Korbel Brut Champagne
Region: Sonoma
Winery: Korbel
Variety: Champagne

Just had some of this with Kim and Heidi while tasting some other "Champagne". It was meant to be a baseline for our ratings, and I think it did that pretty well. I give it 3 stars. Not great, but not too bad.

The commercials are funny making Korbel look very glamorous, even though it retails for about $10 for a 750ml bottle. Still, it holds it's own with some of the $20-$40 bottles I've had.

On a budget I might go for this, but then I like to try other things. And this wine might be too consistently Korbel for the more experimental out there.

Next time I try it, I'll try to take down better notes for flavor, nose, etc.

Any one else have recommendations for ~$10 sparkling wine? What's your go to sparkler?

Posted by jason on January 17th, 2008 at 1:08pm | report comment

Korbel Brut Champagne
Region: Sonoma
Winery: Korbel
Variety: Champagne

Some friends and I went to Korbel for my first time (Beth had been there many times in the past) and we were really impressed with the place. They have a lot more wines to offer that are very interesting, including still wines, than you might think. I liked their dark rose, the Rouge and their Aussie-inspired Sparkling Shiraz the best.
As for affordable domestic sparklers, I prefer Mumm's low-end brut, but it's kinda hard to find and a bit pricier ($15). I then like, in order, the blanc and rose brut of Roederer Estate, Domaine Chandon and then Piper Sonoma. Roederer usually is around $12-14, but in CA you can find the DC at around $10-11 and the Piper at $9, sometimes.

Posted by drxeno on January 23rd, 2008 at 12:37pm | report comment