The aforementioned Roederer L`Ermitage plus their Brut and Brut Rose are consistently good and I love the Scharffenberger Brut Rose. As with Chris, I liked the Mumm DVX, but its been many years since the last one. Also, used to drink Argyle, but not in the last 10 years.
One I havent seen mentioned is Iron Horse in Green Valley, they do some late disgorged and have a history of wines with some real age on them, I think I have had back to 1991.
Iron Horse used to bottle a version called the “Wedding Cuvee.” I took it to weddings. Not sure if they followed up with a “Divorce Cuvee.”
No chatter about some of the new sparklers that have hit the market in the last couple of years. Some of you might have received Diana Lee’s (Adam’s wife) email for her new sparkling project. Others in Sonoma are introducing sparklers. Ditto for Central Coast with Sanford, Loring, Riverbench, and now Talley joining the fray. As long as you have chard and pinot grapes, this is a possibility and some of the wineries are growing a bit of pinot meunier. I’ve tasted some of these wines and they are pretty good, but also expensive (up to around $70). Why not just buy Champagne or established California sparklers like Domaine Carneros?
One of the things propelling the introduction of these wines is new sparkling wine production facilities, basically sparkling wine coops. Individual wineries don’t have to invest in all the equipment. Anyone visit one of those facilities??
I completely agree with Dan and Ian about Equinox-great sparklers (and don’t miss Barry’s still wines under the Bartolo label.)
Hard to beat Roederer Estate for a good sparkler under $20 and the latest Mumm Napa Rose has been very nice also for the $'s.
I have tasted Carracioli bubbles.
Good but seemed overpriced.
Are the people behind it also behind a more-we’ll-known still wine brand?
My late night memory tells me so.
Personally, I’m anxiously awaiting Domaine Serene’s new entry to the American sparkling market. I’m sure it’ll be really good stuff! 
I had a case of Gruet that sat in the cellar for a decade- it was fantastic stuff with some age on it and I think it was ~$6 bottle. Sadly, I no longer enjoy their wine as others have agreed.
And likely more expensive than their Oregon peers.
Probably cheaper to just buy champagne. No doubt in five years, the they’ll claim they invented sparkling wine…
Some 3 yrs ago or so, Gruet was bought out by PreceptBrands, which owns Ch.StM up in WashState. Their stated intent was to triple the Gruet production.
However, the Gruet vnyd over in Engle, and all the vnyds in NM could not come close to supporting that level of production.
So if you look at the current Gruet btls, it’ll state “Proudly Produced in NM”, but on the back label, the truth comes out…“American Sparkling Wine”.
So most of the grapes for Gruet now come from WashState and they don’t, to my knowledge, make a NM Sparkling wine anymore.
I’m pretty sure, because of the logistics, Precept doesn’t ship the grapes down from WashState. Whether the ship the juice or the already frmtd still wine, I don’t know.
But the sparkle is put in the wine down in Albq. I’m assuming it’s still MethodeChampenoise, but don’t know even that for sure. Because they’re cranking
out more wine, I suspect it is “sur lie” a much shorter period than it used to be.
That being said, I thing the Gruet Sparkling Wine is pretty decent and very fairly priced. Just not as good as the Gruet of old.
Tom
+1 for L’Ermitage - I love these (and even the Roederer Estate Brut) with a few years of age on them. Another one that ages nicely IMO is Domaine Carneros. I’m just not into sparklers enough to spend serious dough on them though, so I’m probably missing out on a bunch. Cheers!
Domaine Carneros Le Reve is a crowd-pleaser.
I think US sparklers at facing an interesting issue…at the price points offered, do they present any value? I host charity wine tastings where the auction winner gets to invite 10 folks to a wine tasting in their home. One of the ones I did pit Roederer L’Ermitage against Pierre Peters in one of the flights. The guests overwhelmingly chose the L’Ermitage. At $45 it’s a legitimate steal and, in my opinion, competes well with similarly priced bottles. For instance, I’d rather have a l’Ermitage than a Taittenger NV. I had a Delamotte NV recently (not the BdB) and would say the same in most vintages of the l’Ermitage.
At $70 you start competing with some really pretty stout champagnes. I’m not entirely positive the quality is comparable, in part because I’ve not had many of the wines you referenced. The closest I can personally speak about is Schramsberg. I’ve had wines in their lineup from $20 - $160. Some of their single vineyard stuff at $75-80 stands up well against the Billecart-Salmons and vintage Roederer and Delamotte BdB and other similar players. At the $150 level, professional critics are doling out scores to Schramsberg for their J. Schram and Late Disgorged series wines that are not inconsistent with Dom Perignon, Comtes, and the like.
I’d not had the J. Schram (the chard heavy) until earlier this year. I was blown away at the level of quality. The 2008 is really excellent. I’ve found myself asking, “why not give it a spin” given the quality levels I’ve experienced at the top end of the line so far.
Ultramarine seems to be getting gushing praise as well. Perhaps it’s deserved.
I’m not surprised that the L’Ermitage is a crowd pleaser vs Champagne. Americans tend to like a little residual sugar in their wine. I see it all the time in the white wines I drink. Anything made in volume has a little RS left in. My daughter used to sit in on the dosage trials at Argyle. The favored blend was always, much to her chagrin, too sweet for her palate, and nowhere near the driest alternative.
At $45 or less, I’m going with Marie Courtin Resonance or a number of others every time.
11 g/l is pretty high dosage. True.
A number of Willamette Valley wineries have been introducing sparklers. I just recently got an e-mail offering from Trisaetum. Le Cadeau and Roco have had one for a while. The only one I’ve had are Rose and BdB from Soter, which is quite good, and a small taste of the Roco, OK, but not memorable.
All of them are much more expensive than readily available Champagne of equivalent quality. Argyle is much too fruit forward and heavy textured. As much as I like drinking local, domestic sparklers are a rare purchase for me.
One of the former assistant winemakers at Argyle now helps other local wineries make sparkling wine. What was once completely unaffordable is now at least reasonably in reach.
My answer exactly.
Native Torontonian here adding one more to the list of Canadian sparking wine you should check out while you’re here:
- KEW Vineyards
Well this is certainly interesting news. All chard, combination of chard & pinot, vineyard source(s)?