The Best Meal of the Day -- Brunch wines

Breakfast is "the most important meal of the day."Lunch is all too often fast food or something you scarf while you're plowingthrough the workday, since Americahasn't adopted the tremendously civilized siesta. Everyone puts their focus oncreating tasty dinners. I'd venture that upwards of 90% of wine pairings,tastings, et al focus on dinner.

But what about brunch?

Brunch is decadence. It's the "No alarm. I slept intoday." meal. It's flexible -- go light or heavy, healthy or greasy. It'smy most mood-dependent meal. At what other time will you see a Reuben, poachedeggs, breakfast sausage, fresh fruit and a panini happily coexisting on thesame table? A good brunch means you've had a good time the night before --either in a big group (which often means nursing a hangover along with yourV-8) or with one other lucky person so that, come late morning, you're gazingmoonily across steaming lattes.

Of course, if you're going to be truly decadent, you needwine. [I know, I know -- there are some of you out there saying "Beer. Itisn't just for breakfast anymore," but let's move past shotgunning aSchaefer's to get ourselves going on a morning after.]

If you're thinking of wines to go with brunchiful goodness,keep it simple. Sure, you could put a lot of thought into finding the perfectwine, but just like with Thanksgiving, you're probably not going to have muchsuccess. Honestly, who has that kind of mental energy in the morning?

So, easy enough...Sparkling wine.You can't miss. No one's going to care. Mostpeople's palates wake up more slowly than they do, so give them somethingthat's basically going to cut through the clutter of foods and just plain ol'taste good.

If you're out and about and you want to impress a groupwithout breaking the bank, order a bottle of Gruet Brut Sparkling Wine ($15). While it may sound like a Frenchbottle, it's actually produced in New Mexico and, for my money, is as interesting as almostany sparkler out there. The reason, I suspect, is that it's made in thetraditional French method, called "Methode Champenoise." The resultis a very crisp, balanced sparkling wine that pairs with almost anything -- butdry sparkling wine really shines when you've got something that's a little bit(or a lot) fatty. So, if you need a plate of hash browns to go with thatthrobbing headache and queasy stomach, this will be the perfect hair of thedog.

For those of you who aren't big fans of dry wines, you'renot out of luck. One of the best brunch wines out there is on the sweeter side-- Moscato d'Asti. Moscato d'Asti is, in general, a sweet, fruity, lightlycarbonated wine. "Asti"refers to the Italian locale where the wine is made.Also, these wines aretraditionally only between 5-6% alcohol, so if you're looking for something youcan drink without catching too much of a morning buzz, this type of wine is aperfect choice. These wines generally have a lot of peach and pear flavors, andare quite refreshing. The nicest thing about them is that they're generallyrather uniform in quality, so the majority are going to be decent, and usuallyaround $8-10. The best I've tried is the Tintero2007 Moscato d'Asti. While it shares many of the same characteristics, fora couple of extra dollars, I thought its flavors were more defined and moreinteresting. See what you think.

Finally, there's the "champagne cocktail." Wayback in January, I wrote about toasting in the new year with cava, and thensaving the bulk of the bottle for morning mimosas. Now, honestly, if you'rejust mixing together some store bought OJ and some leftover bubbly, you don'thave to be too choosy. That said, if you're doing this right, and you've gotsome fresh squeezed on hand, I'd prefer to use some relatively decent wine as amixer. I've also discovered that "extra dry" sparkling wines makebetter mixers, largely because they have a little bit of residual sugar. Istarted the year with Freixenet and I'll finish the same way. I stand by Freixenet Extra Dry Cordon Negro Cava ($10)for any of your mimosa-making needs.It would also work well with kir (which is sparkling wine with crème de cassis)or bellini (sparkling wine with peach puree).

Hope you had a great holiday season, safe travels, and maythe new year bring you health, happiness, and wonder.

Later days.