Champagne

Petit Louis is debuting a holiday-season Champagne menu today (Dec. 6). The fixed-price ($45) menu, which will be offered at lunch and dinner throughout December, features such seasonal dishes as celery root soup with lobster, boudin blanc, and a classic poached anjou pear for dessert. In addition, Petit Louis is offering bottles of Louis Roederer Brut for $59 to every table that orders two Champange menus. You can see details of the menu on the Petit Louis website . Follow Baltimore Diner on Twitter @gorelickingood  

What's a Valentine's Day without burlesque fire dancing? Not a holiday we want to be a part of. Thankfully, D.C.-based Tilted Torch's Tassels and Champagne show fills the sexy/dangerous quotient of a day mostly about ooey-gooey love. The show at the Creative Alliance (8 p.m. Thursday; 8 and 10 p.m. Friday; $15-$20; creativealliance.org ), will feature belly dancing, boylesque, and "blazing poi spinning" by co-founder Malibu, as well as burlesque and fire dancing by Miss Joule.

  Ever wonder how all those bubbles got into the champagne? Just in time for your New Year's toasts, the American Chemical Society has created a video with an explanation. Unlike other wine, which undergoes one fermentation process, champagne undergoes two. Carbon dioxide gas is trapped during the second one and it dissolves into the wine and forms the bubbles. The bubbles ascend along the length of the bottle, dragging the molecules of the carbon dioxide and about 600 other chemicals that form the aroma and flavor of the champagne.

It's hard to find a true Champagne that isn't at least good to drink. That's why they're a splurge, even in the least expensive category: non vintage brut reserve. However, Charles Heidsieck's version has long been a standout in the category. It's a full-bodied style of Champagne - with a smooth, creamy texture and the classic Champagne flavors of yeast, nuts and fresh-baked bread. Its complexity level is rare among its peers. From: Champagne, France Price: $65 Serve with: Caviar, oysters, celebration

Plastic tarps covered the Yankees' lockers, and the smell of champagne hung in the air after the club's 3-1 series-clinching win over the pesky Orioles. But the New Yorkers kept their celebration in check, knowing they had another game the next evening against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. "I think everybody's taking it easy right now and not drinking too much champagne," said Game 1 hero Russell Martin, clutching a bottle of bubbly. To a man, the Yankees paid homage to an Orioles team that chased them down the stretch and put them through 52 innings of nerve-fraying baseball over the last six days.

In recent weeks, I have tasted more than three dozen sparkling wines, all bought in Maryland. These are some of the highlights and lowlights.The prices given represent what I paid, but there are wide variations as different stores put different wines on sale during the holidays.ChampagneSparkling successLouis Roederer Brut Premier ($31): Exceptional intensity, great delicacy. No outstanding single characteristic, just a beautifully integrated whole, with flavors that bore right into the brain's pleasure centers.

Champagne lovers of the world, the time to act is now.You might believe that Jan. 1, 2000, is not the genuine start of the new millennium. You might believe that people ought to hold off their 21st-century celebrations until 2001. You might even take satisfaction in being right when the masses are wrong.Get over it. The big party is this year.When the ball drops and 2000 is official, most people will feel it's a new century. And they're going to want to toast this new era in which the years begin with a 2.If you don't join in, the rest of us will drink up all the good champagne.

For one night a year, champagne is king. But what is fit to serve with such royalty? Where food gets first consideration at every other party, New Year's Eve usually means champagne or some other sparkling wine gets top billing. It is the food that must be properly matched. That can be a challenge for those of us who rarely pop the bubbly. What goes with champagne and sparkling wine (besides your significant other and a crackling fire in the fireplace, of course)? The answer is both simple and complex, much like champagne itself.

MOSCOW - In December 1942, with the German army at the gates, it might have seemed as if the Russians had something more important than champagne to worry about. But Soviet propaganda held that victory over fascism was inevitable, and it wouldn't do to greet the inevitable without a bottle or two of celebratory bubbly. So in the dark days of the early war, Josef Stalin ordered the Moscow Factory of Champagne Wines to be built within sight of the Kremlin, where it produced plenty of sparkling wine in time for victory in 1945 and where it stands to this day, snuggled between the Moscow Military District Headquarters and the Army Prosecutor's Office.

Welcome to class, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you all have reported as Relationship Court has ordered. This is Remedial Romance for Wine Geeks. Ladies, feel free to audit. Now, guys, we have a holiday coming this month that has certain romantic overtones. Do any of you remember what it is? No, Bruno, not Presidents Day. That's right, it's Valentine's Day, Kenneth. Very good. Now class, it is customary at this holiday to sit down with your beloved over a nice dinner and exchange romantic thoughts.

