Patience, extreme patience is required when something magical takes 20 years to complete! We’ve all heard of “laying down” a bottle of wine we purchased for 5, 10, 20 years or more, but to wait 20 years before even finishing the process of bottling a wine while it slumbers awaiting the final step in it’s wine-making process? Now that is the extreme of patience! And that’s not all!
What wine am I talking about? What wine could possibly go from good to magical after 20 (actually 21 years) you ask? This one! Ok, actually these two! Before I reveal the wine – and DO NOT cheat and scroll down to the pictures – let me tell you the story behind the magic. When the stars align, Mother Nature is kind and the perfect amount and timing of sun, rain, and temperature all appear at the same time, a perfect vintage is created. Perfect, that is, for making sparking wine in the traditional method from two of the traditional varietals in the mother of all bubbles, Champagne.
1999’s cool temperatures and long growing season allowed the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes for this wine to achieve perfect ripeness while maintaining zingy acidity. The result, the winemaker’s ability to create this “one-of-a-kind late-disgorged*” wine. The heightened acidity created an ideal base wine perfectly suited for aging, especially this type of aging. To be more specific, this magical nectar spent the entire time “sur lie” or in contact with the lees resulting from the wine making chemistry of Sugar + Yeast + Alcohol. This exposure takes the wine to an entirely different level.
But not the entire harvest. In this case, only 60 bottles. 60 magical bottles.
Just how magical is this wine?
Not to brag, but let me have my moment please, I was privileged to taste not only one of these beauties, but two! Numbers 49/60 and 51/60. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??? I was in heaven! To make the experience even more magical is the fact they were both amazing in different way. Same base wine, same 21 years before bottling and each one had it’s own unique gift to deliver.
The first wine’s shimmer of light amber gave a peak of what the aroma and flavor would reveal. Ripe stone (think apricots and peaches) and tropical fruits.shifting from juicy to intensely dried took center stage. As a result of decades on lees, nuttiness and creaminess keep the teeter tot in balance with the surprising acidity for such a mature sparkler.
Bottle #2 told a completely different story of its experience. Deeper amber color made me stop in my tracks. What on earth was I about to experience? So I did it, with reckless abandon I stuck my nose deep into my glass and inhaled with abandon. Oh yes, this wine was going to deliver! Crème brûlée meets apricot jam in a bottle. But still crisp and dry – how the heck is this possible! Magic, I tell you! Pure Magic!
Bottled specifically for Premiere Napa Valley’s 2021 auction, this 1999 Schramsberg Vineyards Brut Napa Valley Carneros Late Disgorged sparkler made my day – maybe my year! It truly is a W.O.W.!!!I’m just trilled my friends were there and snagged these.beauties away from the competition! More importantly, they were generous enough to share them with me! My wine-loving nerdiness reached new heights of ecstasy! Sometimes magic can be scary, sometimes silly and sometimes incredible. I’d say these two bottles achieved the epitome of incredible!
Cheers! 🥂
(*Note: Disgorging is the process in making traditional method sparkling wine where the lees have settled to the neck of the bottle, the neck is chilled to below freezing temperatures and the frozen lees are popped out of the bottle before the cork is inserted).
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