It’s the season of sparkling wine and there are a lot of choices – so what’s the tastiest option to crack open when the clock strikes 12?
Well, we’re going to let you decide and let’s have some fun doing it – Welcome to the Sparkling 16 Tournament!
Wine Folly’s Sparkling 16 Tournament
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Our resident Master of Wine Christine Marsiglio has set up the bracket of 16 Sparkling Wines, and each week we’ll be running a vote on Instagram for YOU to decide the winners. Christine will be going over the results and discussing the flavors and character of the different winners to help you determine which wines are worth a trip to your local wine shop.
We’ll be running a 24-hour vote on Tuesday and Wednesday for that week’s series of match-ups each week on Instagram. Winners will be announced the following Monday, and a new round will start the Tuesday after.
How do I Play?
You can do that directly on the Instagram story if you only feel like voting on the wines. But if you’d like to get your hands on some sweet wine merch, there are two ways you can have fun and win big!
- Download the bracket for each week – Here’s Week 1 – and fill in your prediction for the wine that will be victorious in its bracket.
- Just write all over the image, GO NUTS!
- Then put your image on Instagram using the hashtag #sparkling16. Each week we’ll pick 3 and if yours gets picked, you just won a Tasting Journal!
Giveaway!
The generous folks at Coravin have partnered up with Wine Folly to juice up our grand prize with one of their Coravin Sparkling wine preservation systems. Keep your bubbles in the bottle for days! And we’ve thrown in some great stuff ourselves to give you everything you need to kick-start your wine learning for 2022.
- Head over to the giveaway page.
- There is only one of these awesome systems, but if you use our form to pick the ultimate winner, you’ll be entered into the giveaway for another chance to win!
- Jump onto our Instagram each week and vote for your favorite sparkling wine!
The giveaway package is over $600 in value and includes:
- Wine Folly Master Guide Collector’s Edition
- Wine 101 Digital Course
- Coravin Sparkling wine preservation system
- Wine Styles Tasting Course
- $50 Wine Folly Gift Card
- Digital Map Set
Weekly Results
It all comes to a close with a one-on-one, drop dead, drag-out scrap between the two most voted for wines, with the winner being announced Monday, December 20. The Coravin winner will be announced the following Tuesday.
Stay tuned to this page and our Instagram for weekly results and links to our expert analysis of the winners.
Week 1:
A few upsets and a few expected winners has made for an interesting week 1 of the Sparkling 16 Tournament. Stay tuned into our Instagram and the site to see whether Lambrusco, the tasty underdog, can do battle with the biggest name in the sparkling game – Champagne. Week 2 is shaping up to be a saucy showdown.
Our Master of Wine has broken down the results from Week 1 and what might happen in the upcoming bracket.
Week 2:
Week 2 of the Sparkling 16 shows that the big names in sparkling wine are starting to emerge in the front running. Lambrusco was taken down by Champagne, Cava and Prosecco are going into the final four. There’s still a chance for a dark-horse, but it’s all up to you and the voting.
Week 3:
Week 3 had an expected battle that was called almost as it was made: Champagne trampled Cava. But what wasn’t expected was Crémant d’Alsace staying in the tournament so long, and then to win! The finals happen on December 14th as the big name Champagne goes toe to toe with the Alsatian sparkling wine.
Finals:
It didn’t surprise anyone, even as we hoped for it. But Champagne winning the tournament is no tragedy, even if it was expected. There are so many delicious sparkling wines out there, we hope that we’ve at least given you some food for thought on what bubbly you’re going to crack open when the clock strikes 12.
And we hope we’ve shown that Sparkling Wines have a place in your life on more than the rarest of occasions – crack open a lovely Cava for the weekend. Rotate a Crémant d’Alsace into your normal routine. You won’t regret it.
