story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 9/15/16
Marketing pro Liz Dodder gets a sparkle in her eye
when she talks about the Central California wineries that make bubbly. “Bubbles are my
favorite,” she says with enthusiasm, “and I was always keeping a personal list
of who was making it.” That led her, in
2014, to produce a Central Coast sparkling wine map for her popular blog, Cali
Coast Wine Country. There were 45 stops
on that map, already a testament to a burgeoning industry.
But
something remarkable happened when she updated her map for release last month:
the number of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County sparkling wine makers
now tops 70.
“And the
percentage is much higher in Santa Barbara,” she says. “With somewhere between 100 and 150 wineries,
40 are making sparkling wine here.” In SLO County, 30 out of more than 300
wineries make bubbly on an annual basis.
No matter
how the numbers fall, it’s clear that California’s Central Coast has
quickly become a hotbed of effervescence.
Much of that is driven by the creative juices of the winemakers
themselves. “They have a love for doing
this,” Ms. Dodder says.
And
certainly, making sparklers takes the mechanics of winemaking to another
level. “It takes several years to do it
right, and a lot of effort,” she says.
“And when you add up what goes into each bottle – add up all the man
hours and time – the prices they sell for doesn’t even cover it.”
In Santa
Barbara County -- where pinot and chardonnay, Champagne's main ingredients, flourish -- many of the top tier producers sell their bubbles from about
$20 to $50 a bottle, with a few commanding prices above $60. Many of them, like Lucas & Lewellen,
produce the still wine locally and then truck the juice to an outside facility
– a place called Rack & Riddle in Napa, mostly – to be further fermented
into bubbly. But a growing number,
including Flying Goat Cellars and Fess Parker Winery, produce their sparklers
entirely in-house, emulating Champagne’s classic methode traditionelle.
Winemaker
Dave Potter is among them. He appears on
Ms. Dodder’s new map three times, actually: his upscale Potek label, which
produces a Blanc de Blancs and a Blanc de Noirs ($60), pops up in Santa
Barbara’s eastside while his Municipal Winemakers brand, which makes an
“Aussie-style” sparkling syrah ($45), appears with tasting rooms in both Los
Alamos and Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.
“Everybody
loves it,” says Mr. Potter of his Muni sparkly.
“We blow it out – we sell it out in just one email.”
The fun
associated with bubbles makes producing them tempting, according to Ms. Dodder,
because it allows wineries to cast a wider net.
“It gives them something new” to put on their portfolio, she says, “and allows
them to extend their brand.”
Winemaker
Megan McGrath, who produces 1200 cases of four unique bottlings a year Lucas
& Lewellen, agrees. “Our
distributors have placed these wines nationwide and they are poured by the
glass in many restaurants,” she says. “Our
sparkling wine program has become emblematic of the variety and quality of
wines that can be produced in Santa Barbara County wine country.”
Ms. Dodder
has several personal favorites on the map, like Buellton’s Mosby Winery, whose
prosecco-style Stelline de Cortese for $20 “is one of the great bargains” in
Santa Barbara. She also likes the
sparkling Vermentino at Tessa Marie Wines in Los Olivos and the sparkling wine-by-the-glass
at Drake Wines in the Funk Zone – chardonnay that’s carbonated to order.
Ms. Dodder
produced 5000 copies of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Sparkling Wine
Maps, available for free at each of the wineries they feature and at the
offices of several local visitors’ groups.
You can also download the maps off Liz Dodder’s blog.
And proof
that this trend continues to fizz: at least four wineries have begun producing
bubbly since the maps went to print, including Kalyra’s new sister label,
Helix, and the new Lou Bud brand from Sanford assistant winemaker Laura Roach.
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Thanks for the great story Gabe! Think I'll pop some bubbly..
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