Sparkling Albariño Extra Brut 2023, CARBONISTE

Don’t let the crown cap fool you, this sparkling Albariño underwent secondary fermentation in the bottle, just like a Champagne! The fruit for this wine comes from a dry-farmed vineyard on Andrus Island that is well fed with nutrients from the Sacramento river. A beautiful, fruit forward nose gives way to just enough complexity to make this a great food wine, but you’d be just as happy sipping it all by itself. Tart berries & stone fruits make it a great aperitif!

Vineyard
The Gomes family has been farming on Andrus Island since the 1800’s when they immigrated from Portugal, where Albariño (Alvarinho) is grown extensively in Vinho Verde near the Atlantic Ocean. This site has deep, rich soil, well fed from the Sacramento River. It is dry farmed without cultivation and is transitioning to organic farming certification.

Winemaking (Traditional + Modern)
After harvest, grapes were pressed whole cluster and settled for 2 days as juice. Clear juice helps to retain the purity and focus of this wine. The juice was fermented in tank with native yeast at 60-65°F for 3 weeks. The fermentation sediment was kept with the wine until bottling without the addition of sulfur dioxide or the presence of malolactic fermentation. The wine was bottled with fresh yeast and a small amount of sugar.

After 4 months in bottle, the yeast had consumed the sugar, the sediment was removed, and a small amount of wine and sugar was added back. After a light dosage, the bottles were capped again in order to preserve the natural youth and freshness of the wine.

Carboniste prefers crown caps as a final closure. They are safe and easy to open, and they are trusted across the world to age wines before disgorging (including Champagne!)

About the Winery

After meeting at UC Davis, Dan and Jacqueline Person worked around the world, then around California. These experiences informed their perspectives on winemaking. Dan worked for Schramsberg Vineyards for 3 years, making traditional sparkling wines from California grapes. Based on that experience, Dan decided there was a need for a new interpretation of California sparkling wine. Jacqueline was concurrently making still wines from a variety of terroirs across the Golden State, terroirs that have inspired the vineyard selections for CARBONISTE.

Dan Person

“In my mind, you don’t try to make Bordeaux in Burgundy, that would be silly … So why are we, in California, trying to make Champagne? The climate is very different, the soil is different, fundamentally we have a different terroir … So I launched this company as an experiment to figure out what we could be doing in California that’s not simply an emulation of Champagne. Imagine you take a piece of fruit from the outside of a tree, sitting in the sun and it's really ripe and warm, it has a very strong fruit expression. If you get fruit from the shady part of the tree, it's still hard and not ripe. Fundamentally what happens in California is that we have all the sunshine, all the sweetness, and you can taste it … In a blind tasting, you would never be confused once you learn the difference.”

Jacqueline Person

“I love wines of distinction. Winemakers around the world are working to produce unique wines from their cellars, using their fruit. Wines of place and style. Making these wines is a noble pursuit, which we hope to accomplish at CARBONISTE.”