NV Amevive Sparkling Mondeuse C’est Chouee (No 1) Santa Barbara, USA Polaner

This wine comes from a certified organic and dry farmed vineyard in Foxen Canyon, one of the only places in Santa Barbara County that can be consistently dry farmed. This vineyard is considerably colder than most of the sites I source from and sits on the most southern line of the Santa Maria AVA. On most days throughout the summer months, the coastal fog settles in the valley around this vineyard and only burns off when the sun is strong enough. Even though Alice picks this wine for sparkling, it is always one of the later sites that comes in the cellar.

VITICULTURE: Farmed using certified organic methods

VINIFICATION: This wine is pretty cool. Alice was on the quest to make a red sparkling and happy with the evolution of her first attempt! NV number 1 is about 80% wine from 2021 and the rest from 2022. The 2021 portion of this wine was harvested late October, destemmed and fermented natively on skins for about 10 days. The wine was pressed in the basket press and aged in neutral oak barrels without sulfur for 1 year. A year passed and it was time to harvest the 2022 portion of this wine. The 2022 winemaking program was the same, except I pressed off a portion of the 2022 fermentation early in order to add it back to the barrel aged wine I made last year. I combined the two vintages of Mondeuse and bottled them before the fermentation was complete.

AGING: The wine finished its second primary fermentation in bottle and was left en tirage for 3 months. We disgorged, caped, and cleaned every bottle by hand on one long day in February 2023.

PRODUCTION: 70 cases

NOTES: This wine is red raspberry meets strawberry jolly rancher meets 10am sips meets summer time. The bubbles are delicate and the wine is dry with a good amount of acid. Serve chilled, serve room temp, it will all work for this fun wine. This wine is ØØ.

-Winemaker’s Note