We arrived in Napa Valley in early evening after driving from the San Francisco Airport over the Bay Bridge in heavy late afternoon traffic — caused by a combination of the afternoon rush hour and the San Francisco Giants home opener ballgame against the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park (the home team won 7-3). Luckily,
Our New Year’s champagne for 2014 was non-vintage Pehu-Simonet Grand Cru Brut Rosé. David Pehu, who studied wine-making in Burgundy, represents the fourth generation to head up the family estate, which was named Pehu-Simonet in the 1970s when vines from his mother’s side of the family were added to his father’s. He has been growing Chardonnay
We recently enjoyed a bottle of non-vintage Chassenay D’Arce Montaubret Brut Champagne, produced by a cooperative of about 130 grape growers in the Arce Valley located in the southern part of the Champagne region of France. Over 75% of the Champagne produced today is non-vintage (N.V.), that is, made by blending wine from several years’
With our Easter dinner today, we opened a bottle of vintage sparkling wine from the Carneros appellation in California which we had picked up on a trip to Napa and Sonoma a few years ago. The 2003 Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs Brut was rich and full-bodied, as you would expect
Here is a sparkling wine from Italy which we enjoyed over the holidays. The 2008 Monti Lessini Durello Brut Zero is a spumante, the Italian word for sparkling wine, which comes from the verb “spumare”, meaning to froth or foam with bubbles. It is produced using the “metodo classico”, which means that it is fermented
Happy New Year! We have a potpourri of new wines to review for the new year, so let’s get started. The first one is a rosé sparkling wine from California, Scharffenberger Brut Rosé Excellence, which we enjoyed at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve. Made in the “methode traditionelle” like champagne, where the wines
Adami Bosco di Gica Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut is a non-vintage Prosecco Superiore from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG region, where the Glera (prosecco) grapes are grown on steep slopes in limestone soil between those two towns in northeast Italy. According to Adami, “The surroundings seem forbidding, since we are located facing the first ranks of the
Prosecco is a white sparkling wine from Italy made from the grape variety of the same name which is native to the Veneto region in northeast Italy. It is made by a completely different process from the Méthode Champenoise used to make Champagne in France, where the wine undergoes secondary fermentation in each bottle to
To make mimosas with our Sunday morning breakfast, we popped open a bottle of JCB No. 21 Brut, an inexpensive French sparkling wine which is not from the Champagne region, so it cannot carry the name (or the price) of “Champagne.” It is actually from the nearby appellation Crémant de Bourgogne A.C. We didn’t know
To accompany our Thanksgiving leftovers, we popped open a bottle of Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé. Perfect with turkey sandwiches and cranberry relish! While Lucien Albrecht may be best known for his white wines from Alsace, including Rieslings, Gewurztraminers, Pinot-Blancs, Muscats and Pinot-Gris, this delicious rosé sparkling wine is made from 100% pinot noir