Amista Featured in Vineyard Specific Sonoma County Bubbles for New Years
Amista Sparkling Grenache
Virginie Boone, a noted journalist who writes about Napa and Sonoma wines for publications like Wine Enthusiast, the New York Times and Food and Wine, featured a wonderful list of vineyard specific bubbles for the holidays. We are honored that our Amista Sparkling Grenache was among the wines she recommended. Boone describes it as, “Made in a Brut Nature style from estate vineyards, this is a bright, fruit-forward and fun bottling that remains balanced in the glass.”
Exploring Vineyard Designate Sparkling Wines
It is refreshing to see a list of vineyard specific sparkling wines. Virginie writes a weekly series called “The Good Stuff” for the Sonoma County Winegrowers, so it is fitting to celebrate the vineyards where the grapes are grown. Boone encourages people to explore sparkling wines from Sonoma County saying, “Take that exploration up a notch by choosing a vineyard-designated sparkling wine, which’ll highlight who farmed the grapes and where.”
Check out her recommendations at Vineyard-specific Sonoma County Bubbles for New Year’s on the Good Stuff blog by Virginie Boone.
Non-traditional Grapes Varieties for Sparkling Wines
Our Sparkling Grenache is the only wine on the list not made from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir grapes. Those two varieties are the traditional grapes used most often in Champagne and in many sparkling wines around the world.
At Amista, we love to create non-traditional sparkling wines using the Rhône varieties grown on our estate, including Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre and blends of the three. We also honor tradition with our Amista Blanc de Blanc, made from 100% Chardonnay grapes, which we’ve made every year since 2011.
The Debut of Amistara, a Sparkling Blanc de Blanc to Celebrate 20 Years
In 2024 we will debut a second Blanc de Blanc called Amistara to celebrate Amista’s 20th anniversary. Amistara is a vineyard designated wine from our own estate, Morningsong Vineyards. It is even more special because it comes from one small block of Chardonnay growing on the famous Wente clone root stock.