The sharp pop from a bottle of Shampanskoye echoes across every almost every home, restaurant and park in Russia at midnight on New Year’s eve, followed by a fizzy pour into any handy container. To the chagrin of winemakers from France’s Champagne region, shampanskoye has long been the generic term in Russia for any sparkling wine, whether produced by Champagne’s classic méthode champenoise, or the shortcut reservoir (charmat) method and even simple CO2 gas infusion.
Méthode champenoise (though not the name) is used for premium sparkling wines around the world. Abrau Durso, a 140-year-old Russian winery near the Black Sea, has produced méthode champenoise wines for more than 100 years. Abrau Durso is truly a national treasure, and it has fortunately had a renaissance in recent years. Based upon a recent tasting, the Abrau Durso classic sparkling wines are well worth a try by serious wine consumers.
Russia’s love of sparkling wine
Russian interest in bubbly is dates back centuries. The Cossacks made a sparkling wine in the middle of the 17th century on the Don River in the Tsimlanskoi and Kumshatskoi villages in southern Russia. This wine was even mentioned in Pushkin’s poem, Eugene Onegin. A red sparkling wine is still made according to “old Cossack methods” in this area at Tsimlanskoye Winery. Read more in Passport Magazine
