Wine Wednesday: Antech Blanquette de Limoux

Every year it seems like the distance between Halloween ghosts and Thanksgiving turkeys gets shorter and shorter. And this year, Hanukkah Harry is hot on the bird's tail, with the Festival of Light starting on December 1st! Before you know it Christmas music will be playing in every store you walk into. It's enough to make you want to crawl back under the covers (it's pitch black at 6 a.m. now anyway).

To take the edge of the impending and inevitable holiday madness, I'm stocking up on the Antech "Brut Nature" Blanquette de Limoux ($12.99) and suggest that you do too. Made in the method ancestrale, which is the same spontaneous way another of my favorite sparklers Bugey Cerdon is made, from Mauzac (90%) and 5% each Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay from Carcassonne and Limoux in the Languedoc. 

This is a sweeter style bubbly that delivers tangy Gravenstein apple and D'Anjou pear flavors and a fine, steady stream of delicate bubbles. It reminds me of a Moscato d'Asti with more intense sparkle. And while it could take on your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie like Pacquiao in the ring, I think it would also be delightful with savory latkes smothered in sour cream and apple chutney or salty sweet bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with Manchego cheese and Marcona almonds.

Leah Greenstein