For many people, thinking of pink sparkling wine probably conjures up images of sitting in their father’s car with a date before the high school graduation dance. The couple is in the parking lot, hurriedly downing from plastic mugs something cheap, pink and ghastly, with bubbles the size of golf balls. Not that there’s anything wrong with a treasured memory like that – it’s just that a closer look will reveal much more quality, variety and complexity than one would expect to find in this category of wine. And that’s what it is: wine. When thought of this way, it’s difficult to dismiss the pink, rosé or blush Champagne and the sparkling wine as just a sweet, obligatory part of some celebratory ritual.

Andrew Wellisch, co-owner and proprietor of Englewood Wine Merchants, agrees. “Pink sparkling wine should not just be for special occasions,” he says. “There is just too wide a variety of good quality, good drinking and well-made entries out there.”  

Case in point, he says, he and co-owner David Gettenberg pour several good sparkling rosés at Grand Cru, their newly opened wine bar in Englewood. “It can be delicious, pretty in the glass and very romantic,” says Wellisch.

Good pink sparklers are made all over the world – the most famous, of course, in the Champagne region of northeastern France, but also in such diverse places as Italy, Spain, Australia, South Africa and the United States (primarily California and New York). The pink Champagnes are traditionally made from a combination of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, but the more generic classification, “sparkling wine,” can be produced from nearly every variety of grape grown. Another option is a relatively new entry to the market, a sparkling shiraz from Australia – good, but certainly more of a sparkling red than a sparkling pink.

Very simply, a sparkling wine is born when yeast and sugar are added to a still wine, triggering a secondary fermentation. This produces two byproducts – alcohol and CO2 – and if the CO2 is not allowed to escape, voilà, bubbles form in the wine. Putting the gas into solution can be accomplished in several ways. The secondary fermentation can be done in the bottle itself; this is known as the methode champenoise in the case of true Champagne, or methode traditionnelle (traditional method), as it’s called, when making non-Champagne sparkling wines. Or, it can be “sparkled” in large, pressurized tanks called autoclaves. Wine can also be made to sparkle by injecting – but the less said about that, the better!

The traditional method is more difficult and time-consuming and generally yields more expensive wines. The quicker, more mass-production-tank approach, known as charmat, may often utilize less expensive grapes, as well, creating lower quality, less expensive offerings. An exception to this rule is the sparkling wine made in Italy from the prosecco grape, which does come in pink varieties. Now very popular in the U.S., it is actually made using the charmat method. Because it’s usually drunk young, if the longer, traditional method was used, it could deprive prosecco of its charming freshness. Other “quality” selections – Cavas from Spain, for example – also use the charmat method.  

So much for the “sparkling” aspect; how about the “pinkness”? That beautiful pink color can simply be the result of adding a small amount of red wine to the cuvée, or “base” wine. It can also be achieved by allowing the clear juice to remain in contact with the skin for a short time – usually just a few hours, if the wine is at least partly made from red grapes. This limited contact with the skin also means the wine will not absorb very much tannin, making it more drinkable when chilled.

And, the color is not just for appearance. Ivo Couto, assistant manager and head of the wine program at Napa Valley Grille, Paramus, acknowledges that the pink hue is“partly for the ‘fun.’” But, Cuoto adds, “color has purpose, and can contribute to the style and character of the wine itself.”  

Perhaps the biggest surprise when taking a closer look at sparkling wines of a pinkish hue is how well they go with a wide range of food. “Pink doesn’t equate to sweet,” Couto says emphatically. “A rosé might be the perfect solution if you’re undecided on white or red, or when your dinner companion is having fish and you’re having lamb,” he notes. “While most people who order Champagne or sparkling wine – pink or otherwise – are in fact celebrating something, it’s not always the case.” More and more people are trying it as an accompaniment to a great meal, and Napa Valley Grille even offers flights of sparkling wine to test, taste and enjoy.  

The arrival of warmer weather is an ideal time to sample something new, something chilled and sparkling – maybe even something pink. While a 1968 Thunderbird in a high school parking lot probably isn’t the ideal place to enjoy it, give a good pink sparkling wine a try, experiment a little and just have fun with it.