Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/620640
1 6 2 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | J a n - F e b 2 016 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m END POST TYLER COLMAN u r g u n d i f i c a t i o n " has been one of the biggest trends in the wine world during recent years. While that does not mean planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir everywhere, it does mean prioritizing vineyard sites and, in the New World, dialing back alcohol levels. One region that traditionally has paid scant attention to site is Champagne. The houses normally have favored blends over site in the final bottling, but that is changing. In fact, Champagne has become one of the most exciting wine regions on the plan- et. Small growers there have recast the bubbly as "farmer fizz," clawing it back from the grandes marques, which prefer to position it as a luxury product fit for place- ment in James Bond movies or for sponsoring polo matches. Smaller Champagne pro- ducers have focused on single plots, and some even have taken the mono-mania to the extreme of limiting themselves to single grape varieties from a single vin- tage. Select producers there have reduced dosage lev- els, sometimes eliminating them completely to make wines that are austere, nervy and, quite often, delicious. The market reaction has been terrific. Rejecting Champagne as merely something for christen- ing boats or wedding toasts, som- meliers have rushed to put these grower Champagnes on the dinner table. With high acidity and cleans- ing bubbles, the wines work with a wide array of dishes – from shell- fish to fried foods. Four years later, Under the Wire, as their project is known, is mak- ing 900 cases per year of single- vineyard sparkling wines and sell- ing out through a mailing list and distribution. Others also are getting their bubbles on. Michael Cruse, who has an academic background, has become a leader though his label, Ultramarine. Raj Parr, the former wine director at Michael Mina res- taurants, is making sparkling rosé modeled on Jacques Selosse at his wine label, Sandhi. Wenzlau, also in Santa Barbara, is making a blanc de blancs with a helping hand from cult hero Cedric Bouchard from Champagne, who has visited the property. All of this should be applauded and, where possible, supported. Sparkling wine merits increased attention at custom crush facilities to help lower some of the barriers to entry. Mobile bottling or consul- tations could help, too. Ultimately, producers should get into making terroir-expressive spar- kling wines because they like an intellectual challenge, have patient capital, and because it is food- friendly. If the project comes off the rails, they can pop a bottle and think about how to get it right. For those that do, there's a thirsty market out there. Tyler Colman, author of the wine blog Dr. Vino, teaches wine class- es at New York University and the University of Chicago, and wrote t h e b o o k " W i n e P o l i t i c s : H o w Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink." Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. (Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Vineyard & Winery Management.) Sparkling Wine 2.0 California also has applied the B u r g u n d y t r e a t m e n t , c r e a t i n g exciting, site-specific wines from Santa Barbara to the Central Coast to the Anderson Valley. Rapturous praise from critics and consum- ers for these leaner, site-reflective wines has transformed the Califor- nia section in hipster wine stores from pariah to prime time. The trend now is spreading to sparkling wines, and frankly, it's about time. American sparkling wine has, for too long, been a humdrum catego- ry. Don't get me wrong – there are some good producers. But those that do a good job are oper- ating in the mold of the big Champagne houses, focus- ing primarily on the wine- making side rather than on the site and vineyard. Times are changing, how- ever, and a new style of spar- kling wine is emerging. Two of the producers leading the charge are Chris Cottrell and Morgan Twain-Peterson, best friends who decided to experi- ment and to make a little wine together. Cottrell sold lots of Champagne while working at a high-end store in New York City, and Twain-Peterson w a s p r a c t i c a l l y w e a n e d on the stuff. (His father, Joel Peterson of Ravenswood fame, is a big Champagne buff.) In 2011, they joined together to make a single-vineyard sparkling wine. Cottrell said they were met with skepticism from several quar- ters, including some in the trade who thought that the wine would be fiendishly hard to sell. Even J o e l P e t e r s o n e x p r e s s e d c o n - cerns about the capital required to produce it.