Deluge of drinks for the New Year’s Eve

Not more than a couple of days have passed since the Christmas turkey, stuffed cabbage and dishes of fish the preparation for a weekend of party and excess, that is New Year’s Eve, is due after the holiday of intimacy. Traditional food and drinks come after the other on this night but the most dominating of all are the party bites and the pig made to perfection.

Glasses, however, fill up with champagne and the like to cheer the people up. It’s advisable to stock up with different bottles from those available in Hungary in order to taste the variety inherent in these bubbly drinks, say a solemn goodbye to the old year and finally, celebrate the upcoming one.
You might start the night with sparkling wine, semi-sparkling wine, prosecco, frizzante or spumante, which are basically synonyms. They are excellent for aperitif and you might want to do some research as to what their names stand for if you are to cause a special surprise to your friends.Spumante is rich in bubbles and its made from a wine of not top quality. Carbon dioxide is added and as a result 3 atmospheres of pressure is in the bottle. János Bolyki’s A CUCC, Tamás and Zsolt Gere’s Co2mis or Kislaki Bormanufaktúra’s Piros Habzóbor are all perfect for starting the night.
Semi-sparkling wine or frizzante is a mild and refreshing drink, whose basis is also a traditional wine injected with a less carbon dioxide than that in sparkling wines. Thus, the finalized product you will find on shelves in shops contains 1 to 2,5 atmospheres of pressure. Its cork reminiscent of that of a champagne bottle is often fastened with a string. Such wine is produced by Flóra Jekl (Jekl: Il Primo) and the Ebner Winery and Attila Gere’s both Fricis, Mészáros’s Bubi and Bujdosó’s Secco are also of this kind.
Prosecco, which is actually an Italian grape, is given carbon dioxide after the second fermentation. After the first fermentation sugar and yeast are added, which marks the start of the second fermentation. The result is a Muscat-like, lovely fizzy drink. You can find many of these in shops.

Champagne is also made of wine but the method is not artificial as in the case of semi-sparkling wines, for example. Champagne contains carbon dioxide either fermented directly from must or created from sugar added to wine in a closed bottle or container. Champagne can be sweetened or flavored so champagne makers work with dissolved sugar, brandy, liquor and other things when making a dry, extra dry or bru drink.
In Hungary the champagnes of Garamvári Vineyard, Törley, Francois, Hungária, Cezar or Szigeti are available in the largest quantities. At the same time more and more wineries sell sparkling drinks, that can’t be acquired as easily. For instance, you can try the champagne by István Szepsy, one of the most well-known vintners in Hungary or Brut 2008 from the Somló-based Kreinbacher Birtok.So why don’t you visit a wine shop in the next couple of days, or just take a special bottle from the shelves of a hypermarket? Make your New Year’s Eve a sparkling one, make your friends happy on the last night of the year and welcome the new year with a really unique champagne.Sparkling and semi-sparkling wines: