The Brut Cuvee de Prestige from Thorn Hill cannot quite figure out its provenance. But it knows precisely where it belongs.
It shares something with the nuanced, mineralic wines from Champagne. Winemaker Amy Thorn subjected it to the time-honored structure of methode champenoise — showing patience, riddling the bottles during second fermentation, disgorging. Yet tt is also fluent in the fresh, breezy sparkling flavors of California’s foggy coast.
Thorn readily admits to the wine’s indeterminate heritage. In fact, she credits the confusion for the Brut’s popularity.
“The magic is that it is a combination of old world and new,” she said. “It’s like dancing stars in your mouth.”
Yes, the fast running rill of bubbles rising out of nowhere and spilling over the top accelerate on your palate. But you are drawn into the wine as you swirl it under the nose. Baking sourdough and rising brioche speak of Paris bistros. Hints of pineapple, crushed and drained, alongside the promise of orange blossom suggest tranquility. A faint trace of sel gris and trodden earth reminds you of the finesse prized in French Champagne.
A sip brings you back to the dazzling, celebratory nature of sparkling wine. Hints of strawberry sliced so fine their fresh, sweet tart burst scatters almost beyond your grasp lure you one way. Candied slivers of orange zest temp you the other. It is at once fresh, bright and lively, with a placid stonefruit foundation and soft, almost floral spice. On the finish, a reminder of the baking bread and warm yeast that first drew you to the glass — the swift, colored motion of a party in one sip.
Thorn blends from still Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in 60-40 proportions. She allows the wine to develop on its lees in the bottle, to gain that familiar and comforting yeasty note.
But the artistry begins in the field.
“You look for different characteristics,” Thorn said, comparing her sparklers to regular wines. “You pick at lower sugar and higher acidity.”
This means she often harvests grapes intended for the sparkling wine in early August, even late July. And she presses immediately, coaxing it along through contact with skin. The Pinot Noir pomace lends a sepia depth to the color of her wine.
But the blend — light red berries from the Pinot Noir, stonefruit and citrus from Chardonnay — and the method lend a brisk, active, nuanced wine.
It is, simply put, one of the top sparklers in California.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
