If you’re shopping this weekend for holiday bubbly, I recommend Ed McCarthy’s Featured Article “Sparkling Suggestions for the Holidays.” And Tina Caputo, the latest addition to our superb crew of columnists here at WRO, has written a piece on alternative bubblies that will be posted next week.
But I had some thoughts of my own on California sparkling wine that were published in newspapers around the country last week in my Copley News Service “Wine Talk” column. I would like to share.
Domaine Carneros
A high-quality act from the Taittinger house of Champagne, Domaine Carneros is a boutique producer with but three cuvees ranging in price from $25 to $65, all of them vintage dated. The flagship wine, Le Reve, is a blanc de blancs tetes de cuvee that is very good albeit a pale version of the Champagne house’s superstar Taittinger Comtes de Champagne. The vintage rose ($35), however, is on a par with roses from the top houses in Champagne.
Price range: $25-$65. Quality range: 89-93.
Domaine Chandon
A kissing cousin of the famous Moet & Chandon, which was the first Champagne house to invest in California. Domaine Chandon has been in transition in recent years, but has maintained quality with its high end Etoile and Etoile Rose, which are now bottled with crown caps instead of corks. The non-vintage Bruts of Chandon have always possessed an earthy quality that subdues the ripe California grapes from which the wines are made, making it more ‘Champagne’ in style and less like a California bubbly.
Price range: $17-$45. Quality range: 86-91.
Gloria Ferrer
Owned by the Spanish company Freixenet, the largest producer of sparkling wine in the world, Gloria Ferrer has always been a value producer, though it recently reached for the high end with its superb Carneros Cuvee ($50), a blanc de blancs that is aged nine years on the yeast lees before disgorgement. From its very first vintage, 1995, Carneros Cuvee has been one of California’s finest and most complex sparkling wines. The non-vintage Bruts are consistently well balanced and complex.
Price range: $20-$50. Quality range: 86-93.
Iron Horse Vineyards
The house of Barry and Audrey Sterling offers a sweeping array of sparkling vintage cuvees, and every single one is a winner, though I am most fond of their Blanc de Blancs LD, or ‘late disgorged.’ The LD is often aged seven years or more on the yeast lees and is consistently one of California’s most complex and age-worthy bubblies. Located in the very cool Green Valley, a sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley, Iron Horse sparkling wines (they also produce red and white table wines) are remarkable and noteworthy for their tight Champagne-like structure.
Price range: $31-$80. Quality range: 89-95.
J Vineyards & Winery
Always elegant and fairly reasonable in price, J produces four sparklers, including its flagship vintage Brut and a Brut Rose. Both are exquisite, but particularly appealing is the luscious Brut Rose, which may be the finest domestic Brut Rose of them all. There’s also a pricey Late Disgorged bottling ($115) but I’ve never tasted it.
Price range: $30-$115. Quality range: 90-93.
Korbel
Many wine enthusiasts of a certain age popped their first ‘Champagne’ cork on a bottle of Korbel, the granddaddy of California bubbly. These are excellent value bubblies, particularly the simple but delicious Brut Rose ($10) and the very dry Brut Natural ($12).
Price range: $10-$29. Quality range: 85-90.
Mumm Napa Valley
In the realm of quality for price there is no better deal in California bubbly than Mumm Napa Valley. These are sparkling wines that are clearly made from sun-ripened California grapes, yet they don’t lack for complexity and are always polished and delicious, even at the bottom rungs of their non-vintage cuvees. At the highest end, the Mumm DVX is creamy and alluring, and will have its fans even in the league of other tetes de cuvee vintages.
Price range: $18-$65. Quality range: 88-94.
Roederer Estate
Located in the cool Anderson Valley, this French-owned company has held the high ground in California bubbly for better than a decade. It hasn’t slipped so much as its competitors have caught up. Still, you could place Roederer’s non-vintage Brut in a blind tasting with non-vintage Champagnes (which I have done many times) and fool even the most discerning experts. The tetes de cuvee L’Hermitage remains one of the world’s great values in high-class bubbly at $45.
Prices range: $24-$45. Quality range: 90-96.
Schramsberg
This venerable Napa Valley producer paved the way for California then fell into the shadows somewhat as other stars emerged. But Schramsberg is back on its game and its vintage Brut and Blanc de Blancs show depth and complexity as well as ripe California fruit. The bomb (we mean this in the good sense) is the 2000 J Schram, which is as good as any bubbly made in the U.S.
Price range: $18-$90. Quality range: 87-96.
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