Under The Wire - CA Sparkling Wines - Upcoming Release

WINE TALK
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[rofl.gif] [welldone.gif] [berserker.gif]

42

True, I deleted my comment, now that I’ve read through the offer. My bad.

43

It does seem that I am an outlier on the Ultramarine wines as everyone seems to love them and I’m not as high on them. I do think the Rose is pretty good, but the first release of the BdB isn’t something that I really enjoyed. It came across to me like many Champagnes that I don’t like - too acidic, overly dry, under-ripe, and out-of-balance. Yes, it had nice minerality and salinity, but that didn’t make up for the rest of the wine and I don’t think that high acidity equals age worthiness or improvement with time. I couldn’t find much fruit in this wine and I think sparkling wine is about more than just minerality and acid. Just my opinion on the wine. I’m glad others love it and I do find it very unique in the US Sparkling Wine landscape. I will continue to purchase, support, and follow what Michael Cruse does and I hope I like future releases more.

For California sparkling wines, I am a believer that it is very hard to make both a good still wine and sparkling wine from the same site - can it be done, yes, but it is difficult. In general, I find California sparkling wine grapes to be quite a contradiction to Champagne - they show more ripeness, yet at the same time a lot of acidity. Finding the right mix of phenolic ripeness along with acidity and potential alcohol is very different than Champagne and can be difficult. It isn’t as simple as letting the vines continue to ripen while the acidity falls. You risk ending up with an overripe mess. For most California sparkling producers even though they pick with more fruit ripeness, I feel a lot of the sparkling wines need a good dosage to balance things out. If you look at the dosage of a Roederer Estate NV Brut, it is ~ 12 g/L. L’Ermitage is often right around the same level. This is a high dosage compared with equivalent wines in Champange and many times the California sparklers don’t taste anywhere near as sweet as the dosage suggests, but they do taste balanced. If you are in California and going after making something like Champagne then I think you need dosage. If you are going to go after something a bit different and can get the ripeness up then you might have a chance to do a successful low dosage wine.

This is where I think Ultramarine went sideways for me and where I thought Under the Wire hit the nail on the head. Both are working with vineyards that aren’t solely sparkling wine producing vineyards - meaning the vines can/could potentially make good still wines. I think Ultramarine tried to emulate Champagne a little too much and would have been better off with a much higher dosage. In my opinion, this would have made the BdB wine more expressive and possibly given it some aging potential. With Under the Wire, I’m not exactly sure why the low dosage worked so well, but the wine doesn’t come off to me like Champagne - it comes off as unique and different and balanced. My only guess would be that they went after phenolic ripeness and were able to push things to the edge for a balanced sparkling wine. The end result was a wine with nice expression, good fruit, good minerality and a low dosage (though you can’t pop and pour; this wine needs air and some warmth). Sure Ultramarine shows more acidity and is similar to something you might find in the small producer, very low dosage movement in Champagne, but I think you need more than that. I find more pleasure with Under the Wire and think it speaks much more uniquely.

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Iron Horse has mastered still and sparkling wines…

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Drew,

You can definitely make both still and sparkling successfully. It is more about still and sparkling wines from the same site/vineyard. I enjoy many producers who make both still and sparkling wines. Look at Bedrock and Under the Wire - I enjoy both. What I was getting at is the difficulty in having a site produce grapes that fit with both high quality sparkling and still wines. It can be done, but it is difficult and most of the time a specific site excels quite a bit more at one or the other. At least, this is my take on it.

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I’m really hoping I can get in on this next week when the offer goes out to new buyers.

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I love Champagne and all things that sparkle. Plus considering Bedrock takes up about 30% of my cellar at this point I bit the bullet and bought my entire allocation. $45 for a sparkler from winemakers that I love PLUS a decent shipping price? Sold!

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Weird, I got the “save the date” email but never got the “it’s live” email. And of course I had totally forgotten. But thanks to this thread, my order is in.

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Me, too! [cheers.gif]


Update: 6/30 - I just snagged me 4 bottles of each. I’m pumped to give these a try and then follow them over the next 8 or so years…
champagne.gif

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wait list offer out…just grabbed a few of each

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Iron Horse Thomas Road PN comes from a sparkling Vineyard…

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Just wishlisted.

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And it looks like the waitlisted wines are gone [head-bang.gif]

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I got the offer e-mail 90 minutes ago…already sold out.

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Got 2 of each to dip my toes in the water.

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Lucky enough to get 4 of each. Should a fun sipper come fall.

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Glad I got my order in when I did. Now to hide this cc bill from SWMBO.

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Only got 4 bottles of Brosseau, zero Adler available. I’m not complaining - looking forward to my first UTW!

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Drew,

But does each type excel from this vineyard and is it possibly better situated for one type of the other?

Depending on how you look at it, you could also reverse the order of your statement.

I won’t argue with you that Iron Horse does a good job with both still and sparkling though I don’t think they truly excel at either (my opinion and others disagree with me). I thought the sparkling vintages in the late 80s and early 90s were their peak. They have been a bit uneven since then though lately I think they are putting out high quality sparkling stuff. I’ve had some good still wines from them too, but nothing that ever really moved me.

To me, Iron Horse is sometimes very good and other times misses the mark, but they are a very solid producer that has been quite good lately and I think Joy does a great job there.

In general, IMO, most of the climate of California is better situated to still wines than sparkling. That doesn’t mean you can’t do both, just that it is more difficult especially if you want to do something special. Every day drinkers at $15-$20 - sure you can do that, but doing more than that is much more difficult.

Why more folks who focus on sparkling aren’t up in the Anderson Valley area like Roederer is something I will never understand.

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pumped to try these! i signed up for 2 bottles of each. looking forward to this fall!