It Isn’t Brunch Without Sparkling Wine

At my house, brunch on Sundays is a lazy clean out the fridge project. Leftovers from throughout the week — random bits and bobs from meals out and cooking projects at home — magically come together in the pursuit of a hearty late morning/early afternoon meal. Usually, eggs are involved, which would probably define this meal as “breakfast.” But what transforms this simple feast into a full-fledged brunch with a capital B is the addition of bubbles — sparkling wine in the form of cava, prosecco, Champagne, or what have you.

Sparkling wine naturally makes a great pairing for brunch. Because when it comes to bubbles, there’s a “flood” that happens at the back of your palate, a “battle between fruit and acid,” sommelier, journalist, and author Anthony Giglio shared at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston. Which is where salt and fat come into play, operating like what Giglio calls a “Zamboni” because “it keeps coming across the palate and making it clean.”

Salty snacks are excellent at operating like a palate cleanser, especially potato chips. But a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, or perhaps some bacon and eggs, would also have the same effect. With fat, he says, “wine just blooms.” And it doesn’t even need to be a full breakfast, either. “If you’re at a restaurant, you can put your pinky in the olive oil dish or a butter dish and then take a sip,” said Giglio. “Same thing happens. It’s wild. A little fat, a little salt. Everything changes.”

To best enjoy a sparkling wine, especially at home, you don’t need to fuss with flutes. In fact, Giglio strongly recommends against the classic flutes, calling them “awful,” saying that they’ve been “banned by most sommeliers.” He drinks Champagne out of a Bordeaux glass. Anything but a flute. “Anything that you can actually pour into without it overflowing in three seconds,” said Giglio about how they’re totally impractical. “And that your nose doesn’t hit when you’re trying to take a sip.” To be more blunt, he added, “Flutes suck. They totally suck.” At the same time, however, “It’s also about being able to smell the bouquet.” 

In my book, brunch always needs something spicy, whether it’s a fiery hot sauce on some chicken and waffles or, my favorite, a mountain of pickled jalapenos that add an extra punch to a pile of soft scrambled eggs, which is where bubbles work great. “To pair with heat, drink sweet,” Giglio often says, recommending pairing spicy foods with demi-sec sparkling wines (“demi-sec,” aka “half-dry” sparkling wines are typically slightly to medium sweet). “Americans are afraid to admit they like sweet wine,” said Giglio. “I think there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s great with spicy foods.”

In the end, according to Giglio, “There are no perfect pairings; there are great ideas.”    Lazy Sunday brunches are never a time for perfection anyway, but as long as you keep things balanced, especially keeping fat and salt in mind, bubbles can always make even the simplest breakfasts become a much more elegant brunch.