Happy New Cheers - Sparkly Wines by Mandasaurus!

I'm a fan of bubbles. And even though New Year's Eve is awfully attached to bubbly, I feel like good, interesting, not-gross sparkling wine is challenging to come by. So here are my ideas - all cheap, all delicious.

• Right this minute I'm sipping Albero from Trader Joe's. It's a Spanish sparkling white wine. It comes with a champagne cork (the kind you pull out without a corkscrew), but not a lot of pop (that just makes good safety sense). The taste is pretty easy - dry but not at all gasp-inducing, grapefruit notes, nothing complicated. Since it was less than $5 I could definitely see adding orange or cranberry juice to this. Or Chambord! Perfect!
• Trader Joe's Vihno Verde - Vinho Verde means green wine, literally. It's Portuguese - and like a Portuguese guy I dated it's fun, it's simple, it's easy. These (tall, green) bottles sell for $3.99 at Trader Joe's. I like this wine because it's very summery. I think I drink about a dozen bottles of it between May and August each year. While it certainly goes down easy it's also flavorful with lots of lemon and freshness, fizz and a bit of sweetness. Vihno Verdes do not come with champagne corks so you need a traditional corkscrew to open them. They're still fizzy and definitely worthwhile.
• I drank another Vihno Verde at Thanksgiving with my family. It was similarly fresh, citrus-y and delightful. I really enjoy the fizz as well as the fresh flavor.
  
• Cook's Extra Dry is readily available at Jewel (or your local big box grocery) for an appallingly low price. It's not a showy drink at all, but it does the job as a sparkling wine. I would wholeheartedly suggest this as a mixer or as something to pour into everyone's flute at midnight. B likes Cook's Spumante because he's a fiend for the sweet wines. It's also just fine as decent option for the sugar maniacs at your party.
• Korbel was the Mandasaurus family's drink of Christmas Day morning. We had mimosas (OJ and sparkling wine) with the traditional sparkling white wine first. Then we concocted some Poinsettias with cranberry juice and Korbel sparkling rose wine which were dry but yummy with a neat mauve color.
• Sparkling red wine is an interesting bird. The sparkle adds a lot of refreshing-ness to red wine. The sort that I've tried was also from Trader Joe's and it was really nice. We enjoyed it with a baked pasta dish which certainly called for red wine, but the sparkle gave the whole meal a little more kick with some berry flavors and honest-to-goodness zest. This wine comes with a champagne cork.
  

If you're not sparkly-inclined try one of these concoctions - remember: always pour mixers before bubbly to keep the fizz going!

• Cranberry and sparkling wine - called a poinsettia during Christmas, call it whatever you want!
• Mimosa - OJ and sparkling wine. Superb.
• Liquor and sparkling wine: try a berry liquor like Chambord (that's called a Cham-Cham!) or whatever you like.
• Toss some berries or fruit parts (I'm thinking clementine segments) in the glass just to contribute a little more flavor to the cheap stuff.
• Do the same with herbs - basil or mint - interesting!

Let me know if you stumble upon something neat. Happy celebrating!