Winemaker Notes
Delicious with crab, lobster and scallops, poultry dishes, goat cheese and double or triple cream cheeses. This wine is destined to be a long-lived classic, capable of aging gracefully for 15 years or more.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Made entirely from Chardonnay, it shows real delicacy and richness, with a mousse as smooth as fine satin. Flavorwise, it's enormously rich, suggesting oranges, limes, honey, vanilla, toast and the sweet, yeasty doughiness of a brioche pastry. Really gorgeous, a worthy followup to the fabulous 2005 La Rêve.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and refined, with floral Asian pear and white chocolate aromas, offering crisp yet supple flavors of baked apple, brioche and cinnamon, finishing on a creamy, vibrant note.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Known for elegant wines that combine power and finesse, Carneros is set in the rolling hills that straddle the southernmost parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties. The cooling winds from the abutting San Pablo Bay, combined with lots of midday California sunshine, create an ideal environment for producing wines with a perfect balance of crisp acidity and well-ripened fruit.
This cooler pocket of California lends itself to growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Carneros is an important source of sparkling wines made in the style of Champagne as well.