Varietal: Sparkling
Carboniste
Where: Gomes Vineyard is located on Andrus Island in the fertile, oxygen-rich Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Farmed by the Gomes family since the 1800s, the property is planted with rootstock from Rias Baixas, the birthplace of Albariño.
Who: Jacqueline Person, who is also a winemaker at Naked Wines, launched Carboniste in 2017 with her partner Dan Person, former assistant winemaker at Schramsberg.
Why: Carboniste’s inventive and affordable offerings help forge new territory in the realm of sparkling wine. Read their recent profile in The San Francisco Chronicle.
How: Fruit for this wine was pressed whole-cluster, then settled as juice. After three weeks, the first fermentation was complete. Sediment was kept with the wine and bottled with fresh yeast and a small amount of sugar. After three months, the sediment was removed and a light dosage was added. Finally, bottles were sealed with crown caps to preserve the youth and zest of the wine.
As Carboniste’s flagship wine, the sparkling Albariño “has accomplished our goal of making a wine that is truly inspired by the terroir that we have in California,” Jacqueline says. “We don’t want to make something Champagne-like, but just the opposite.
I think it captures the pure, tasty sunshine that California has to offer.”
