Friday, April 17, 2009

Iron Drinkers: Battle Bubbly

Last night after an evening of deliciousness with some of my favorite ladies, we went back to Casa M & T for a beverage taste-off. Not just a random excuse to drink, though (because that would never do). This was a scientific process to help choose our bar selections for the wedding. Due to the exorbitant markups on food and drinks from our venue, let's just say that we'll be drinking brands that are quite a step down from our normal libations. Case in point: our venue prices our go-to "cheap" house white wine at $54 a bottle. Sigh... But rather than get depressed, I'm considering our alcohol challenge to be an adventure in value-drinking. Last night's taste-off, then? Battle Bubbly: Inexpensive Champagne v. Prosecco.

Now I'm a big prosecco fan, but the F-Word is a more traditional champagne drinker. We decided that calling in some fellow bubbly lovers to help us make the decision was in order. While we spicy crab-encrusted sea bass'd our way through dinner, T was at home chilling the contenders. When we got there, the scene looked like this:

(Ooh, breaking in our new Dorset flutes!)

In my mind, it doesn't get any worse than bad champagne. I think of cheap champagne and I imagine the worst headache possible the next day. Not fun at all. But prosecco, on the other hand, is almost always pleasing. Looking at the bar list, we skipped over the first few cheapest champagnes immediately; it would be cruel to do that to ourselves and our guests. T selected a champagne that he thought could be the most drinkable value champagne to purchase, and we were able to find it easily in a local store. We couldn't find the exact prosecco on the bar list, but bought the closest one for the taste-off.

The result? I was surprised - the champagne won! Both were pretty good. Prosecco is always sweeter, so it's perhaps more of a crowd-pleaser for non-champagne palettes. But for only $2 more, the champagne was traditional and also really yummy. It received a unanimous vote.

So champagne it is! And, you know, at the wedding it'll be only $20 more per bottle than we bought it at the local liquor store yesterday. GRRRRRRR. But at this point? I'm just loving making decisions and moving on. Seriously.

1 comment:

Kate said...

I feel very honored to have been a part of such a scientific process. And to hang out at Casa M&T. AND to hear R's puke story again :)