Last Night's Tipple

If it sounded like I was sorely disappointed with the Iron Horse Classic Brut that I opened last night, it's because I was. It could not possibly have been better calculated to appeal to me on the shelf. It's an all-American sparkling wine when most American sparkling wine is made by French companies. The packaging is strictly first-rate. The labeling, while not as technically geeky as those on the wines made by the likes of Ravenswood and Ridge, still is as straight-forward and information-filled as I could ask for. It tells me, for example, exactly how much Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are in the wine and how long it speds en tirage. In fact, it was what the label said about the time en tirage that really sold me on this bottle. Vintage Champagne only has to be aged en tirage for three years. This Iron Horse was aged for four years. Yes, I am perfectly well aware that longer doesn't necessarily equal better when it comes to alcohol or anything else; but late disgorged sparkling wine, which ages en tirage for several years longer than normal, is a rarity and is regarded as a delicacy. So I had very high hopes.

I can't say that this is an awful wine because it assuredly is not. It's just that the differential between what I hoped for and what I got was as great as it was for any non-corked wine that I've had in a long time. The chalkiness that I complained about yesterday was still present last night, and it is very distracting. But it does improve with temperature. I like most sparkling wine cold; but if I ever have this wine again (probably not on my own nickel), I'll let it warm up for a while before drinking it.

Last Night's Tipple

Many of the California wineries making méthode Champenoise sparkling wines are wholly or partially owned by the major Champagne houses. The most prominent are Domaine Chandon (owned by Moët et Chandon), Roederer Estate (owned by Louis Roederer), and Domaine Caneros (owned by Taittinger), and they make a lot of well-regarded sparkling wine. Of course, there are California sparklers that are made by wineries completely unassociated with the French. One such is Iron Horse Vineyards, owned by the Sterling family and producing sparkling wine for many years from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes mostly grown in the Green Valley of Sonoma County.

I have to admit that I wasn't looking to buy a bottle of Iron Horse sparkling wine when I went to Spec's the other day. I was looking for Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs. Schramsberg, like Iron Horse, is an American winery producing sparkling wine in California, and its Blanc de Noirs bottling is widely regarded as one of the standard examples of the good things that can be done with sparkling wine in California. But Spec's didn't have any on the shelves, so I began to consider the Iron Horse offerings. There were four Iron Horse bottlings available: the Wedding Cuvee, which is Iron Horse's Blanc de Noirs; the Classic Brut; the Russian Cuvee, which apparently is an extra dry version of the Classic Brut; and the Brut Rosé. I was tempted by the Brut Rosé, but it was $10 more per bottle than the others. I didn't really want an extra dry sparkling wine, so the Russian Cuvee was out. So it was between the Wedding Cuvee and the Classic Brut. What decided it for me was that the Classic Brut spent four years en tirage whereas the Wedding Cuvee only spent three years. Since more is better (right?), I went with the Classic Brut.

The bottle of the 2002 vintage that I ended up buying says that it is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. That fact and the long time that the wine spent en tirage gave me high hopes. Alas, I was very disappointed. The overwhelming aroma that I experienced was chalk. The wine tasted sour and was not very pleasant. Things improved as the wine warmed up a little bit -- the chalky aroma dissipated somewhat, and there was actually some noticeable fruit -- but I still didn't like it much. I should have gone with the Brut Rosé or the Wedding Cuvee, alas.

Last Night's Tipple

The regular, old Gruet NV Brut sparkling wine ends my recent tour of the sparkling offerings of this New Mexico winery. They make others -- a vintage Blanc de Blancs (made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes), a vintage rosé, and a tête de cuvee bottling that Gruet named after its founder Gilbert Gruet -- but those others don't have a wide distribution, and I haven't been able to find them except on the Gruet website. I'd love to try them, but for now, I will have to content myself with the four non-vintage offerings that I can find.

Where the Gruet Blanc de Noirs is mostly Pinot Noir with a smattering of Chardonnay, the Gruet Brut is mostly Chardonnay with a smattering of Pinot Noir (75% to 25%, according to the label). One would consequently expect this wine to have more citrus and sour apple flavors and aromas (both associated with Chardonnay when used in sparkling wine) and fewer raspberry and strawberry aromas and flavors associated with Pinot Noir. And so it is. But here's the key: it is sour, but pleasantly so. There is still fruit, so it's not just acidic nastiness. Gruet's Blanc de Noirs gets all the press, and that's probably appropriate. I like it better than I like this because I like raspberries and strawberries and fuller-bodied sparkling wines than I do apples and citrus and lighter-bodied ones. But this is still very enjoyable, and it is a raging bargain for the price it commands.