NV Brut Dargent, Brut Blanc de Blancs

This is a construction wine. A bubbly, sprightly reason to build things--roof decks, patios, an ark to captain through a lake of this wine--anything to uncork the thirst that this Champagne-style sparkler from Jura lives to satisfy. Clean and cidery with hints of Lemonheads and Mountain Dew, it's a bolder alternative to "table sparklers" like Cava. It's hair of the dog for Champagne lovers who have been on a years-long, credit-destroying bender with similar toasty brioche smokiness, grapefruit rind and golden apple flavors, and a dry, steely finish. Truth be told, though, that steeliness really starts to wear on me, and before I know it I feel like someone's switched my glass with Andre. Or, worse, that I'm surrounded by 20-somethings at a dinner party talking French politics and the fundamentals of grad school applications. It's my own little hell. I hate where I am, and yet there's no one I would rather be. Even on a hot summer's day with the AC busted, I'd want to drip with sweat, fume with fatigue, climb the rickety scaffolding onto whatever I've created, and drench myself with this bottle.