I’ve reviewed a number of different Barefoot wines on this site and it’s one bargain brand that seems to do OK.  I’ve never been totally blown away by any of their wines, but they’ve all been quite drinkable and great values.  That continues to be the case with their line-up of sparkling wine… none of it was exceptional, but it was all good.

So, what does that mean?  Should you buy it?  I would say that depends on how you’re serving it and who you’re serving it to.  If you’re buying for a party or wedding and your guests won’t know the difference between this and a $50 bottle of French champagne, then by all means buy this stuff.  If you’re making champagne cocktails and will be mixing it with other stuff then this is a good choice — there’s no sense in buying an expensive champagne just to bury the flavor in mixers.  Or if you just want to try something different, there are a couple unique sparklers in the Barefoot line-up that are worth a try.

You may notice that Barefoot Bubbly is labeled as “Champagne,” and you may wonder, “Can they do that, I thought Champagne could only come from France?”  Yes, it’s true that the term “Champagne” is legally reserved for wines from the Champagne region of France.  But, many US-made sparkling wines were using the term before the decision was made to no longer use it on US-made wines.  Those wines labeled as “Champagne” before 2006 were “grandfathered” in to allow them to continue using that descriptor as long as the region of production is also on the label (e.g. California).

Here are my thoughts on the Barefoot Bubbly collection.

Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée

The Brut Cuvée is what most people expect when they have champagne or sparkling wine.  In fact, most sparkling wine that’s produced is in the Brut style.  Technically, Brut refers to the amount of sugar added after secondary fermentation and is an indicator of sweetness.  Brut is relatively dry.

The nose is rather lifeless on this one, aside from a slight mineral aroma.  The palate is better, where good apple and pear flavors come out to play.  The acidity is good and the finish is tangy.  The bubbles are lacking, it’s almost frizzante (and I don’t think it’s supposed to be that way).  This one is OK, but nothing special.

Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée
Variety: Sparkling Chardonnay
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 83
Price: $9.99

Find Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée with Snooth

Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry

Extra Dry Champagne isn’t dramatically different from Brut in terms of sweetness.  Technically, Extra Dry can be slightly sweeter, but the difference is small and if you’re not a major Champagne aficionado I doubt you would notice.  However, in terns of Barefoot Bubbly, I found this one more enjoyable than the Brut.

It shows floral and mineral notes on the nose.  There are not many bubbles in the glass, but it bubbles up in your mouth quite a bit.  The palate doesn’t offer much complexity, but it’s still enjoyable with tasty apple flavors and decent acidity.  It’s slightly yeasty on the finish.

Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry
Variety: Sparkling Chardonnay
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $9.99

Find Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry with Snooth

Barefoot Bubbly Pinot Grigio Champagne

This is where we start to get into the unique stuff from Barefoot Bubbly.  It’s not every day that I come across a bubbly Pinot Grigio, so I was really curious to taste this one.

It’s slightly yeasty, with some floral, citrus and pear notes.  Yellow delicious apple flavors on the palate, along with a little bit of lime make this a tasty wine. The lime flavor carries into the finish where I also picked up a touch of mineral.  The acidity is great in this one too.  Overall, it’s a nice sparkler.

Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Pinot Grigio Champagne
Variety: Sparkling Pinot Grigio
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 85
Price: $10.99

Find Barefoot Bubbly Pinot Grigio Champagne with Snooth

Barefoot Bubbly Rosé Cuvée

I tried and tried to pull something out of this, but the nose is virtually non-existent in this wine, except for a very, very slight peach aroma.  The palate is also light.  It’s mildly sweet, with soft peach and strawberry flavors.  The finish is crisp, tangy and enjoyable, although rather short. If you like sweet, light sparklers, it’s an enjoyable wine, but as I said, the intensity is subtle.  There’s nothing extraordinary about it, but it’s good.

Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Rosé Cuvée
Variety: Sparkling Blend
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $10.99

Find Barefoot Bubbly Rosé Cuvée with Snooth

Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante

This is another one that had me really curious… what would Barefoot do with a Sparkling Moscato, I wondered.  And then, when I saw that the alcohol level is only 8.5%, I was scared that it was going to be overwhelmingly sweet.  But I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, it is a sweet sparkler, but only moderately so.  And it has the acidity needed to keep the sweetness from becoming overpowering.  The nose is slight, but shows a touch of honeysuckle and and a slice of pear.  The palate is full of ripe pear and ripe red delicious apple.  The sweetness lingers into the finish, where it becomes a touch syrupy.  It’s a fun wine, if you like sweet sparklers.

Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante
Variety: Sparkling Moscato
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 8.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $10.99

Find Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante with Snooth

Disclosure: These wines were received as samples.

Here’s another sparkling wine that I think is just awesome, and I found it for about $17.  This one comes from Mumm Napa, and as you might guess by the name it’s from Napa Valley.

One thing you might notice about sparking wine in the lower price range is that non-vintage is commonplace.  You won’t see a year on this bottle, so you can only hope that the bottle you buy is from the same vintage as the bottle I bought… because mine was good!

This is also a wine you should consider for your Thanksgiving Day table.  Sparkling wine is always a nice addition to any holiday meal, in my opinion.

Powerful vanilla and melon aromas make this a fun and interesting bubbly brut. It’s a bit yeasty too. Although less prominent, I also found a some pear and hazelnut on the nose.  Lemon, pear and melon flavors make this a tasty one too.  And the fruit lingers into a lengthy finish.  There’s loads of fizz and a creamy mouth feel.  My only knock on it, is it’s a touch more acidic than I would like it to be. But the up side of that is that it would go great with shellfish.  Oysters anyone?

Wine: Mumm Napa Brut Prestige
Variety: Sparkling White Blend
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $16.96

Find Mumm Napa Brut Prestige with Snooth

The first kosher wine we reviewed last week was a Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon from Golan Heights Winery and today we’re trying another wine from the same producer.  This time it’s a Chardonnay produced with grapes from the northern Golan Heights.

To me, this is a well made Chardonnay.  This has some of the butter and oak qualities for which Chardonnay is known.  Some folks like that characteristic about Chardonnay and some don’t like Chardonnay because of it.  But with this wine I would say that it’s there, but not overdone.

The color is golden and brilliant.  It has a good complexity on the nose with pear, lime, mineral, straw and soft oak aromas.  The palate brings a nice balance of crisp acidity and creamy butter.  The flavors are a combination of yellow delicious apple, pear, lime and mineral.  The finish is lingering and pleasant.

This is a great choice for a Passover wine, and it’s reasonably priced.

Wine: Yarden Galilee
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $16.00

I was intrigued when I saw a kosher wine from Chile on the shelf, so I had to give this one a try.  I’ve reviewed a number of Chilean wines recently and have been generally pleased with what I’ve gotten, so I was really curious how this one would stack up.

In doing some digging, I didn’t find any background information on the vineyards where this was sourced.  But I did see a couple places selling it that touted a score of 87 from Wine Enthusiast magazine. It should be noted that the 87 rating was for the 2000 vintage… the places selling it did not note that fact and were selling the 2007 vintage.

This is not as big as many other Chilean Cabernet Sauvignons I’ve had and it’s definitely not as fruit-forward.  The nose has reasonable intensity, but not a lot of complexity.  It’s a rather smoky nose with a blackberry and a hint of clove.  The palate is full but, as I mentioned, it is not fruit forward.  Sour cherry is the dominant characteristic on the palate and there’s a bitter quality mid-palate.  In fact, I found the bitterness to be objectionable.  The tannins are soft and the finish is OK.

Wine: Alfasi Reserve
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 77
Price: $11.99

Today we are trying another kosher wine, this one from Barkan.  The roots of the Barkan winery go back more than a century, but it was born into it’s current name and ownership in 1990.  The winery overlooks a 120 hectare vineyard at Kibbutz Hulda in Israel and has capacity for 12 million liters of wine… that’s a lot of juice!

Like many wine producers, Barkan releases a number of different line of wine at different price points and the “Classic” line is one of their entry level wines in terms of pricing.  This bottle was just $12.

The color is relatively light for a Cabernet Sauvignon, but the nose has fairly good intensity.  It has a pleasant and somewhat spicy nose, with aromas of plum, cherry, coffee and leather.  The palate is also pleasant, although rather thin.  The flavors are good with mostly plum and cherry, although it’s fairly one dimensional.  The acid level is adequate and the tannins are soft, but it doesn’t have a very filling mouth feel.

