I casually peruse food articles, as you might guess. One
emerging set of hot takes seems to revolve around brunch. Specifically, that
brunch sucks.
It’s all the same – just dressed up eggs and bacon, they
say. Starchy home fries lead to long afternoon naps, crushing the productivity
we’re supposed to be chasing in this crazy, overly plugged-in world of ours. Anthony
Bourdain, in his initial New Yorker article that eventually became Kitchen Confidential, said chefs hate brunch.
(May all your steaks be rare on the other side, Tony…rest in calm and light…)
I don’t subscribe to that point of view, myself. I’m still
personally a big brunch fan, although I’m not a huge fan of what many brunches
have *become* -- waiting for hours in line for quickly prepared slot machine
meals from some new, trendy locale. Bottomless mimosas amped with triple sec
and double vodka bloody mary bars to accelerate the food coma.
No, what I enjoy about brunch is the pace. Late enough
timeframe for sleeping in, slowly letting consciousness return from whatever
you might have been up to the night before. And a little hair of the dog – but not
too much. I prefer having a brunch that refreshes – so I tend to stay away from,
the heavy, greasy food -- and along with that, I stay away from the mixed
drinks. They tend to go down too quickly, so I stick to relatively low-alcohol
sparkling wine.
Some of the more popular brunch sparklers tend to be
Italian. For most people, there will be two basic schools of thought about
noontime bubbles, Moscato and Prosecco.
Moscato, born in the Piedmont region, is a sweet, fruity wine
made from the Muscat grape. Easy to drink, Moscato is the fastest-growing style
of wine in the United States, driven in part by a great deal of love from the
hip-hop community. Moscato like this one are slightly fizzy – a style called “frizzante”
in Italian.
The Moscato I sampled was the Castello del Poggio Moscato. Starting with a floral nose of honey,
pineapple, and blossoms, my note after taking my first sip reads, “This is like
eating a peach.” After a mite more reflection for detail, I thought it’s an
initially weighty wine. Peaches and honey are the primary flavors, cut through
by a slight effervescence. The finish is surprisingly light, ending with a
lingering flavor of honeycrisp apple. At 7% ABV, this would make it a natural
brunch pairing, especially with something like a salad with some fruits. If you
were interested in having it with something later in the day, spicy foods would
be tamed by the residual sugar. $13.
As for Prosecco, this is a much more “traditional” sparkling
wine, full in its carbonation. For a long time, Prosecco was both the name of
the grape and the region from which the wine hailed. In 2009, to avoid
confusion, the name of the grape was changed to “Glera.” Prosecco is carbonated
in tanks – a technique called the Charmat method – rather than in the bottle
like Champagne and many other sparkling wines. Prosecco tends to be fairly dry,
and is a solid accompaniment for many types of foods. If you’re thinking a
heavier menu for your brunch, Prosecco will be a good choice to cut through the
fat and starch.
I gave a go to the Zonin
“1821” Prosecco – A straightforward glass of refreshing bubbles. This Prosecco
is on the dry-but-fruity side. I found it had a gentle, blossomy nose of apples
and pineapples. Green apple and lemon flavors on the palate are balanced with
the lasting, tight bubbles and a zippy acidity. The finish is fruity, with more
of those pineapples lingering at the end. As I mentioned, the bubbles will let
this wine line up against almost anything you’d order, from brunch salads and
soups to greasy hangover relief food. It also works well at the end of a meal,
if you’re into the dessert thing. $13.
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