Tag: sparkling wine

Last year when the 2015 Sonoma County Harvest Fair honored the Trione family with the esteemed Methuselah Award for their lifetime contribution to the Sonoma County Wine Industry, the timing couldn’t have been better. The year 2015 also marked the 10th year making wine under their own label. Through the decades, three generations—Henry Trione, sons Mark and Vic, and Mark’s daughter Denise—have developed an outstanding reputation for producing premium grapes and outstanding wines. Their portfolio now includes a Bordeaux blend that pays homage to Henry, the family’s patriarch, fittingly called Henry’s Blend.

There's nothing sadder than dumping even part of a bottle of Champagne that's lost its fizz the day after New Year's. So don't do it.

If you didn't remember to stop up your leftover Champagne and put it in the fridge, plan to incorporate the rest of your sparkling into a couple of easy dishes and start 2016 with a burst of creativity in the kitchen. You can rest easy knowing one of the highlights of your holiday revelry did not go to waste.

When Julie and Bret Pittsinger opened Karma Vineyards on the beautiful south shore of Lake Chelan in 2007, they had plenty to celebrate. Not only were they launching a business named in honor of their children, Karle and Matthew, they were introducing the first méthode champenoise house to Washington’s eleventh American Viticultural Area, the Lake Chelan AVA.

Two years earlier, they had hired a winemaker who formerly had worked at Moët in France. From him they learned what they needed to know to begin to produce their Sparkling wines in the traditional method by which Champagne is made.

In Santa Barbara County, the name Riverbench is synonymous with premium quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Riverbench Vineyard was first planted in fertile alluvial Santa Maria Bench soils on the southeastern edge of the Santa Maria Valley in 1973. It has long been a coveted source for some of the region’s finest Burgundian varieties.

Through the years, Riverbench has retained a firm commitment to sustainable winegrowing practices. In 2010, the vineyard earned SIP (Sustainability in Practice) Certification, a third-party evaluation program that demonstrates the winery’s dedication through its daily practice of a long list of standards that affect the workers, soil fertility, cover crops, wildlife, native plants, irrigation, and more.

ROCO Winery is named after Rollin and Corby Soles for a very good reason—it represents the combined energy of a tireless married couple who dreamed for decades of starting their own wine label in the Chehalem Mountain range of Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley. Originally from Texas, Rollin has more than three decades of winemaking under his belt. He co-founded the prestigious Argyle Winery 27 years ago and is the only Oregon winemaker whose wines have been ranked in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the World 13 times! He stepped back from his full-time position at Argyle in 2013 to spend more time expanding ROCO with Corby. Since then, the dynamic couple remains dedicated to producing stellar, highly rated, single vineyard wines.

A soft, steady Carneros breeze often greets guests as they drive up the olive tree-lined entry road of Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards. It was this breeze, along with the familiar Mediterranean climate and gently sloping hillside that first drew the Ferrer family to the Sonoma, California land.

Relying on their Spanish roots and more than 100 years of winemaking experience, the Ferrers planted three-quarters of the Carneros estate exclusively to Pinot Noir. Now more than 25 years later, Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine is defined by this commitment to Pinot Noir.