Tasting Champagne and Sparkling wine

I was wondering...do the same concepts of wine smelling, swirling, tasting, etc. apply to champagne and sparkling wine?

Good one!! Up here in the frozen north, have never swirled, decanted, used a swizzlestick!!! Lumberjacks around here just like alookin` at the bubbles!!

I try not to swirl bubblies, but sometimes it's a force of habit. Everything else works for me.

I was wondering...do the same concepts of wine smelling, swirling, tasting, etc. apply to champagne and sparkling wine?

Yes they do, but keep the following points in mind:

Smelling is always the right way to start with any wine, sparkling or still. You have to be careful here. You don't want to get your nose stuck inside a flute, or get it wet by dipping it into one of those older style flat champagne glasses.

Swirling sparkling wine can be a bit tricky. Don't even think about swirling with the flat champagne glasses; too messy. Those nice tall flutes don't really allow a lot of swirling action in there, which is probably good ... wouldn't want to lose all the bubbles too quickly. I actually give it a small swirl, because that releases fragrance, which tends to be rather subtle in sparkling wines.

Yes, I also roll sparkling wine around the palate to sample all the tastes, even though it tickles just a bit. Be careful here, because you just might have an accident, if you know what I mean.

I hope you don't mind the tongue-in-cheek humor here. This was a very good question.

-- Clark