What Is Sparkling wine and How Can I Use It?
Here's everything worth knowing about sparkling wine and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 4 recipes to cook tonight.
Key Points
- Bubbly wine whose fizz cooks off but whose crisp acidity drives sauces and batters.
- Deglaze for a quick beurre blanc, whisk a sabayon, or lighten a frying batter.
- Buy brut, not sweet, and cook with leftover party bottles before they go flat.
What is sparkling wine?
Sparkling wine is wine with bubbles, the family that includes Champagne, prosecco, cava, and dry domestic sparklers. In cooking the bubbles mostly cook off, but the wine's crisp acidity stays and does real work.
It earns its keep in sauces, batters, and light desserts. A dry brut style is the one to keep on hand.
How to Use It
Use it to deglaze a pan and build a quick beurre blanc, where its sharp acidity balances the butter. It also makes an airy sabayon when whisked with egg yolks over gentle heat, and its carbonation lightens a frying batter for crisp, lacy results.
Most often it goes into drinks and brunch fare, like Blueberry Ginger Bellini and New Year's Eve Pomegranate & Blood Orange Mimosas, where a splash adds lift without weight.
Substitute
Any dry white wine works in cooked dishes, since you lose the fizz to heat anyway; reach for a crisp unoaked white. Where the bubbles matter, in a batter or a finished drink, club soda plus a little white wine gets you partway there.
Buying and Storing
Buy brut rather than sweet for savory cooking, and you need not spend much; an inexpensive cava or prosecco is fine for the pan. Once opened it goes flat within a day or two even with a stopper.
Cook with the leftovers from a celebration rather than buying a bottle just to reduce. Store unopened bottles cold and upright.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 起泡葡萄酒
- British (UK) term
- Sparkling wine
- en français
- vin pétillant
- en español
- vino espumoso
Recipes using sparkling wine
There are 4 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Blueberry Ginger Bellini
This bellini, we use blueberry and ginger, adding some lemon juice, you can always change ingredients' amount according to your own taste.
New Year's Eve Pomegranate & Blood Orange Mimosas
Pomegranate and blood orange mimosas mix tart blood orange juice with ruby pomegranate, then top each flute with chilled sparkling wine. A jewel-toned New Year's Eve toast that takes minutes to pour.
MacErated Melon
Cantaloupe macerated in dry sparkling wine with orange marmalade and fresh mint. A light, elegant fruit dessert that needs a few hours in the fridge and zero cooking.
Tisana
Tropical Venezuelan sparkling wine punch bursting with passion fruit, citrus slices, and bubbles. Mix, chill, and serve this festive tisana over ice for easy entertaining.
