Great celebrations cry out for something bubbly. My wife and I celebrated a wedding anniversary recently and decided to crack open a Calistoga sparkler that had gone unused last holiday season. It was a wine we had bought for $28, if memory serves.
The Bottle: A traditional Champagne-style bottle houses this sparkling wine. The label describes the wine as 100% Chardonnay and 13% abv. It's a Brut style sparkler produced in the traditional Methode Champenoise manner of secondary fermentation in the bottle. There is some barrel fermentation employed.
The Nose: This Blanc de Blancs pours up a very pale gold with a tall white layer of foam on top. The nutty nose shows lots of minerals and a bit of a funky side, probably a by-product of the wood.
The Taste: There's a strong sense of lime zest on the palate along with some tropical notes. It's a dry taste that frankly left me rather cold at first. I found that it grew on me, though, after a couple of of glasses. I don't normally have sparkling wine with food - I'm one of the few not that attracted to sparkling wine in the first place - but this time I had it with English farmhouse cheddar on a wheat cracker. It was really quite nice.
