New Year's Eve

It's getting close to New Year's Eve, the time of the year (at least if you add in the first few minutes of New Year's Day) when people likely drink more Champagne or other sparkling wines than any other time of the year. Of course, the turn from 2020 to 2021 might be different. Likely, more people than not will not go out and spend their time with friends and that is sad, but this is not a sadness blog. Hopefully, very few will spend the turn of the year alone.

But, while we're on the topic of sparkling wine, what should you drink on New Year's Eve to usher in 2021? My answer is that it depends. It depends on a lot of things: how much money do you have, how much are you willing to spend on your midnight beverage, do you get to choose, and will you have a fresh and cleansed palate or not? 

If the answer to the last question is that you will not, then don't bother with anything fancy, just go with something that is not absolute swill. And, while I didn't pose the question up above, if you have been drinking all night, go with a sparkling wine with as little residual sugar as possible. Pro tip: too much sugar in your sparkling wine after a night of drinking other alcoholic beverages simply makes the hangover worse. I don't know about you, but I prefer not to get hangovers and if I do get them (thankfully, I cannot recall the last time I had one), I prefer them to be very mild.

So, assuming that you have answered all those questions as I expcct most people would (you're not filthy rich, you've been drinking all night, and your palate is no longer overly sensitive anymore), what should you drink?

Frankly, the best buys on safe (as in not putrid and not overly sugary) sparkling wines, at least if you are buying in the US are American-made sparkling wines. If you go with one labeled Brut and further labeled Methode Champenise or Methode Traditionelle (or some Americanized version thereof), you are likely going to get something low in residual sugar and very palatable. Further, I would not buy anything from Napa or Sonoma for these purposes (yes, there are some excellent sparklers coming out of those areas, but to tell the difference, your palate needs to be pretty clean. Likely ain't happening on New Year's Eve.

In any event, have fun, stay safe, skip the hangover, and make 2021 better than 2020 (that should be easy for most of us).

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