Two very good New World offerings

[Bucko]

1995 Schramsberg, Napa Valley Champagne, J. Schram, Napa Valley, California, $75. Very fine bubbles highlight this gold beauty, with honey, yeast and citrus aromas. Creamy on the entry and well-balanced. Delicious, complex flavors linger on the crisp, extended finish. A prime example of California Sparkling wine. 92/87.

1994 Schramsberg, Napa Valley Champagne, Reserve, Napa Valley, California, $50. A rich, toasty nose with underlying hints of butterscotch. Elegant and seductive on the palate, the wine is full-bodied, quite flavorful, with hazelnut nuances on the long finish. 90/87.

[Botafogo]

Bucko, those are indeed nice juice but are you aware of the sort of Grand Cru Champagnes with much longer time en tirage you could score for that kind of money?????

Cheers, Roberto

[Bucko]

Absolutely! CA is pricing themselves into extinction from my viewpoint. These samples stood way above the crowd of the usual Sparklers however.

Bucko

[tomstevenson]

Hi Buck

If you're willing to spend that sort of money on a California fizz, then try Domaine Carneros Le Reve 1995. You won't find any butterscotch, though. If you like butterscotch in your fizz, then that's your taste and that's fine, but in my opinion malolactic in a sparkling wine should be purely used for texture and should never manifest itself as either an aroma or a flavour, particularly one as dominant as butterscotch. Not that I dislike butterscotch - in fact it's my favourite milkshake.

All the best
Tom

[Bucko]

Well look what the cat drug in. I though some crazed publisher did you in......

You must not like barrel fermented fruit in your bubblies. I did not find overwhelming butter or butterscotch, just nuances that I liked. Guess it is a personal preference thing. I am not too fond of lean, tart Champagne. I like the leesy, toasty flavors, and don't mind nuances of BF fruit.

I trust that things are going well in the UK.

Bucko

[Innkeeper]

The Bubbly Man is back; the Bubbly Man is back! Good to hear from you Tom.

Carl

[winoweenie]

Heidy-Ho there Thomas. Good to see you're back lurking ( a word I found in another board whose members use it to distraction). Hope all went well on your latest manuscript.Looking forward to the new production. Have you named her yet? WW

[tomstevenson]

Hi everyone. Great welcome, thanks.
Bucko, you have me typed, I am indeed a Champagne tart. I don't mind barrel-fermented fruit, providing the accent is on fruit rather than barrel. And barrel-fermented aromas are by definition finer and more complex than simple oak characteristics. Le Reve is in fact 100% barrel-fermented and 100% malolactic. Just done with a lighter hand. Butterscotch can come exclusively from malolactic, but you're right of course, it is more often caused by a combination of diacetyl and caramelised oak characteristics. I know that you did not state the wine was dominated by butterscotch, I merely said that in my opinion you should not be able pick up a malolactic "aroma or flavour, particularly one as dominant as butterscotch" on a sparkling wine. Even as "underlying hints" butterscotch is simply too obvious. There are occasions when I have recommended a sparkling wine with hints of butterscotch (and oak, butter or other overt signs of malolactic), but I think that in all such cases I have qualified this with the fact that it would have scored higher without these characteristics, which merely distract from the wine's potential finesse.

[This message has been edited by tomstevenson (edited 07-15-2001).]

[Thomas]

If any of youse guys can lays your hands on Glenora Brut or Blanc de Blanc--whatsda latest vintage Gene?--you best do so. At $16 retail it puts most of what you speaks about here to shame. And Tom, not a butterscotch to be found...but you already knew that.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 07-15-2001).]