December is a month-long fete with friends in my world. It makes sense: The schmaltzy, sentimental bug bites and I cram in visits with all of my favorite people, reminiscing about the year past and spreading good cheer before we all return to our respective family homes for the holiday. All of that nostalgia is usually accompanied by rounds of celebratory drinks and toasts and, as a result, I end up drinking more champagne now than at any other point in the year. But truth be told?

Petit Louis is debuting a holiday-season Champagne menu today (Dec. 6). The fixed-price ($45) menu, which will be offered at lunch and dinner throughout December, features such seasonal dishes as celery root soup with lobster, boudin blanc, and a classic poached anjou pear for dessert. In addition, Petit Louis is offering bottles of Louis Roederer Brut for $59 to every table that orders two Champange menus. You can see details of the menu on the Petit Louis website . Follow Baltimore Diner on Twitter @gorelickingood  

The perfect wine for the holidays is champagne, the drink of celebration that celebrates life. Tis the season! What are you pouring this holiday? Here is what I suggest: Drink Champagne. It is the drink of celebration and it celebrates life. Lily Bollinger said it best: ""I only drink champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not in a hurry and drink it when I am, otherwise I never touch the stuff unless I am thirsty.

Plastic tarps covered the Yankees' lockers, and the smell of champagne hung in the air after the club's 3-1 series-clinching win over the pesky Orioles. But the New Yorkers kept their celebration in check, knowing they had another game the next evening against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. "I think everybody's taking it easy right now and not drinking too much champagne," said Game 1 hero Russell Martin, clutching a bottle of bubbly. To a man, the Yankees paid homage to an Orioles team that chased them down the stretch and put them through 52 innings of nerve-fraying baseball over the last six days.

With the Orioles in the midst of their champagne and beer spewing celebration Friday night in the visitor's clubhouse at Rangers Ballpark, one player really stood out - the one guy who seemed to take it as a personal challenge to soak every human being in the room. That's what happens when arguably the team's most competitive player has had to sit out for a month with a broken thumb while his teammates chase an extended playoff run. So injured right fielder Nick Markakis wrapped his left hand in a plastic baggy and took to the offensive with beer and champagne, spraying it and kicking up the puddles and drenching anyone he could.

After 14 years of losing, you knew it wasn't going to be easy. The Orioles wanted their playoff-clinching party to begin at Camden Yards on Sunday. And they did their part with a 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox and their Dead Manager Walking, Bobby Valentine. The champagne was chilling in the Orioles' clubhouse. The plastic covering the lockers was in place. Even the media broke out rain gear because we dress too stylishly in our drab polos and relaxed-fit jeans to get splashed on. “Everything was ready to roll in here,” first baseman Mark Reynolds said.

A week after authorities say a 20-year-old thief slipped his handcuffs around a Howard County deputy's neck and managed to escape, he was tracked down in Virginia, hiding in a hollowed-out basement wall in a house on the outskirts of Richmond. It was the latest twist for Devin Champagne, a Jessup man who had been on the run since his conviction Aug. 13 for first-degree theft, with his capture involving about 100 officers - from the U.S. Marshals Service, Maryland State Police and local police and deputies in Maryland and Virginia.

New Year's revelers probably don't know it, but inside every bottle of champagne is a burbling scientific mystery. And Gerard Liger-Belair is trying to get to the bottom of it - one bottle at a time. The 32-year-old French scientist is one of a small group of fizzicists attempting to unlock the secrets of champagne's tiny bubbles. Over the last several years he has begun to overturn some long-held notions about where bubbles come from - not to mention solve oenological enigmas like why champagne bubbles ascend more speedily than bubbles in beer.

Wedding Day: September 8, 2012 Her story: Louann Magi, 45, grew up in Bedford, Pennsylvania. She is an interior designer and owner of L'Image Design Studio and lives in Glenwood. His story: Zack Shariff, 56, grew up in Pakistan and moved to Maryland when he was 19. He is CEO of Allen & Shariff Design Build Manage, and lives with Magi in Glenwood. His son, Zain Shariff, 26, is an opera singer. His daughter, Sonia, 21, is a college student. Their story: Louann and Zack had known each other in business circles.

A really good summer cocktail is a balanced equation. It should taste like the season itself: clean, simple, light. It should also look the part: bright, fresh, uncomplicated. It's tough to find a drink that embodies these traits without overdoing the typical sweet-and-syrupy mix. Enter Townhouse Kitchen and Bar's stylishly simple Sage Coach. The Sage Coach reflects the vibe of this newly opened Harbor East upscale-but-casual space. "It's really easy to drink and yet goes with the experience we're trying to give our customers - something of fine quality without the stuffy, fine-dining feel," said general manager Tina Lavelle.