Gloria Ferrer, Carneros (California) 2015

 This is seriously high-end bubbly.  Although some consumers will simply never pony up $72 for anything with bubbles from anywhere outside of Champagne, I have serious doubts that anyone who buys and tastes a bottle of this will conclude that they got less than their money’s worth from it.  The bouquet is very complex but with only positive oxidation through the cork, so far from seeming played out, I’m not sure this has even hit its apex in aromatic terms.  On the palate, it has the uncanny combination of edgy energy and soft creaminess that marks the world’s best sparkling wines, and there’s still some primary fruit poking through the yeasty characters derived from autolysis.  Complex, complete and convincing.