There is nothing unpleasant about this wine, however it’s simple and not as majestic as you would expect from a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine: Barkan Classic
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13.0%
Rating: 81
Price: $11.99

With Passover just around the corner, I wanted to post a few reviews of kosher wines over the next week or so.  The first kosher wine I’m reviewing comes from the Golan Heights in the Galilee appellation in Israel.

Yarden Mount Hermon Red is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.  It’s produced by the Golan Heights Winery in—you guessed it—the Golan Heights.  When I think of Israel, I think hot… too hot for producing wine.  I admit that I haven’t been there and don’t know much about the climatology of the region.  But the Golan (as it’s called for short) is the coldest region in Israel and is has been the source of some very good wine.

The appearance of the Mount Hermon Red is relatively light in color.  Given the grapes varieties used in this blend I was expecting a somewhat deeper color, but the proof is in the tasting.  It has an earthy, herbal characteristic to the nose. Dusty sage and tarragon mingle with plum and raspberry.  The palate is soft and fruity with plenty of plum and cherry flavors.  The finish is relatively long and brings the herbal characteristics from the nose into the back of the palate.  Overall, it’s an interesting, medium-bodied wine that will pair very well with foods.

Wine: Yarden Mount Hermon Red
Variety: Red Blend
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13.9%
Rating: 85
Price: $11.00

It is holiday party season and you’ll probably find yourself wondering what wine to bring to a holiday party.  There are a few approaches you can take:

1. You can be careless and just pick up some cheapie and hope for the best
2. You can splurge on a really expensive bottle and hope to impress
3. You can research websites like Cheap Wine Ratings for an inexpensive gem
4. You can bring something unique that will get people talking

I don’t really recommend the first two options.  Even if you spend a lot on an expensive bottle, chances are it will soon be forgotten, or just get lost in the mix.  Option 3 is OK… you can find something good, without spending a lot.  But hey, it’s a party!  That’s why I’d suggest you find something unique to bring.  And this is the perfect choice for Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve parties, or whatever the occasion.

Paringa Sparkling Shiraz isn’t a high-brow wine, but it still tastes very good and more importantly it’s a lot of fun.  It is truly a different wine that is a great conversation starter and will be remembered.  I say that from experience too.  I’ve been to many holiday parties over the years, and this is the only wine I remember from one.  I discovered it last year when a friend brought it and I’m still delighted from the experience.

You’ve been to those boring holiday parties where you hardly know anyone and don’t have much to talk about.  Bring a bottle of this wine, pop it open and the conversation will start flowing—along with the wine.  Most people have never tried sparkling red wines and when they see it they are all intrigued.  In fact, you may have to bring a couple bottles because everyone will want to try it.  But that shouldn’t be too difficult as it sells for a reasonable $9.99.

The wine itself is a bit sweet, but not overly so.  It tickles your palate with bubbles that burst with raspberry and blueberry flavors.  The tannins are creamy and smooth, giving this wine a bit more sophistication than I had expected.  I gave the wine an 87 on flavor, but a 95 on fun!

Wine: Paringa Individual Vineyard
Varietal: Sparkling Shiraz
Vintage: 2004
Alcohol: 12.5% 
Rating: 87 for flavor 95 for fun!
Price Paid: $9.99

A question many people have this time of year is: Which wine is a good choice to go with the Thanksgiving Turkey?

The good news is you have a few choices and can let your own preference guide your final decision.  Turkey actually will go with a number of different wines and I would say that if you have a favorite, just go with it.  Have fun and enjoy, it’s the holidays.

But if you’re just not sure what to serve, here are a few suggestions.

1. Pinot Noir: This is the first wine that comes to mind for me when I think turkey.  If you ask me, it’s the perfect choice.  It’s not too heavy, it’s complex and it adds a bit of extra holiday spice to the table.  I recently completed a series of pinot noir reviews where you can surely find a good pick for your holiday table.
2. Chardonnay: If you’re a  fan of chardonnay, it’s a great choice for turkey.  Cook up that Butterball turkey and wash it down with a buttery chardonnay.  Lucky for you, its another varietal that I recently completed a series of reviews on where you can find some good, cheap chardonnay.
3. Champagne:  It’s light and refreshing and helps the dynamic flavors on the Thanksgiving table just explode.  I think champagne is often overlooked as a dinner wine.  Give it a shot.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any ratings on champagne available on this site yet.  (added to the to-do list)

Those are my suggestions.  I hope they help you have a fabulous Thanksgiving.  Cheers!