Winemaker Denis Hoey of Odonata Wines South in Salinas landed in the right place at the right time when he began apprenticing for renowned Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard after graduating from UC Santa Cruz in 2004. Odonata is the Sacramento native’s personal label, begun in 2005: it’s the Japanese word for dragonfly, as the name Dragonfly Cellars was already taken.
Through Emery’s complex grapevine of connections, Hoey began making sparkling Riesling from Monterey for a client and his world opened up to bubbles. He now makes several, including a 2020 Blanc de Noir of Grenache from Hook Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands, as well as a 2019 sparkling Riesling from Tondre Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands. His Bubbles Club gets you two bottles quarterly.
Another Santa Lucia Highlands superstar that’s made the closest thing to Champagne since 2006, Caraccioli Cellars employs techniques learned from a French master who worked for Roederer. The 2017 Caraccioli Brut is fine-bubbled, and the 2017 brut rose has hints of raspberry.
The rare Fogarty 2012 Estate Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine, Santa Cruz Mountains, is 100 percent chardonnay, sourced from Portola Springs (51 percent) and Langley Hill Vineyards (49 percent). It was en tirage for two years and nine months, and was disgorged in February 2016. There’s no more in the pipeline, so if you trade in rarities, make haste.
At Equinox Cellars in Santa Cruz, Barry Jackson, aka the Baron of Bubbles and self-proclaimed Fizz Whiz, offers everything from a sparkly young grenache to a 20-year extended en tirage yeast bomb made from 2001 vintage Trout Gulch Vineyard chardonnay (Aptos). More recent disgorgements include the 2017 Monterey Blanc de Blanc from Arroyo Seco Chardonnay (en tirage for 2.5 years); the 2014 Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay from Trout Gulch Vineyard, fermented in neutral oak, en tirage for seven years; and the more spritely 2017 Sparkling Fiano from Mann Vineyard in Santa Clara.
Jackson is the fizz wizard behind many of the local wineries offering bubbles, including Scheid’s Isabelle sparkling and the 2022 Scratch Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay from San Saba Vineyard, crafted by Ben Lomond resident and winemaker Sabrine Rodems.
Ser, located in Aptos Village, is the personal label and playground for winemaker Nicole Walsh, who has, like Atlas, borne the brunt of the winemaking at Bonny Doon and now Doon to Earth, as well as Popelouchum, for lo, these many years, as Randall Grahm would say. Her 2020 sparkling orange muscat from Pear Valley in Paso Robles, with its orange and bergamot spice, is fizzy fun. She also crafts the 2022 Bonny Doon OVNI, a bone-dry, grenache-based, méthode champenoise sparkler.
In Livermore, Steven Mirassou of Steven Kent Winery offers a non-vintage Sparkling Barbara from the Livermore Valley and the 2019 Sparkling Pinot Noir from the Lester Family/Deer Park vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Next year they will begin using cabernet franc as the base wine for their sparklers. Winemaker Barry Jackson uses equipment he purchased from Mirassou’s family when they moved La Rochelle from the South Bay to Livermore.
San Jose-based Comartin Cellars makes Cuvée Jennifer, a brut from Napa County, in the traditional French methode champenoise style from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier.
Talbott Vineyards has a non-vintage sparkling made from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier from vineyards in the Suisun Valley, Russian River Valley and Monterey County. The dosage was oak-aged Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Chardonnay, which adds a bit of Talbott’s signature baked apple and butterscotch depth. This sparkler is dry, dry, dry, with a kiss of oak.
Source: www.mercurynews.com