The perfect August celebration — meeting friends at 5 p.m. on their fifth floor balcony at the Magnolia, a boutique, downtown Denver hotel — started with champagne and popcorn.
August in Denver is very hot for people used to living in the mountains, so I crave cold bubbly wine. I wouldn’t have guessed to pair it with popcorn until the wine rep at Argonaut suggested it. The simple white kernels, popped and tossed with our great French sea salt came to the hotel room in a paper sack where the champagne and friends greeted us coldly and warmly, respectively.
Leo, the wine rep, had made a good call. He surprised us, too, by being such a fan of French champagne. He suggested the Roederer Brut Premier. The price had just come down a little, and so it now landed in my price range.
I love how champagne bubbles make you breathe and smell the wine. The Roederer‘s dry sweetness reminds me of a day in an open meadow by a stream at about 11,000 Colorado feet above sea level. When I think of this place in my mind there is nothing wrong with the setting, no sticks scratching my legs, no rain forcing me to cover up, and that’s exactly what I like about nice champagne — there’s nothing wrong. And popcorn, the way my husband makes it, also comes with nothing not to like.
btw — The bottle we were drinking really was champagne — meaning it comes from the Champagne region of France, near Reims, which unbelievably rhymes with France.