THE things I like most about the summer is the way it throws up excuses for impromptu celebration. Unlike Christmas, say, when jollity is rammed down our throats until we choke, summer sneaks unexpected, little surprises all the time.
The phone rings and it is the lovably eccentric New Yorker you once shared a flat with, calling from the airport. The doorbell rings and it is the one Spanish au pair, among a string of disasters, to whom you owe your sanity - and a fatted calf welcome. The Leaving Cert results are better than feared. The sun is shining, hot as Hyderabad. Whatever the reason, you need a drink that's cool, refreshing and somewhat celebratory. Fizz is the biz.
The fizzical universe is divided in two (or three, if you let water into the equation). On one side is champagne - delicate, refined, wonderful beyond compare but, unless you're royalty or Naomi Campbell, it bears an invisible label, that says "Special Occasion" Even if you were wealthy beyond your wildest dreams, would you want to drink champagne every day? I'm not sure I would, for fear that it might lose that special aura.
On the other side is sparkling wine - a much more light-hearted, casual drink. Where champagne deserves to be sipped and savoured, sparklers by and large are made for quaffing. They're the true party animals among wines - extroverts with bubbly personalities who just want you to enjoy their company.
Although many are made by the painstaking champagne method, involving secondary fermentation in the bottle, few set themselves up as serious champagne rivals. I don't believe we are meant to think too much about the size and persistence of their bubbles, or the quality of their mousse, or whether they smell of raw dough or Rich Tea biscuits. Sparklers are simply meant for fun.
They are also meant, generally speaking, to be relatively inexpensive - and this is where the topic turns serious. If you think the excise duty we pay on table wine is bad - and it is, at £1.61 a bottle, uncommonly high by EU standards - take a deep breath while the sour statistics of Irish duty on sparkling wines sink in.
No matter whether the sparkler in question is the cheapest Spanish fizz or Dom Perignon, the excise duty levied on every bottle is £3.23. That's more than twice the British rate of £1.50. Slap on a VAT rate of 21 per cent - again one of Europe's highest - and the net result is that your bottle of bubbles isn't remotely a cheap thrill but a ludicrously overpriced luxury.
To make matters worse, the prices of some sparkling wines on Irish shelves cannot even be explained away by our higher duty and VAT. Occasionally there seems to be an extra factor in there and it looks suspiciously like greed. Or is there some other reason why a familiar fizz can cost £7.99 in Britain and Northern Ireland and £12.99 here, or £5.99 there and £8.99 here? One way or another, it's little wonder that sparkling wines bought outside this country represent such a bargain, such a temptation to cross-Border shoppers and returning holidaymakers.
Holidaymakers abroad will more than likely have had a chance to guzzle local bubbly in a casual setting - Cava in Spain, Asti or Prosecco in Italy, French sparklers from the Loire or Burgundy - without feeling as if the cork had flown out of their special savings account. Anybody lucky enough to be holidaying in South Africa, Australia or New Zealand will feel like celebrating, just to be in a place where drinkable, affordable, sparkling wine is part of everyday life.
Here, our luck is to have them all to choose from and I suppose the extra few pounds is easily forgotten when you compare the price of your chosen bottle to the cost of a round of six drinks in a pub. Isn't is wonderfully easy to justify temptation? Suddenly, for instant exhilaration on a sunny summer's evening with friends, something in the order of a tenner sounds almost cheap.
Sparklers: pick your style
L'Ame du Vin Chardonnay Frizzant NV (Mitchells, £6.99). We certainly can't complain that this one is expensive. A lightly sparkling Chardonnay Vin de Pays in a frosted bottle with a crown cap, which somehow invites you to drink the lot. A fun hot weather wine, not to be taken too seriously even if its name is straight out of Baudelaire.
Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut 1993 (widely available, about £9.99). You'll recognise this one, in its malt black bottle, if you have holidayed in Spain - and it's a great all-rounder, not too tart, not too sweet, not too tongue raspingly aggressive. Good value.
Domaine de l'Aigle "Tradition" Brut NV (Jus de Vine Portmarnock, Cheers Howth, Terroirs, Kellys Artane, £12-£13). A brand new arrival in Ireland, making what can only he described as a sparkling debut. See Bottle of the Week.
Cuvee Napa by Mumm Brut (quite widely available, £12-£12.99). As a fizz fan with years of dedicated drinking behind me, I've tried lots of labels and this Bottle of the Week from last September is one I keep coming back to. The combination of old champagne house and sunny California may have something to do with it, but even in a blind tasting you would notice it has soft fruit, a lean finish and a lot of finesse.
Pongraez Cape Sparkling NV (Redmonds, Vintry, SuperValu Deansgrange, Greenacres Wexford and other outlets, about £12.99). We're only beginning to see good South African bubbly here - Cap Classique, as it is known and loved in the land of the braai. This one, named after the refugee Hungarian viticulturalist who encouraged Chardonnay on the Cape, is appley and ultra-refreshing.
Collavini II Grigio Spumante Brut (Vintage Rathmines, Blackrock, Drury St, £10.99). From Friuli in north-east Italy, where they knock hack Prosecco and Spumante as if there were no tomorrow or the day after, this is exuberant stuff, vigorously bubbly at first, then settling down to a nice, balanced finish.
Mondoro Asti (Molloys, Deveneys and other outlets, about £10). "Nothing can touch the Muscat grape when it comes to this style of wine . . . Asti will always he the king of sweet bubbly," said an article about sparkling wines in time magazine last autumn. Tasting deliciously of peaches and muscatel grapes, this one proves the point: soft, full and perfect for the summer's puddings.
Gratien & Meyer Le Cardinal Saumur Rouge (Superquinn, £10.99). Maybe a showstopper, maybe a conversation starter. That relative rarity, a sparkling red semi-sweet wine, from a highly regarded Loire producer. Today Superquinn stores at Blackrock, Bray, Sundrive, Sutton and Blanchardstown are offering a free punnet of strawberries to go with it, but so pronounced is its cherry flavour that I'd be tempted to keep the strawbs for the Sunday cornflakes and try this with a plate of ripe cherries instead.
Schramsberg J. Schram 1989 (Terroirs, £29.50). I know, I know, after all I said about sparkling wines being cheaper and more frivolous than champagne. But if you should feel flush enough to sample the most luxurious end of the spectrum, be the same as Bill and Hillary for a day and choose this beautifully rounded, classy vintage Californian.