New Release: Blanc de Blanc 2008
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We are excited to announce the release of our new sparkling wine, a 2008 Blanc de Blanc. This wine is made with 100% Chardonnay grapes from our Argetsinger vineyard, a steep sloped vineyard on the East side of Seneca Lake. One of the oldest vineyards in the Finger Lakes, the grapes grown in its limestone soils, seem to express the delicate floral and mineral aromatics that is lovely to find in sparkling wines.
The grapes had a very favorable growing season with plenty of sunshine, but no drought conditions, and were all hand harvested on September 9, 2009. The grapes were pressed with a long and gentle whole cluster press cycle and fermented at a low temperature in stainless steel tanks with long lees aging to improve foam structure and fine bubbles. The wine was bottled in May of 2009 and its second fermentation was complete by August 2009.
This particular wine was made using the champenoise method, a traditonal method for producing sparkling wine that yields a higher quality, more complex wine with fine bubbles and a beautiful brioche-like aromas. During this process the wine maker starts a second fermentation within the bottles, and after a year, they age “en tirage” for 9 years, they are then hand riddled and disgorged, which occured for this wine during the first half of 2017. The time between when a sparkling wine is bottled and when it is disgorged is called time en tirage. The longer a wine is en tirage, the finer the bubbles and foam will be, and the more the wine will develop more of the brioche-like taste and aroma that people associate with a quality sparkling wine. This wine was en tirage for 9 years. Disgorging is the process whereby the yeasts in each bottle are removed.After disgorgement the wine is finished with the dosage, a small additon of sugar dissolved in wine, meant to balance the acidity in the wine rather than to add any sweetness. The dosage on this wine is 4 g/l sugar.
The perfect wine to pair with savory foods, we start every Ravinous Table event with a glass of sparkling wine and a savory bite.
The 2008 Blanc de Blanc is available for sampling and purchase at either of our tasting room locations.