What To Pair With It: the Champagne Snack Board

snack--ME

Y’all, when I posted my #champagnesnackboard last week, I had NO IDEA that it was going to be so well received! Thank you, my spectacular bubbly lovers, for All the comments, shares, and saves, and showing my post ALL the love! As a show of appreciation, I just had to circle back with some great…

Read More »

5 Great Lessons Learned from a Less Than Optimal Champagne Sipping Experience

After quite a bit of a hiatus, look who’s back at the helm of her blog, y’all! I’m finally circling back with the review I promised from an IG post from a couple of weeks ago about my recent less than optimal experience with the 2008 Le Brun de Neuville Grand Vintage! So, first things first: this…

Read More »

The Ultimate Champagne Lovers Holiday Gift Guide 2021: Volume VI

THE ULTIMATE GIFT GUIDE 2021

It’s the most wonderful time of the year–gift giving season!–and that means your favorite champagne lover’s MOST favorite champagne lover is B-A-C-K! That’s right, The Bubbleista is back with what you’ve been waiting for: Volume no. 6 of “The Ultimate Champagne Lovers Holiday Gift Guide!” This year’s list has 30+ items ringing at a total minimum value…

Read More »

It’s National Oyster Day: The Best Wine + Oyster Pairings Ideas

best wine and oyster pairings

Awww, shucks, y’all—it’s National Oyster Day! {You see what I did there?} Better still is that it was also National White Wine Day a couple of days ago, and that got me to thinking about wine and oyster pairings, and one of the oft-purported, traditional, quintessential pairings for freshly shucked, briny, raw oysters is, of…

Read More »

Chard So Hard: Celebrate International Chardonnay Day Blanc de Blancs Champagne Style

Champagne Guiborat

Just when you sobered up from International Wine Day a couple of days ago, here comes International Chardonnay Day! One of the things I love most about Chardonnay is the many expressions the grape can exhibit depending on the area the grape was grown (the soil), the gr0wing conditions (the weather), and, of course, the skillful hands of…

Read More »

Champagne Valentin Leflaive Rosé review

LeFlaive rose champs me smile

“It was a meeting of the minds that was bound to produce something extraordinary: a friendship between two hedonists, two men steeped in the Art of Wine making, two men with a profound attachment to their vineyards. Between them, they created Champagne Valentin Leflaive.” After an introduction like that, do I really even need to…

Read More »

Âme Restaurant Dallas: French “Soul” Meets Chic Indian Cuisine

AME fish curry

FACT: I had THE best Indian food and meal of my life at a small, family-owned restaurant in London, England in 2004. FACT: part of that meal included a ceramic pot of tandoori fish curry that was so incredible that my brother and I STILL wax poetically about it to this day. FACT: I think I…

Read More »

Bubbleista Effervescent Education: The Art of Pairing Champagne and Foods

Photo of 3 bottles of champagne with books

Hey bubbly lovers, it’s time to dive into another lesson from the Bubbleista’s  Effervescent Education series! For today’s #ChampagneTedTalk we going to have a mini lesson with tips on how to *best* pair champagne with food! You ready? Let’s go! I’m sure you guys have heard this pairing advice before: “Champagne goes with everything!“ While…

Read More »

Five for Ten: 5 Tasty Sparkling Roses for $10.00 to Celebrate National Rosé Day

$10 Sparkling Rosés for National Rosé Day

It’s National Rosé Day! Honestly though, it might as well be called “Rosé Day 365″ because the meteoric rise in rosé’s popularity over the last several years has made it widely “acceptable” for year-round drinking. I placed an emphasis on the word acceptable because, as a “dance to the beat of my own drum” kind of girl,…

Read More »

Get Yourself Barred: Air’s Champagne Parlor in NYC

AIRS Me in doorway (close up)

If you follow me on Instagram then you know that back in October I was invited by my girl Kachet Jackson-Henderson {as part of a graciously hosted Alaska Airlines trip for influencers and bloggers} on a trip to New York for the official grand opening of the flagship Nordstrom NYC. Well, while we had plenty of fun…

Read More »

