It's not champagne, but it's good enough


Valentine's Day will be here pretty soon. This is one of the two days that we traditionally go in search of champagne. New Year's Eve is the other.
I realize that you are trying to impress your lover when you go out and buy an expensive bottle of champagne on Valentine's Day. But unless your lover knows a lot about champagne and can detect an expensive bottle or is impressed by the fact that you spend too much on him or her, save your money.
Get a bottle of sparkling wine from Spain rather than an expensive bottle of champagne. It will taste just as good. Anyway, who do you think you are fooling by worrying about the taste of champagne on Valentine's Day. You have other things on your mind and the champagne is just a cover for your devilment.
But I digress.
Anyway, the Spaniards make a type of sparkling wine called "cava." It is made with the same method as the one employed by the French in the Champagne region. (I assume you already know that only sparkling wine from this region is truly "champagne." Any other sparkling wine made anywhere else in the world isn't really champagne; it's a fake.)
Therefore, when you pick up that bottle of sparkling wine from New York State and you see the words "champagne" on the label, you are being suckered. It's not.
So why not just get some good sparkling wine? That's cava. I've bought bottles of cava for as little as $8. It's light, smooth, refreshing -- and bubbly. No, it is not fine French champagne. It is good enough for what you want to accomplish -- if you know what I mean.
Seriously, go into any wine shop or serious liquor store and ask for some "cava." Or you can just go to the section of the shop where champagne is sold and look on the label for the words cava.
You'll save a lot of money.