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Sparkling Pointe’s 2014 Brut. (Credit: Lenn Thompson)

Do me — and yourself — a favor and don’t reserve sparkling wine only for parties and special occasions. Sparkling wine makes any night (or heck, even morning) a celebration. And, with so many underrated local sparkling wines available, why not drink them more often?

Now the best stuff tends to be a bit too expensive for daily drinking, perhaps. But, at $29 our wine of the week, Sparkling Pointe 2014 Brut makes it a bit easier.

Sparkling Pointe only makes sparkling wine, which you can guess from the name alone, but the Brut bottling is “the flagship in our line,” according to winemaker Gilles Martin. “(It is) a beautiful blend and great quality wine for the value. Our best seller.”

When people discuss how a growing season affects a vintage’s grapes and eventually wines, often the focus is on red wines, but the weather throughout the season has an affect on all grapes and varieties.

“[The] 2014 vintage was certainly the driest growing season on records,” Martin said in an email this week. “The grapes reached their optimum ripeness to the fullest quickly.”

Martin uses the three classic grapes of Champagne for his sparkling wines, pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay. All three gained deeper color than is the norm but maintained a certain finesse.

“The balance sugar acidity remained excellent, giving the base wine more ability to retain freshness and length, aiming to longer aging potential,” Martin said.

Not surprisingly, the increased color in the grapes carries over to the wine itself, which is a deeper golden color than I can ever remember this wine having. The aromas and palate are a bit more intensely flavored as well, but still fresh and focused by great acidity and accented by subtle notes of brioche.

Martin calls this vintage “The perfect companion for the ‘aperitif,’” adding that  “I particularly enjoy the wine with friends and great food. BBQ grilled tuna, marinated with wasabi mustard and sesame seeds, with the perfect balance of spices, served on a bed of balsamic rice and fresh asparagus with a red bell pepper sauce.”

The 2014 Brut is available for $29 at the winery’s Southold tasting room.

Lenn Thompson bio

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