Lot 25
Vintage: 1998
Appellation:
Carneros, Napa Valley CA
Grape:
50% Chardonnay,
50% Pinot Noir,
methode Champenoise style
Alcohol by volume: 12%
Production: 6,000 cases
Availability: December 2006
Taste: Brilliant stone fruits-white peach, honeysuckle and orange blossom. Toasty vanilla tantalizes your mid-palate with fine beading. This medium-bodied sparkler has lots of green apple, pear and citrus flavors that evolve with a hint of caramel and biscotti. It's elegant and crisp with a slightly spicy finish. Very well-balanced. Perfect with cracked crab, oysters, shellfish and truffled popcorn or New Year's Eve!
Cameron Confidential:
Score of the Year! We bought these from a fabulous winery in Napa Carneros that decided not to launch a new $50 sparkling wine brand and instead focus on their still wine business. They came to us, we worked out a deal and you get the best deal on sparkling wine this year. You may ask why so pricey versus our other wines? Good question. Sparkling wines take a tremendous amount of labor to produce including hand dosage, riddling, disgorging and expensive heavy glass. Not to mention these are hand labeled, capsuled, and packed for a $50/bottle program. All of this adds up to the priciest juice in the business.
The label does not denote the 1998 vintage because the dosage used after disgorging is a non-vintage blend: however, this wine is primarily from the 1998 vintage. Who says they don't have a reason to celebrate? Happy Holidays from Cameron Hughes Wine to you!
