Sonoma - Californian Champagne

After spending hours driving through the Californian vineyards I was more than ready to sample their delights. Arriving in the Sonoma area late in the afternoon we decided to stop off at the local Korbel winery.

The Korbel winery is different to the hundreds of others in the region as it specialises in champagne, or fizzy wine as the French would have you call it. As the Korbels are clear to announce, there is a document which states that a “Semi-generic” designation can be used to indicate wines not from the original Champagne region as long as the name of the originating region (in this case California) is added to the label. I'm no champagne connoisseur so I was pleasantly surprised by the crisp,cool, refreshing taste of the wines which we were able to sample.

As part of our tasting we were given 7 complimentary wines to sample. The recommendation from the staff was that we start with the driest and work our way to the sweetest. These ranged from 0.1% to 6% sugar. We were also told, by the friendly sommelier, that all champagne bottles take 6 half turns of the metal cage to open the corkscrew. Another useless fact to pull out next time we are drinking champagne.

The appellation (where the grape comes from) is the Russian River Valley. In my blissed out state I can taste the California sun in each mouthful. Clearly I'm drunk. For only £10 a bottle we select 2 of our favourites to take with us. I select the Korbel Natural. At its lowest sugar content, this is one of the driest wines on offer and has been a favourite with many Presidents, being served exclusively at Presidential inaugurations since 1981. Karl chooses a sweeter more original red wine champagne. Both bottles are devoured as soon as we arrive at our cottage.

 
I go to bed drunk and happy as I know tomorrow will be spent sampling more wines.

This place is like Disney Land for winos!