Follow the trail to good California sparkling wine
Hit the Champagne Route
This is the time of the year to begin stocking up on Champagne or sparkling wine. The holidays are upon us, and what better why to toast and celebrate this time of year but to lift and sip a good glass of Champagne or sparkling wine? When I say “hit the Champagne Route,” I really mean hit the sparkling wine route or trail. We cannot really call our sparkling wine Champagne here in California. By an international agreement, only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France can say Champagne on the label. There are many wine regions in California where sparkling wine is made exactly how Champagne is made. The big difference, of course, is that in Champagne all the soil is limestone. This gives Champagne a mineral characteristic. The most concentrated area of sparkling wine is made in the Carneros and Napa Valley wine regions. You can follow our “Sparkling Wine Trail” to five wonderful sparkling wine houses. Another wonderful area to explore and taste sparkling wine is in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County. Roederer Estate and Scharffenberger Cellars make great sparkling wines. In the Russian River wine region, J Vineyards, Iron Horse Vineyards, and Korbel also make sparkling wine. Korbel has been around so long that they actually use “Champagne” on their label. They can do this because they were here before the international agreement was made. It would be nice if they just called their wine “sparkling wine.”
Additional information on the sparkling wine or Champagne route: