Opened a 2017 Sparkling Deming Valdiguié today from Cruse … poured for colleagues who range from a serious champagne lady to young guys who mostly drink beer … everyone smiled soooooo much! What a lovely sparkler … and the Fall Cruse allocations are still open … heading there now!
I’ve found just about every North American sparkler to be too sweet and expensive for my palate. I would rather buy Champagne at similar prices.
I’m more inclined to drink Mumm’s American sparkling wines than their Champagnes. The rose is very good for the price.
Roederer does great work. Scharffenberger can be good, but not as consistently.
I like Under The Wire Brosseau, though it is to Champagne what California Chardonnay is to Burgundy in style.
Argyle Extended Tirage is also pretty damn good. There’s a new vintage due soon. And speaking of Argyle, Rollin Soles, who made their sparkling program special, has his own label called ROCO that’s very good. The Elk Cove 2011 rose mentioned above is excellent.
In the Pet-Nat style, Broc Cellars and Field Recordings do some fun ones. Donkey & Goat, too.
I’ve always really enjoyed Soter’s Mineral Springs Brut Rose. Definitely one of the better North American Sparklers
I’m not much on American sparklers, almost always finding them too ripe and round. I’d usually rather have Cava for far less $$. The base Roederer is okay, but just that. I would agree that for domestic rose tends to be better than white, handling the ripeness better for my tastes.
With regard to Mumm Champagne though, I recently found Mumm’s cuvee Privilege for under $17, and it’s actually good. Not just good for the price, but actually good. Much better than I remember the basic Cordon Rouge being in the past. Bought a case but I should have bought more.
Fairly young sparkling wine company, 2012, in WA we started working with 3 months ago, Treveri, all Methode Champenoise. Dad grew up in Trier making Sekt, so definitely a clean crisp profile, they make a wide range from $14 to $30, BdB Brut and Brut Zero, Rose Sec, BdN, they see min. 2 years bottle aging, and then some varietals: Riesling, Gewurtz, Muller Thurgau and Gruner. Have a 5 year on lees BdB coming called Luxus.
Working on some plantings of their own too.
^ +1
I remember that Jason B. Lewis was very fond of Equinox out of WA.
Yup. Trading on a reputation built long ago…
non-commercial post: Equinox (from the Santa Cruz Mountains, not Washington) is made by my friend and sometimes colleague Barry Jackson. In theory, I can sell it, but I’ve never sold a bottle. However I’ve drunk cases and cases.
IMO it has been the best sparkling wine made in the western hemisphere. I say ‘has been’, because the last vintage, currently available, is 2001. This is a 100% Chardonnay, aged 15 years ‘en tirage’. I believe front line retail is ~$75 - 100. Tell Barry I suggested it and that might go down a few bucks. Please taste it blind against any Champagne at a comparable age and price.
A few more now totally non-commercial comments:
Gruet used to be New Mexico. It’s now Appellation America and IMO not remotely as good. Sorry to say, but avoid IMO.
Mountain Dome from Washington was superb, did not survive the founder and owner.
I agree that Argyle is exemplary and good value.
Kudos to Roederer Estate. When the Big Boyz (Moet, Mumm, Piper) went to Napa and Sonoma, Roederer went to the best terroir, the then virtually unknown Anderson Valley. The results are in the bottle.
Having said that, Domaine Chandon is usually actually pretty good.
Chandon went to Argentina long before California and makes superb bubbly there, but stopped shipping it to the U.S. because it would have completely killed sales of Domaine Chandon.
Schramsberg is consistently fine, but not cheap. OTOH, their second label ‘Mirabelle’ is very good quality and value.
I almost don’t want to post this name, for various reasons, but:
Korbel Russian River Valley sparklers are hands down the best value American sparklers. They are hard to find and absurdly cheap.
I’m drinking a lot less bubbly for various reasons and haven’t had one of these in a few years. I’m not sure the word ‘Natural’ is always associated with the RRV bottlings. But if it says ‘Korbel’ and ‘Russian River Valley’, you are in for an astonishing treat.
Dan Kravitz
Maybe Mumm’s base wine has improved. That’s (IIRC) their BTG bottling, which is essentially Cordon Rouge. I wrote the latter off when my date at a New Year’s Party said it “tasted like someone stopped by QuikTrip” for it, but that was a while ago. They did put out a pretty good BdB back in the day, so they are capable.
Been through their line-up twice. The super dry stuff was tough the first time, but they’re getting better. The Germanic stuff was pretty good, especially for customers looking for a little RS.
Mountain Dome! I miss those wines. Great values.
+1 on Roederer Estate (again). L’Ermitage is excellent.
Every time I have been to Mendoza, the Argentinians I have been with have always been super-excited about showing off Chandon. They are very good for the money.
That’s right Jim. I posted a question here asking for advice before buying any because my experience in the past with Mumm was also not good and there was little information out there about this bottling. Brad Baker explained the bottling, said that there was significant improvement at Mumm, and that it was a very good buy at that price. It was good advice. For me to find something sparkling at that price I really like I should stock up, because otherwise I’m usually going under $10 for Cava or minimum $30 for what I consider to be the entry point for Champagnes that I actually enjoy, which for the past couple of years has been Ployez-Jacquemart NV or Aubry NV.
(Homer post)
I’ll second Dan’s recommendation of Barry Jackson’s sparklers. They tend to be broad with lots of lees aging, and in that style remarkably good.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Caraccioli bubblers. They have received repeated international recognition and are the closest thing we have in America to grower fizz. Or, they are grower fizz. SLH appellation, tons of acid, with every care taken in the winery for exceptional bubbles. Current release is 2012.
On a tiny side note, Ryan Beauregard’s little sparkling run from the Ben Lomond Mountain AVA shows a lot of promise. You probably have to go to the tasting room and butter up Ryan to get one. His stuff sells out.
Outside of that, my wife, who is a sparkling nut, goes for the Roederer Blanc de Noirs out of the grocery store cooler. Dollar for dollar, it’s great.
Ian
Yes indeed, concur on 13th Street and Benjamin Bridge. For me, also add much of what Kew Estate is doing and Westcott’s Brilliant (the first Ontario sparkler that I felt needed true ageing) and Violette.
I’ve had one Under the Wire, it was solid. Have had a few Ultramarines—one very good one (11 I think) and the others good.
James Frey’s Pashey are excellent, as is the collaboration between Ryan Deovlet and McPrice Myers. I would however crawl over broken glass for 1987 Schramsberg LD…
Not bad, but not in the class of Schramsberg. I did a blind tasting of a few domestic sparkling wines tasting with friends a couple of years ago (Schramsberg, Chandon and 1 or 2 others. Clear winner was Schramsberg. If I remember correctly, Chandon finished behind Gloria Ferrer.
Schramsberg is my favorite producer. Most recent bottle I opened was a 2006 Blanc de Noirs Late Disgorged and it was excellent. Wish I had another bottle…
Just had a 2006 Blanc des Blancs late disgorged this weekend. Lovely wine with yeasty bread notes, rich apple tart, sniff of sherry, hint of honeysuckle with good cut.