Harvest Moon Sparkling Gewürztraminer Russian River Valley 2003  750ml Not currently available   Your Shopping Cart: Join one of the Harvest Moon Wine Clubs and save up to 30% on wines!

Vintage & Varietal

2003 Russian River Valley Brut Sparkling Gewürztraminer
85 cases produced.
Brix at Harvest: 18.4
Alcohol: 12.50%
Residual Sugar: .2 g/100ml

Grower & Winemaker's Notes

This fruit comes from the south block of our 30 year-old Gewurztraminer vineyard on the “Home Ranch”. The vines are cane pruned which ensures a low yield of approximately 2.6 tons/acre. We picked the 1.8 tons before 8 am to ensure the retention of the natural acidity. The juice fermented dry and we allowed a partial malolactic fermentation. This secondary fermentation enhances the body and creamy mouthfeel, yet still preserves the crisp, dry finish. We then took the still wine to a near by colleague who hails from the Champagne region in France. There Jerrald added the dosage and triage (sugar and riddling agent) to the still wine and bottled the wine in champagne bottles with heavy-duty bottle caps. We then brought the bottles back to the Estate to allow for refermentation and also bottle aging. By allowing the wine to sit in the lees (yeast) for 1 year, this also contributes to the overall texture and taste of the now sparkling wine. After 1 year, the wine went back to Jerrald and he riddled the wine and disgorged the sediment and then finishing it off with the real cork, cage and foil. 

I dedicated these approximately 80 cases to my sparkling mother Virginia.

Tasting Notes

We insisted on this sparkling wine to be absolutely bone-dry. The dryness of this wine lends itself to being described as “refreshing”. This wine pairs very well with any crab or seafood cake, lobster or crab bisque, oysters on a half shell and also tastes great with a classic Caesar salad.  This is dry Sparkling Gewurzt.

A great gift on Mother's Day!

Tasting Update: 4/12/09: Popped the cork on a ice cold bottle for Easter this past Sunday around the family table and we were all really impressed!  (no bias of course!)  With a pale yellowish hay color, our innaugural vintage Sparkling Gewurzt is still very lively with a richer mouthfeel than last  I remember.  The bubbles were still tight and billowed profusely from the diamond etched sparkling stemware.  Bach himself could have been behind the paino playing Goldberg variations for us as the wine was magnificant.  Subtle yet pronounced, the wine finishes with this creamy zing from a nearly complete integration of 100% malo lactic fermemtation, the small bag of french oak chips and still crisp acidity.  Yum.  We paired it with everything from Lox and bagels to roast beef and red potato hash.  Simply yum. With fewer than 16 bottles left, I'm looking forward to at least another 4-6 years of cellaring.  RP