published in the Montecito Journal on 12/17/20
The new three-week
stay-at-home order that befell California this month means Santa Barbara
County’s wine tasting rooms are shuddered, again. Your own hunt for great local
wines to grace the holiday table and end-of-year festivities, though,
continues. So keep in mind that, while the deadline for many shipments to
arrive by Christmas has passed, there’s still time to order directly from
wineries, which desperately need locals’ support, for curbside pickup.
Bubblies will be atop
many of our shopping lists, of course, as there’s no better way to usher in a
new year – and to send 2020 off with a really good kick in the rear – than the
effervescence of a really good sparkling wine.
When it comes to Santa
Barbara’s sparkling wine production, Riverbench continues to stand out with its
annual release of four unique Cork Jumper sparklers, the handiwork of winemaker
Clarissa Nagy. This is the property in the heart of the Santa Maria Valley that
planted its first pinot noir and chardonnay vines – primary ingredients in the
world’s great bubblies – in 1973. Riverbench really began to take bubbles
seriously in 2014, though, when they grafted the county’s very first pinot
meunier, still a rarity in California but a long-time darling among producers
of the fizzy stuff in France. Riverbench just released their 2017 all-Pinot
Meunier Cork Jumper ($68), a super bright and energetic bubbly with dark berry
notes, a fresh feel and supple finish. A very limited 92 cases were produced. I
sipped this one recently, while popping cold slices of Gala apples and hunks of
Dubliner cheese. Yum.
Riverbench’s
all-chardonnay 2017 Blanc de Blancs ($48) is an homage to Champagne, with its
citrusy flavors and yeasty finish; and the all-pinot 2017 Blanc de Noirs ($48)
is a rosé lover’s dream, with deep tangerine flavors and a velvety finish.
The
crowning jewel of Riverbench’s sparklers is the 2018 Cork Jumper Cuvée ($68), a
vibrant blend of equal parts pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier that’s a
real snapshot of the label’s estate vineyards. How does the pinot meunier
enhance this bottling? By adding “
an interesting austerity to the wine,” Riverbench director of winemaking
Laura Booras once told me. “Chardonnay in Santa Maria tends to have really
bright citrus fruit character, so pinot meunier might help tone that down some,
for the sake of achieving a truly balanced, flavorful wine.” The pop of color
and rush of bubbles here is titillating, while the stone fruit aromas and
creamy flavors are downright delicious. A real crowd pleaser, even if your
holiday crowd is a lot smaller this year.Order
Riverbench bubbly at riverbench.com.
Lovers
of bubbles have dozens of other Santa Barbara County options, of course. Norm
Yost and his Lompoc-based Flying Goat Cellars label are a pioneer in this
arena. Other Santa Barbara County winemakers, including Greg Brewer and the
late Chris Whitcraft, had dabbled in bubbles before Yost launched his own line
of sparklers in 2005. But Yost gets credit for being the first to make his
bubblies an annual endeavor. Currently, he’s crafting five bottlings of Goat
Bubbles each vintage, ranging from $40 to $60, and featuring fruit from various
top-of-the-line vineyards. Buy them at
flyinggoatcellars.com.The
Fess Parker team entered the world of bubbles in 2015 with their Fesstivity
label and a quaint destination tasting cabin in Los Olivos known as The Bubble
Shack. Their current 2017 Blanc de Blancs, 2016 Blanc de Noirs and 2016 Brut
Rosé all feature premium Sta. Rita Hills grapes and are available as a holiday
three-bottle gift pack for a discounted $140 at fessparkerwineshop.com.
And a
tip of the hat to winemaker Laura Roach, who launched her LouBud label, a play
on her childhood nickname, in 2015. Her limited-edition bubblies, made by hand
in the Methode Champenoise style, are consistently fresh. Roach announced on
social media this past weekend that all her past sparkling wine releases are
sold out, except for her new all-pinot noir 2019 Brut Rosé. It’s “delicate and
crisp with pretty red fruits and rose petals on the nose,” she writes. “Bright
entry of pink grapefruit, Asian pear and croissant dough with a clean, bright
finish!” Buy it for $45 at loubudwines.com.
Still
looking to sip French?
If
it’s not from Champagne, you can’t call it Champagne, so the sparklers that
Montecito resident Frank Caterinicchio is importing from boutique producers in Provence are,
simply, French sparkling wines. But they are still delicious. At $19, the
Domaine du Tix “Des Bulles au Cerveau” (Bubbles in the Brain), made with
cinsault grapes, is a phenomenal value. With no added sulfites, it’s racy and
refreshing, and the label featuring a cartoon diver blowing bubbles from his
breathing apparatus means it’s a conversation piece before you even pour. A metal
crown bottle cap, in lieu of a cork, makes it even more fun.Caterinicchio also has the Effervescence by Domaine Vintur
($28), which is crisp, dry and fizzy and comes in a bell-bottom bottle. “Makes
for a great mimosa or Apreol spritz,” he says, although, on its own, it’s
palate-cleansing and thirst-quenching.
Provençal Collective, which
Caterinicchio, a former political consultant, launched three years ago after a serendipitous
trip to France’s southern Rhone Valley, features an exclusive line of organic
wines. Find out more in my feature for the Winter 2020-2021 issue of Montecito
Journal’s quarterly glossy. To beat the
holiday rush, Caterinicchio is hand-delivering his imported wines throughout
Montecito. Order directly from him at provencalcollective.com.
Cheers, and Merry Christmas!
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