Poppin’ Bottles at The Celebration of Bubbles!

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Champagne, MCC when produced in South Africa, is easily the cooler cousin of wine. Whilst wine might have a bit of an upper-crust bourgeois image; champagne is much more versatile- plus it’s often featured in indulgent hip hop songs and music videos when “poppin’ bottles” is in order.

The drink most often associated with celebrations.

Given the chicness of champagne, I was only too excited to read about the Celebration of Bubbles Festival 2015 hosted by Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo. This is the second year that Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo hosted this bubbles festival, with the inaugural event being hosted at Summer Palace in Hyde Park.

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Technically the term “champagne” is only supposed to be used to describe the sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region in France (yes the French trade-marked the term,) however it is still a generic term used to refer to all sparking wine. That being said if it’s a local bubbly you are on the hunt for, ask for an MCC.

Champagne is made from a complex blend of grapes, grape verities include pinot noir and chardonnay. The production process is the same as that used for wine, except that sugar and yeast are added to the wine, and those amazing little bubbles are created!

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This weekends’ festival took place at the very posh, Inanda Country Club, a venue which worked perfectly. The event was well organized; on arrival attendees received a set of 10 coupons and a champagne glass. Each coupon allowed for a sampling of non-French champagne (the sample amount was understandably scant) so we instead opted for four coupons in exchange for a whole glass, and eight coupons for a bottle.

There was a satisfactory representation of French (ex. Ace of Spades, Veuve Clicquot) and South African ( ex. Graham Beck, Krone, Simonsig and Steenberg,) wine/champagne houses. Whilst I don’t have a favourite, the Krone range stood out for me- it was the only brand that I sampled, where the bubbles didn’t seem to fizz out.

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The obligatory celebrities were at the event; the crowd was stylish and trendy (not as pretentious as you would associate with champagne society) and the overall vibe was pretty chilled. There were four food trucks, but perhaps next time they could be more canapé type food and dessert was sorely missed.

(A little hint for next year- a week before the event, tickets were sold at a discounted price on Groupon. I’m not sure if this will happen next year but its worth checking out.)

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Words by Melissa Govender | Images courtesy of Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo Celebration of Bubbles Festival 2015

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[Category: Cities, Culture, Drink, Durban, Festivals, Johannesburg, Wine]


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