We are making our Sparkling wines with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes from the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. The Thurston vineyard is located at around 1,000 feet elevation.  The elevation is critical as in the Summer, the Monterey Bay brings fog to the lower elevations. This cools the evenings down, a trait that Pinot loves. The typical morning starts out cool and slowly warms as the movement of the morning air flow caused by the fog pulls back. These are ideal conditions for Pinot Noir and retain the acidity, which is great for sparkling wines.

We pick the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes early and cold ferment them around 20C for 5-7 days. This creates a fresh and fruity wine that is used as our base wine  Using the time-honored way, similar to Champagne (Methode Champenoise), we add yeast and sugar to the base wine and bottle it, for the secondary fermentation to happen in the bottle. We leave the wine for two years before we remove the dead yeast and get the wine ready.

Our 2018 Sparkling Wine won Bronze at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.