Blanc de Blancs

I'm the Vineyard Director at Gloria Ferrer in Sonoma, Carneros.

We are drinking the 2022, I believe, Sencia, which is 100% Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs, zero dosage.

This is one of our quote-unquote innovation, small production wines.

It's one that...

Franciacorta Satèn basically has three rules that makes this wine different from the other, uh, that makes this style unique.

It must be a Blanc des Blancs, so no Pinot Noir allowed.

It must be a brut, about sugar dosage.

And Satèn has less bubble compared to the other Franciacorta.

Even though it says

Blanc de Blancs on

the

label.

You're always looking to satisfy as many palates as you can, give people value on one hand, you know, these top celebration bottles on the other hand, and everything in between.

Do I have the right champagne? Am I covering all the categories that I think should be covered? Do I have a Blanc de Blanc and a Blanc de Noir? Do I have something that's oak-aged and something that's, you know, way more austere and mineral? And that follows any category.

The really great thing about that program is I have wines at two ends of the spectrum by the glass.

I have a $15 glass bar every single day, both white and red, the wine of the day.

Tell us about the wines that you're finding have most success in the markets you're working with.

I'm imagining the Blanc de Blanc Brut must be one of your best sellers.

Is that right?

Yeah, that's right.

The Blanc de Blanc has a lot of characteristics that gave us success because it is, so Chardonnay 100% is very well balanced.

It has agrumens, a very good minerality, also freshness, but very full in the taste, very creamy.

So the freshness is balanced with the complexity of the wine.

And that, for me, is the most important thing.

You see the acidity is pretty high.

They just tasted a Blanc de Blanc, 100% Chardonnay from the Willamette Valley.

And look at the smiles, CJ.

You just made everybody smile.

I don't know what specifics you want.

I'm more curious about what you guys are tasting, but I mean, I'm sure you're tasting the fruit on the front of the palate, smooth on the back of the palate.

I think our Blanc de Blanc surprises a lot of people.

Obviously, it's an Oregon wine, and Historically, we're known for Pinot, right? But I think as we've kind of grown in the wine world, we're getting more respect for our Chardonnay and specifically getting more respect for our sparkling program across the board, not just us.

If I'm sitting on wine and people are like, and then how do we order more and how do we get it here quickly? You love this? You want more of this? I'll have it right now.

And then if people fall in love with that, but they want to try one of the other, they're like, oh, we've had the Blanc de Blanc.

We want to do the Blanc de Noir.

Right.