Champagne Cocktail — tasting notes & food pairings

Champagne Cocktail

The Champagne Cocktail is one of the oldest drinks in the classic canon — a sugar cube soaked with aromatic bitters, set in the bottom of a chilled flute and topped with cold Champagne. The bitters-laced sugar slowly dissolves and sends up a steady column of bubbles, tinting the wine a faint pink-gold and softening its dryness with a thread of spiced sweetness. It is simple, elegant and old — printed as early as the 1860s — and it survives almost unchanged: a dressed-up glass of Champagne, gently rounded and lightly perfumed rather than transformed.

Balanced13% ABV

A pale amber-gold sparkling drink of roughly 12 to 14 percent alcohol, dry and crisp at the core with the toasty, appley, biscuity character of Brut Champagne. The bitters-soaked sugar cube rounds the wine's acidity and adds a warm spiced note of clove and cinnamon, the small measure of Cognac gives a faint brandied depth, and an expressed orange twist perfumes the surface with bright citrus oils. It finishes dry and fragrant, the steady stream of bubbles carrying spice and fruit rather than sweetness.