I agree, but Green Valley overlaps other AVAs and is more of a micro-AVA than anything else. I could be very off with what the wines are, but they match up quite well with what Iron Horse makes, the K&L descriptions, and the general location.
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Very interesting. I think all of the clues mostly align, with the exception of both bottlings being claimed to have been sourced from a few different Sonoma Coast vineyards, whereas Iron Horse seems to be all SVD from their estate vineyard.
But Iron Horse doesnât have one âcontinuousâ vineyard and has always referred to their estate holdings as multiple vineyards. At least that is from my conversations with them.
Slight thread drift, but what is the 2020 Anonymous Wine Collective âManchester Ridge Vineyardâ Mendocino Ridge Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine. Poe?
Brick and Mortar is my guess, not many makes BdB from that site, mostly blended. I think that site has beautiful nose but the palate is quite lackluster.
The âElsewhere Priceâ of $50 is what is pointing me more towards Poe than Brick and Mortar for my guess.
Poe hadnât made a BdB since 2015 + they are aged 7 years on lees vs 4 on K&L website so itâs less likely they would make an one off vintage in 2020 and suddenly dumped the bottles during sur lies.
Brick&Mortar Manchester Ridge BdB is aged only 4 years on the lees, which matched the definition on the K&L website. Brut Nature vs 1.5g dosage and both aged on neutral oak so that one matched too. Plus, their BdB is insanely overpriced for what they delivered and I believe they offload their undisgorged BdB to K&L so they wonât tank their perceived âprestigeâ in their pricing. And the elsewhere price might be a distraction because itâs not hard to find the few BdB from that vineyard, and writing $125 instead of $50 would not do wonder for B&M
My 2cents
It will be interesting to learn what this wine is. The Brut Nature vs. 1.5 g/L of dosage is a big difference in my eyes, but it also can depend on exactly how this wine was sold - was it a finished product already aging or sold while still on the lees and then just disgorged to move it along. K&L also contradicts itself in its notes. It calls it both aged in netural oak and once used oak. Once used oak is not neutral - at least not to me. Iâd also think K&L would want to show what a great value they are offering and use a higher rather than lower price. For their other Anonymous Wine Collective sparkling offerings, it doesnât look like they were deflating the price.
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Hammerling also does a BdB from Manchester Ridge
They only have 15 months sur lies aging.
I canât explain that, but the reason why I suspect Hammerling is that they are known to do their riddling by hand (and this is cited in the K&L description), whereas Brick & Mortar uses riddling machines.
I find this statement in one of the staff reviews interesting: This spent one year on the lees on neutral oak and then four years on tirage, being hand-riddled by one of the best in the California sparkling business.
That is an odd statement or at least the way it is worded is. Maybe I am looking into this too much, but it is possible the wine was sold âsur lattesâ and then someone else (who didnât make the wine) did the riddling and disgorging.
This discussion is all very enthralling but has anyone actually bought a bottle of one of these sparklers and tried it?
Was that the 2025 Oakville?
Yes, twice. Manchester Ridge 2020 (very good now sold out). 2018 Extended Tirage. Also excellent. My palate for sparklers is probably less developed than reds and whites, so take it for what itâs worth. Nice smoothy, creamy small bubbles on the 2018. 2020 was bolder but still delicious.
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