Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This impressive bottling relies on Flora grapes for its core (67%), blended with 19% Chardonnay and 14% Pinot Noir. There’s an intentional sweetness to the wine that makes it off dry in peach, pineapple and honey. Lively acidity keeps it balanced with a lift and energy in between the welcome richness.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
64% Flora; 22% Chardonnay; 14% Pinot Noir. Year in and year out a sparkling wine that earns an appreciative nod for its deft combination of uniquely blossomy fruitiness and creamy adjuncts of yeast, Schramsberg’s Cremant is, once again, without peer among sweeter local efforts made using the classic Champenoise method and is a frothy, beautifully balanced bottling that is neither candied nor cloying despite its evident sugars. Lighter desserts, especially those featuring fruit, are its ideal partners, but fans of bubbly with a bit of a sweet tooth are guaranteed to enjoy a glass or two on its own.
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.