Winemaker Notes
While this wine can be enjoyed by itself as an apéritif, it is also perfect with oysters and other shellfish, crab cakes, ceviche and grilled sea bass. It is also delicious with lemon chicken and Thai curries. Serve with aged Gouda or other hard cheeses, and as a counterpoint to soft triple creams.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Enticing aromas of Asian pear and spiced cinnamon lead to rich, layered flavors of lemon curd, mineral and fresh almond.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
100% Chardonnay. Pronounced yeastiness trumps any Blanc de Blancs delicacy in the complex, aggressively toasty, faintly soy-like nose of this wine, yet it is easy enough to taste past its fully autolyzed aspects and still find a bit of green-apple freshness at its heart. It is lithe and well-balanced with a wealth of incessant and wonderfully small bubbles, and, if it plays more to richness more than most of its close kin, it is by all measures a significant Blanc de Blancs
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.
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.