Vodka vs. Champagne

What to have with caviar is not a question that comes up often, but every now and again my wife gets a craving for something decadent, and this time it was caviar.  Our choice: Tsar Nicoulai Caviar.

What would we drink with caviar? Champagne is the easy, almost cliché answer to that question. So, to be different, I had been an advocate of what the folks on the Black Sea would have had with it: vodka. And in theory, vodka sounds good: a bracing swipe of cold alcohol to wipe clean the oily, fishy residue on the mouth. But in practice, vodka—and the Stoli was pure and lovely—always seems to erase the flavor of the caviar too quickly. So I have to say that Champagne wins out every time—the little bubbles in the glass parallel the bubble-like eggs, and the two hit it off for a truly refreshing experience.

In this case the 1996 Perrier-Jouët was crisp and toasty, just like a little blini base for the eggs. It was all gone in a matter of minutes.