, is deeply apart from the machine of big cava, producing sparkling in the image of the great French houses. The beauty of wines like this is that they command the power of champagne with prices that are wildly reasonable thanks to being not in Champagne. Made from indigenous varietals of macabeo, xarel-lo, and parellada, the Brut Reserva is aged for 18 to 24 months lending it a remarkable texture and complexity. The fruit here is beautiful, pure, and rich, a lovely thing for a Friday lunch or a Lundi Gras pancake moment.
La Grange Tiphaine “Rosa Rosé Rosam” Loire Valley, France 2023
This wine is deeply enjoyable. It’s the perfect balance of notable—a wine to comment upon—and chill, allowing the rest of the moment to be foregrounded, but amplified. Sort of like really good lighting; when it’s present, everything looks better, feels better, tastes better. A blend of grolleau, gamay, côt, and cabernet franc, this strawberry-pink bubble is made by Coralie and Damien Delecheneau, a low-key legendary Loire Valley couple that makes some of this day and age’s best chenin blancs. It’s got a blast of fruit, underscored by a tart cherry preserve smack that would be a beautiful accompaniment to a sunny Mardi Gras morning.
Albert Boxler “Crémant d’Alsace Brut” Alsace, France 2019
Some of my favorite wines of the last year are Albert Boxler’s. His luscious, silky Edelzwicker, his revelation of an unctuous Riesling, the swooping freshness of the Chasselas! From a woman who doesn’t use an exclamation point lightly, let me tell you, I EXCLAIM. Bless y’all who spring for the “Draw” bottle in this little subscription—we love picking it each month, this one especially. Get out your megaphone because this creamy, luxurious, ocean of bubbles is the thing you’ll be singing from the rooftops about all spring long. A blend of pinot blanc, auxerrois, and pinot noir, this shockingly precise Crémant comes from a producer who concentrates on still wines. Take it with you to the ball, baby. Pair it with your best wig and all the glitter you own. Exclamation point.