Looking for an impressive Sparkling Wine for your New Years Celebration? We highly recommend a Roederer Estate wine from Anderson Valley in California. The California incarnation of the French Champagne house that produces the famous Cristal Champagne, this wine is distinctive and extremely tasty!

 

Roederer Estate L’Ermitage 2011 – $49.99 – #2 on Wine Enthusiast top 100 for 2018

Fine tiny bubbles and a long lasting mousse are the usual footprints of the L’Ermitage cuvee. Delicate aromas boast hazelnut, pastry, and pear. Mouthfeel is very pure, focused freshness wrapped in yeast creaminess. Lemon curd and nutty characters play together to give a very European tasting experience. The blend is 52% Chardonnay and 48% Pinot Noir. Only the best juice from the pressing goes into this wine and it is only produced during optimal growing years.

Roederer Estate Brut NV – $29.99 – #27 on Wine Spectator top 100 for 2018

Roederer Estate Brut, the first California sparkling wine produced by Champagne Louis Roederer, builds upon a 200-year tradition of fine winemaking that has made Roederer champagne among the most sought-after in the world. Roederer’s winemaking style is based on two elements: ownership of its own vineyards and the addition of oak-aged reserve wines to each year’s blend or cuvee. All the grapes for the Anderson Valley wines are grown on the Estate. Each year, the winemaker selects a portion of the best wines for aging in Center of France oak casks. Aged from one to three years, wines from this reserve cellar are added to the blend, creating a multi-vintage cuvee in the traditional Roederer style, known for its body, finesse and depth of flavor. The Roederer Estate Brut debuted in October 1988, and has since established its reputation as one of California’s premier sparklers, remaining true to the heritage of excellence and style of its French forebears.

 

About Roederer Estate –

Jean-Claude Rouzaud, then president of Champagne Louis Roederer and fifth generation descendant of the founder, selected the 580-acre Anderson Valley vineyard and winery site in 1982. Rouzaud, who has since handed down the family tradition and position to son Frédéric Rouzaud, believed that estate-owned vineyards were essential to ensure top quality wine, and had searched California for ideal growing conditions throughout the course of several years.

The Anderson Valley offered the cool climate and well-drained soils that are ideally suited to the Roederer winemaking style. This premium grape growing region’s proximity to the ocean gives rise to a gentle cycle of warm days and cool nights, allowing grapes to mature slowly on the vine and develop full varietal character. Among the very few California sparkling wine houses that only sources estate-grown fruit, Roederer Estate is meticulous about all its farming and winemaking decisions. The winemaking process begins with in-depth knowledge of the Roederer Estate soils to introduce open lyre trellis system or high density plantation, extends to the decision to farm vineyards organically and biodynamically, and finishes by painstakingly tracking grape maturity to achieve perfect balance at harvest.

Roederer Estate winery only uses Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes grown in its own top choice vineyards, which is key in producing quality wines. As a result, the winery can be very selective, and generally uses only about 70 percent of the total cuvée pressed (the first 120 gallons/ton of juice), and none of the premiere or deuxieme taille (subsequent pressings of 16 gallons/ton each).

The quality is also attributed to the addition of reserve wines which are selected from the best wines each year and aged in Center of France oak casks. Wines from this special reserve cellar are added to each blend, creating a cuvée in the traditional Roederer style, known for its body, finesse and depth of flavor. This balancing of reserves is the best demonstration of Roederer’s winemaking skills.