Pol Roger Portfolio Champagne Tasting & Bubbleista Wine Review

Pol Roger box trio

I absolutely love this time of year: in November and December there is always a huge uptick in champagne tasting event hosted by producers, distributors, restaurants, and retailers due to the upcoming holidays–and, they also hope, a resulting huge uptick in increased wine sales. So far be it from me to not avail myself of as many of these…

Read More »

The Ultimate Champagne Lovers Holiday Gift Guide: Volume V

THE ULTIMATE GIFT GUIDE MAIN IMAGE

In typing this title for this year’s annual post it just hit me: I’ve been doing “The Ultimate Gift Guide for Champagne Lovers” for 5 years…FIVE. WHOLE. YEARS! For the last 5 consecutive years, I have searched high and low to find twelve (in a nod to the 12 Days of Christmas) exciting, exquisite, enchantingly effervescent champagne-oriented…

Read More »

Get Yourself Canned: The 10 Best Sparkling Wines in a Can

Canned Wine pic FEATURED PIC

Having been looked at with curiosity, side-eyes, and a bit of dubiousness in the past, wines in a can are really having a moment right now. No longer just for beer and sodas, wine of all sorts are “popping up” all over the place housed in metal cans. I remember the first time I encountered wine…

Read More »

Wine Travel Fabulous: JCB Tasting Lounge in Napa

JCB SALON 1 (building)

As a bubbly and wine lover, going to “wine country” anywhere always feels like home for both my heart and palate. And since jaunting to Napa (and Sonoma) several years ago was my very first foray into wine travel, each and every time I visit it’s feel like I’m right where I belong. The sheer number of exquisite wineries,…

Read More »

A Bubbleista Champagne Pop-Up: “Champagne & Crustaceans”

The Bubbleista-001

  Okay, raise your hand if you have ever been intimidated by wine…? Yep, I’m sure almost all of you reading this have been! I mean, at one point or another most of us have found ourselves staring at a wine list; at a dinner party or event with several courses paired with several different wines; or…

Read More »

What In The World Is The Bubbleista Drinking (#WITWITBD): “La Palomimosa”

PALOMIMOSA-showing tequila citrus and champagne

As a champagne loving kind of girl, it should go without saying that I do loves me the quintessential bubbly brunch cocktail known as the mimosa. Although I really do dig them, this girl is also quite staunchly anti-status quo which means I’m also always looking for ways to switch and mix things up to…

Read More »

“Fizz It!” or “Forget It!” Wine Review: Champagne Vieille France Rosé by Charles de Cazanove

Champagne Vieilles brut rose

The Bubbleista is back with another edition of “Fizz It or Forget It!” where I give you the full effervescent 411 on champagne brands to help you decide which bubbles are worth giving a try (Fizz It!) or skipping on by (Forget It!). Today I’m reviewing Champagne Vieille France by Charles de Cazanove. Charles de Cazanove started out as a family…

Read More »

“Fizz It!” or “Forget It!” Wine Reviews: “Cuvée Cartier” Rosé Brut Champagne by Vranken

Cartier Champagne and peonies

Welcome to a brand spankin’ new blog series call “Fizz it or Forget it!” where I do champagne and sparkling wine reviews designed give you, my sweet and darling bubbly lovers, recommendations designed to help you decide whether or not you should try that bottle of champagne you’ve been curious about. Having said that, if there’s a bottle…

Read More »

Bubbleista Approved Travel Pick: Effervescence Champagne Bar New Orleans

IMG_3394

Bubbly lovers, I’ve gotten your feedback, requests, and questions–and I’m here to let you know I’m listening! That said, in an effort to delight you as requested, I’m going to start sharing more of my #BubbleistaApproved “effervescent picks” of the most fab food & drink spots, places to stay, and things to do that I often discover when I…

Read More »

I’m Seeing Red! Amazing Sparkling Red Wines

Cantina della Volta Lambrusco

As the self-dubbed “Champagne Evangelist” it is no surprise that I absolutely love, love, LOVE champagne, but the real deal is that I am crazy about almost anything that’s effervescent. Yep, if it’s got bubbles, then 9 times out of 10 I’m ’bout it–or at least down to try it! Because of that I’m always on a…

Read More »