Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee and Roederer Rose.
Full disclosure because I’m a club member, but I shared a bottle of the 2011 Elk Cove Sparkling at my cousins wedding in early August. I’m not a sparkling fan, but this was outstanding with a lengthy finish of strawberries galore. Elk Cove doesn’t produce a sparkling wine every year. The current vintage is 2015, but it’s my understanding based on a tasting with Adam Campbell last March that Elk Cove is producing multiple sparklers from the 2016 vintage.
I concur with the Argyle recommendation and I’ll add Soter to the list. There are a few other Oregon folks producing sparklers these days. I tried a few of the Trisaetum sparklers at the winery this summer, but they were only small tastes and not enough to give an opinion.
James
2009 Schramsberg J. Schram Rose and Schramsber Reserve
Domaine Carneros Le Reve Late Disgorged is pretty dang tasty from what I remember
Outside of California, Argyle comes to mind. For something outside of the West Coast, L. Mawby in the Traverse City Michigan area does some nice stuff.
New Mexico. Gruet is great.
My local preferences are Argyle Extended Tirage and Roederer Estate L’Ermitage.
Gloria Ferrer, J, and Domaine Carneros make some decent, less expensive wines, and then Gruet is cheap but tasty.
Seconding Dirty and Rowdy with a sigh … I did find a few extra bottles via Flickingers, so that pleasure is not gone completely yet.
My first Under the Wire is shipping now - really looking forward to it - and I enjoy Cruse … in fact have a bottle chilled for a bit of celebration with some friends later today.
+1
Also, for QPR, my wife swears by the base vintage Argyle in most vintages.
On the cheaper side have enjoyed the Mumm Brut Prestige for around $16
Sadly, this is no longer the case IMHO.
We drink a lot of US sparklers at our house. The Schramsberg club offers quite a few sparklers that are around the price of the Roederer L’Ermitage. I’m not convinced the lower end Schramsberg wines are worth the money, but the smaller lot production sparklers are really good, and the 2008 J. Schram is up there with similarly priced French champagnes (in my opinion). They also sell a late disgorged BdB that’s supposed to be amazing (I’ve got some coming). I think the Roederer Estate L’Ermitage’s rich yeastiness reminds me a bit of baby Krug and just love it. That’s high on my list and a very consistent rich US sparkler. I feel like Iron Horse is relatively inconsistent. La Reve by Domain Carneros is a lovely sparkler, though occasionally on the leesy and almost sweet end of things. Still, I’m a fan. It is not cheap, though. At this point most top-end US bubblies are selling at about the same price as well-known French champagnes.
Not had Under the Wire, and not yet getting allocations of Ultramarine.
As for the cheapies, I really don’t think you can beat Roederer Estate/Estate Rose. They’re under $25 and are, in my opinion, fairly considerably qualitatively superior to their counterparts. I like Mumm Brut Prestige over Korbel at the $16 price, but those are a considerable step down. Gruet is, in my opinion, really not worth the money and has seemed to suffer a significant decrease in what quality they had. Domaine Carneros basic brut can be okay in some vintages, but lacks the consistency of Roederer Estate (imho).
I’ve not had Soter but Argyle’s extended tirage can be quite good, as can some of their single vineyards. Their basic offering, though, is shit. It tastes like carbonated apple cider most of the time and is really not worth the $22.
Roederer Brut is our every week sparkler.
+1
Best part of this thread is that the OP states ‘sparklers’ plural, which is a much better request than asking for ONE single ‘best’, given everybody’s differing opinions. A bunch of great suggestions here
Agreed. It’s hard to beat at that price.
I never had one I’d rate excellent, but in years past they were the best of the ultra-QPRs. The recent releases are not ones I’d drink voluntarily.
Agreed, not as good since they were bought out.
I like J Schram late disgorged, Domaine Carneros late disgorged, but my favorite QPR is the Roederer.
FLX bubbly keeps getting better. Herman Wiemer is making some traditional method wines with extended lees aging that have a tasty autolytic quality. If Pet Nat is included, the field opens up even more.