It is with great excitement that we release our inaugural sparkling wine! Our Blanc de Blancs, as its name implies, is 100% Chardonnay, and we follow the techniques utilized in Champagne, France (Méthode Champenoise). Picked by hand at night on August 10, 2020, it is 100% whole cluster direct to press.

One of the requirements of Méthode Champenoise is a gentle press cycle. For still wines, we generate ~165 gallons/ton; for our Blanc de Blancs, we extract only 120 gallons/ton. As we press, we taste the juice after each cycle to ensure that the flavors are delicate and fruity.

The juice is settled overnight to let any grape solids (lees) fall to the bottom of the tank. The next morning, we rack the clear juice off the sediment and begin the fermentation with yeast specific for sparkling wine. The juice is fermented in a stainless steel tank at 50° F and is monitored daily. We also ferment in a few one-year-old barrels that we use in our final blend. Barrel fermented wine has a richness and texture that gives the sparkling wine some complexity.

In January 2021, we made our “cuvée” (our base wine). For this wine, we added three barrels from our barrel fermentation lot to our tank fermented wine. Next, we created our “liqueur de tirage” to intitate the second fermentation and blended it with the cuvée just before bottling.

The complexity and delicate flavors of sparkling wines evolve as the wine ages on its yeast lees. After several tastings, we decided to riddle and disgorge our Blanc de Blancs in July 2023.

Harvest Date: 8/10/2020
19.2° Brix
Bottling Date: 3/5/2021
10.2 g/L TA
Disgorge Date: 7/19/2023
3.14 pH
9.7 g/L RS
Release Date: 11/4/2020
12.4% alcohol