LONG VINEYARDS
1999 SPARKLING SHIRAZ
ALEXANDER VALLEY

Tasting Notes: Ripe, dark fruit - black plum, black currents and blueberries - provides a foundation of aroma and flavor with accents of cocoa and sassafras. The palate is at once velvety and shimmering with the tingle of tiny bubbles. The wine turns more complex as deepening layers of spicy oak, toasted hazelnut and soft tannins fill the mouth - and linger. Boldness and delicacy marry in flavor and texture in a surprisingly unique experience. This is a gorgeous Holiday wine.

Grapes: The Shiraz grapes are from Wattle Creek Vineyards in Alexander Valley, Sonoma County. Excellent terroir and a long growing season produced rich, ripe fruit for the base wine.

Vinification: We fermented the grapes in traditional red Shiraz winemaking style. We used one-ton fermenting bins to extract deep color and flavor; then pressed the wine in our basket press at the ideal time to give both tannin softness and richness. It was then aged in older French barrels for two years to add nuanced flavor to the fruit character. Then the wine was put through the traditional méthode champenoise: yeasted, bottle fermented, and then aged for two years on the yeast lees. In June 2003, it was riddled and finished as a sparkling wine.

Notes from Zelma Long: Sparkling Shiraz is a hundred year old tradition in Australia. I was captivated when I tasted it on my first trip and dreamed of making it here with ripe California fruit. The result is a seriously rich wine that is especially delicious with roasted meat, game, goose, turkey, duck and root vegetables. It is best served slightly chilled. It can double as an apéritif served slightly colder. It's too early to be sure about this wine's aging potential, but why wait when we have the holiday season at hand.

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