Winemaker Notes
Try it with a hunk of Camembert cheese, some salty truffle fries, or the best pairing yet: fried chicken. Because bubbles make it all just a little more fun.
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
100% Chardonnay. A bit richer on the nose and a touch toastier than its genre typically predicts, this very well-crafted sparkler follows with a lovely, deftly integrated mix of autolyzed yeast creaminess and tart, green apple fruit with slightly chalky, stony soil suggestions confidently confirming its very solid Blanc de Blancs credentials. Its very fine and vigorous stream of tiny bubbles is sustained as it sits in the glass, and keen composition is again manifest in a well-considered dosage that does the trick in tempering its brisk acidity without contributing distracting sweetness.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
While less expensive than the Brut Rose, the 2013 Cork Jumper Blanc de Blancs is certainly a better wine. Loaded with classy notes of orchard fruits, rising bread, flowers, citrus and lemon aromas and flavors, this fresh, lively and beautifully pure Blanc de Blanc is up with some of the finest sparkling wines I’ve tasted from California.
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.
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.