It seems to be something that was popular until about 1960, judging by popular songs and novels of the era. The song “You Go To My Head” mentions a "sip of sparkling Burgundy brew, and in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, at one point, the protagonist spouses celebrate a success by drinking sparkling Burgundy.
Do people still drink this? Is it red or white? Was it something you drank when you couldn’t afford champagne? Or was it considered better than champagne?
It was red, it was cheap, and it was fizzy. It was classier than beer, or at least the people who served it thought so. If I recall correctly, a popular brand was “Cold Duck.”
Reminds me of my first fiancee.
Here is a good, short article on it.
Sample paragraph:
“Sparkling shiraz, or sparkling Burgundy, is as complex as Test Cricket but easier to understand and definitely not as !#x*!x*# boring. It’s made in the traditional way; sugar and flavor, ripe warm-area shiraz (no cool-climate stuff here), picked and vinified as dry red table wine, and often matured in large old oak ovals. (Some producers finish primary fermentation in barrel before transfering to old oak.) Then the base wine goes through the entire Methode Champenoise (secondary fermentation) in bottle, and subsequent maturation for several years on yeast lees, before liquoring with Australian vintage Port (vintage-declared fortified shiraz).”
It is still being made and the article says that it has had a small resurgence in recent years. It is not very expensive. About $12 a bottle from what I could find.
My family photo album contains a picture of me at age 10, taken near the end of one Thanksgiving night, curled up under the dining-room table, flushed-face and cradling a magnum of Baby Duck.
My mother doesn’t understand why that’s really not one for the album. :smack:
That stuff was sweeter than Kool-Aid. It was clearly marketed for very young people. (Although possibly not actual juveniles.)
Sparkling red wine (previously labelled as “Burgundy” before we ditched the French names) is certainly still available.
The good ones make a pleasant aperitif, and are certainly not sweet. The combination of red wine taste with bubbles can take a bit of getting used to, but makes a nice change from sparkling white wines.
Really, really good ones are really, really expensive, but a “good enough” one can be had for around the same price as a “good enough” sparkling white.
So that’s what Cold Duck was! Quack, quack.
Cold duck was originally a German holiday potion. After the coffee and Pfeffernusse cookies went around, the ever-thrifty Teutons would pour any leftover alcoholic beverages into a punchbowl, chill the mixture and serve, as a refreshing “cold finish” (kalte Ende) to the festivities. By and by kalte Ende got transliterated to kalte Ente (“cold duck”), even though the brew contained no waterfowl component.
A typical kalte Ende probably contained a good percentage of Glühwein, the fortified spiced red wine that’s a German holiday favorite, some champagne or equivalent (like Sekt), and probably some nice sweet white Gewürztraminer or Auslese too. So you have a beverage that’s red to rosé in color, sparkling and sweet – all of which bottled cold duck is.
Whether cold duck tastes good with actual cold duck, I’ll leave to others to find out.
It’s interesting that the characters in the novel I mentioned would celebrate by drinking sparkling Burgundy. The amount of drinking that goes on in the novel generally is quite impressive, and these characters were certainly not averse to spending money on drink, though martinis and other cocktails were the more customary choices. One can only assume they chose some fairly good sparkling Burgundy for their celebration.
If there ever was such a thing. Who knows, maybe there was before it went déclassé.
Alternative Cold Duck Origin Theory A: German vintners found that if the dregs in the butts of various wine casks were mixed, carbonated and chilled, that a cheap and palatable beverage could be made. Their name for it was kalte Ende, “cold butts.” Due to the double meaning, they changed it to kalte Ente, “cold duck,” before taking it to market.
Alternative Cold Duck Origin Theory B: This involves the butts of various wine bottles, specifically of champagne (which doesn’t keep well) and sparkling burgundy (which keeps only a little better). Two ingredients, two steps: mix and chill.