J Schram, but I think there’s better Champagne in this price range.
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There’s better Champagne in any CA prestige cuvée sparkler price range. As much as I love Ultramarine, I can find a grower Champagne that kicks its butt for 30% less. I buy the Ultramarine because I enjoy the unique expression.
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I haven’t had them in a while, but I remember Oregon’s Soter Vineyards sparklers being excellent.
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I interpreted OP saying “With Champagne prices climbing, I’m on the lookout for alternatives.” as looking for better value. I guess you and I agree on relative value.
Agree, big time.
Laetitia used to be good before they were purchased.
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“ Roederer L’Ermitage is the best I’ve had.”
Same for me.
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Caraccioli mentioned a couple times, and that’s the one for me. Delicious and very consistent.
It’s early, but the wines we’ve tried from Haliotide have been fantastic. Excited to see how they develop.
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Iron Horse is a good producer that I enjoy very much. In fact, I used to be on the mailing list, though I dropped off a few years back. Good stuff, though they produce so many different wines, most of which taste pretty similar, that they can be tough to keep straight. I’ll still pick some up from time to time- I recall their Pinot based sparklers having quite a lovely red cherry note.
L’Ermitage has now been mentioned enough times that I should pay attention. I’ve had it before, remember liking it, but don’t recall it being super distinctive. I’ll have to give it another try soon.
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Caraccioli is my go to for gatherings, got a few cases of magnum when they went on sale. Underrated and flying under the radar is Wenzlau Cuvée L’Inconnu BdN and LD BdB. BXT, Goodfellow, Racines, Haliotides are very promising for very young wine. Heard great things about Westborn but the price made me hesitated.
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Indeed. Really great. Haven’t seen bottles in the D.C. market for many years.
Exactly. Really terrific, but tough to justify the price with so many fine Champagnes out there for considerably less.
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All this talk of Roederer L’Ermitage! Well look what I ran across in the corner store today…
Opened it for dinner and I liked it very much- quite a ripe stone fruit flavor profile, decent autolytic character, high acid, very enjoyable. I still prefer J Schram though, which has a bit more complexity and toastiness to me. I realize the J Schrams I’ve had were a little older, so it’s not necessarily a fair comparison, but either way, glad to have had this. I wouldn’t say no if I was offered it again!
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Also, many have noted that there are tons of Champagnes that beat JSchram on price. Absolutely. J Schram is not a value play. I basically buy one bottle a year to open of Thanksgiving. And I enjoy it very much. But I drink way more Champagne, that’s for sure…
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If you’re looking for new producers to look at, these are some things I think are worth checking out:
Granville BdN 2018-not cheap, but this is a really lovely bottle of sparkling wine. One of the best I have had from the WV.
Lundeen Wines-sparkling has been a focus for Lundeen since 2012, and Michael is making excellent wines across the board.
Mellen-Meyer-also making sparkling wine for over a decade, the current set of wines Bobby is producing are excellent. The BdN from Whistling Ridge North (a small planting a mile from Whistling Ridge owned and farmed by Patricia’s son) is really solid.
Lytle-Barnett-very well made wines that probably fall more into the J Schram style than some of the other producers I have listed.
Sivilli-Tom Sivilli is only releasing about 150-200 cases each vintage so far, but he’a growing to about 500 cases, IIRC, in the near future so there should be a bit more available. Well worth checking out.
For Goodfellow, as @Rich_Brown said, we released our first wines earlier this spring. Those wines are very good, and the sites we’re sourcing fruit from are excellent, but everyone has a learning curve. We’re also, .mostly, producing wines with no/low dosage (0-2.5 g/l so far) and while our eventual desire is to have the wines in bottle for 3-5 years, the first issue was only two. We just did a second disgorgement of two of those wines, and even the 8 months longer in bottle has continued to build the quality. In my opinion, we’re making some of the better sparkling wines in the Willamette Valley, but our program is still 4-5 years away from being fully mature. For a less biased opinion than the winemaker, I would definitely suggest checking CT notes and the wines have been reviewed by Vinous, TWA, and Dunnuck
That said, I would still really suggest a look at some of the sparkling wines coming out of the Willamette Valley overthe next 10 years.
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I’ve heard great things about Haliotides, good to see that echoed hear.
Not sure how I forgot to mention Arabilis in my post above, but they are definitely one to watch.
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Thanks for all the great suggestions, Marcus! And no need to toot your own horn regarding your sparkling wine- lots of endorsements already here on WBers! Looking forward to trying your wine, and these suggestions, in the coming year. Thanks again!!
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I was going to ask about those. Still haven’t had them but I’ve heard good things for a long time.