or Fontina) can mix it up and are fun to try with a variety of wines. —Evan
RECOMMENDED PRODUCERS
Earthy, Somewhat Rustic Bubblies
| EVERYDAY | PREMIUM | SPLURGE |
| Segura Viudas (Cava, Spain) | Mionetto (Veneto, Italy) | Ca' del Bosco (Veneto, Italy) |
| Codorníu (Cava, Spain) | Ferrari (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy) | Bellavista (Veneto, Italy) |
| Cristalino (Cava, Spain) | Domaine Laurent (Languedoc, France) |
FOR OFF-DRY (SLIGHTLY SWEET) BUBBLIES
ASIAN-INSPIRED SHRIMP SALAD
SERVES 4
3 cups dry white wine or water or a combination1 pound (about 16 to 20) large shrimp, peeled and deveined
VINAIGRETTE cup peanut or olive oil6 tablespoons fresh lime juiceGrated zest of 2 limes2 tablespoons brown sugar½ teaspoon red pepper flakes or diced jalapeño chile, or more to tasteSalt to taste
2 ripe papayas or mangos, or 1 cantaloupe6 cups assorted lettuces6 tablespoons torn fresh mint leaves6 tablespoons torn fresh basil leaves
In a saucepan, bring the wine to a simmer over medium heat. Add the shrimp and poach until they turn pink, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to a bowl. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Discard the poaching liquid.
For the vinaigrette: In a large bowl, whisk the peanut oil, lime juice, lime zest, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes to blend. Season to taste with additional red pepper flakes, if desired, and salt.
Peel, pit, and dice or slice the selected fruit. If using papayas, cut them in half and scoop out and discard the seeds. Dice or slice the flesh. If using a mango, cut off the flesh on either side of the central pit. With a sharp paring knife remove the peel and dice or slice the fruit. If tropical fruit is unavailable, you can substitute slices of cantaloupe.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuces, mint, and basil.
Toss the shrimp with ¼ cup of the vinaigrette and marinate for 5 minutes.
Add half of the remaining vinaigrette to the bowl with the lettuces and herbs. Toss to coat, and divide among individual salad plates. Top with the shrimp and fruit. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette on top and serve.
VARIATION If you don't want to use fruit, you may substitute thinly sliced cucumbers, marinated for about 10 minutes in the vinaigrette before you assemble the salad.
A salad of tangy fruit and chewy shrimp dressed with a spicy, sweet, and tart vinaigrette makes for a nice, light beginning to a special meal. The shrimp can be poached the night before or earlier in the day. The fruit can be diced or sliced and the vinaigrette prepared hours ahead of serving time. Assemble the salad at the last minute. —Joyce
This is always a crowd-pleasing combination. I opt for slightly sweet wines here because of the mild heat and the sweetness of the fruit. The riper the fruit, the sweeter the wine should be, so ripe mangos require a slightly sweeter wine than most papayas and melons. But if you choose to substitute cucumbers for the fruit, you can go with quite a dry wine, though I would go with a New World bubbly rather than one from Europe. And, just as the sweetness of the fruit is important to your wine selection, so is the heat of the peppers. Sugar takes the edge off the heat, so the hotter the kick in your dressing, the more sweetness you may need to counterbalance it. Try preparing the dish a few times to find the balance that works best for you. —Evan
RECOMMENDED PRODUCERS
Off-Dry (Slightly Sweet) Bubblies
| EVERYDAY | PREMIUM |
| Fontanafredda (Piedmont, Italy) | Ceretto (Piedmont, Italy) |
| Zonin (Piedmont, Italy) | Möet et Chandon (Champagne, France) |
| Michele Chiarlo (Piedmont, Italy) | Mumm Napa (Napa Valley, California) |
part two
THE WHITE JOURNEYS
CHARDONNAY
Chardonnay (shar-doh-nay) is the darling of white wines to American palates. This grape and its wines are fashionable for many reasons: the name is easy to pronounce, and the wine is readily accessible stylistically, gussied up with lots of delicious and enticing oak. Whatever the reason, Chardonnay is the most popular white wine in the United States, and it is enjoyed and admired globally.
WINE-GROWING AREAS
Although Chardonnay is thought by some wine experts to have its roots in Persia, most of us associate it (correctly) with France, and specifically with the globally respected Côte de Beaune, the southern portion of Burgundy's celebrated Côte d'Or. Chardonnay is, in winespeak, an older grape with an ancestry that is in part noble (the Burgundian Pinot family of grapes) and in part plebeian (its Pinot ancestry having been conjoined long ago with the unremarkable Gouais Blanc grape originating in central Europe). Once established in the Côte d'Or, however, the wines from such heralded appellations as Montrachet, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne became benchmarks. Long-lived and infinitely complex when well made, great white Burgundies (almost all of them Chardonnays) are mosaics of mineral-scented earth, ripe citrus and tree fruit (apples and pears), and an intricacy of spice, toast, and varying levels of butter or butterscotch from the small oak barrels (barriques) in which they are aged. Additionally, the less oaky (or unoaked), more earth-driven styles of Chablis to the north and the Chardonnays of the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais to the south present other interpretations, which are often excellent values. Wines coming from the Loire Valley and other parts of France, such as the Ardèche, don't have the depth or complexity of their Burgundian cousins, but have the same unique terroir-driven palate and a similar quality of ripe but tart fruit. Finally, in the Champagne region, Chardonnay (especially from the CÛte des Blancs) provides the sharp fruit and lemony backbone of many cuvées and is also used in making sparkling wine. Chardonnay is also used in the Burgundy region's interpretation of sparkling wine: the local Crémant de Bourgogne is both affordable and delicious. For the rest of the world, it's indeed the two French regions—Burgundy for still wines and Champagne for sparkling wines—that have supplied the road map.
Chardonnay
