11 Ways to Celebrate the Holidays with Sparkling Wine

Let us help you impress your friends

with spectacular sparkling wine and food pairings!

 

 

Ashley Herzberg (Amista Winemaker), my husband Mike and I love our Sparkling Holidays Soiree and look forward to it every year. The holiday season is a time for gathering with family and friends, enjoying special treats, and proposing toasts to health, happiness, and friendship. Sparkling wine goes with an extensive array of dishes and occasions, but it’s a must for the holidays. For the past eleven years, we have hosted a sparkling holiday party with superb local chefs who have created some incredible sparkling wine and food pairings.

These pairings wowed our guests, and they are sure to wow yours. I am excited to share my eleven favorite pairings of Amista sparkling wines with delectable dishes. But first I want to tell you how our sparkling soiree came to be. Or you can go directly to the pairings.

We hosted our first holiday party in 2007, having just opened our tasting room that August. We were excited to finally have a place to have a party. We decided on an afternoon open house and did the same thing the following year.

When we were ready to release our first sparkling wine, we decided it would make its debut at our holiday party. But an open house just didn’t seem to have the right sparkle. No more mundane open houses for us. We wanted something special for our club members and their guests. We introduced Amista Sparkling Holidays in 2009, an early evening soiree with live music, passed hors d'oeuvres and a massive tree with glittering lights in the middle of a festively decorated tasting room. It’s the one time a year we trade in our jeans and vests and get all dressed up. Mike can often be seen in his tux!

Mike performed his first sabrage at that inaugural event, opening the bottle of bubbles with a saber. It only took six tries! How do you perform a sabrage, you ask? After carefully removing the foil and wire cage from the bottle, you hold the bottle in one hand by its end and the saber in the other.

The trick is to find the seam in the bottle and quickly run the saber along the seam from the end of the bottle to the neck. If successful, the lip of the glass and the cork come out with a pop! Be sure to point the bottle away from everyone because the glass lip and cork come out at lightening speed. The glass cuts cleanly making it possible to safely pour the wine and our guests always line up to get the first taste of those festive bubbles. 

Our sparkling soiree and the sabrage ceremony have become traditions over the last 11 years.The tradition has become so important that we even found a way to have the party during COVID. We moved the tree outside under our new solar covered patio and set up small bistro tables, six feet apart for our guests.

It was a very chilly evening and the heaters we ordered had not yet arrived because it seemed everyone was buying heaters at the time. Our club members were undaunted and dressed up for the affair complete with face masks and multiple layers of clothing plus scarves, gloves, and hats. Everyone was thrilled to be out after spending so many months cloistered at home and the mood was celebratory.

That night we introduced another tradition, a sparkling cocktail! Our friend Tara Jasper, founder, and chief distiller at Sipsong Spirits, created a signature cocktail just for the occasion. Freshly squeezed orange juice, Tara’s hand-crafted Indira gin, Amista Sparkling Syrah and a garnish of fresh thyme and cranberries served as the welcome for a truly, madly sparkling evening!

One year I decided it was time for me to try the sabrage. I was nervous. Maybe that was the problem. I’m not sure exactly what happened but instead of the glass lip and cork flying out, the whole bottle kind of exploded. I was surprised but relieved that everyone was safe…except me. I eventually noticed a chunk of glass in my index finger. Fortunately for me, we had three club members who are surgeons attending the event that night. They escorted me into the back, removed the glass, washed, and bandaged the wound and declared me ready to party on! It was a good reminder to be extremely careful when performing a sabrage. I know they say you should get right back on the horse that threw you, but honestly, I haven’t tried a sabrage since. So, I stick with my bubbles and bites. Here are my eleven favorites.

11 KILLER PAIRINGS WITH AMISTA SPARKLING WINES

Blanc de Blanc with Tuscan calamari crostini

Sparkling Syrah with caramelized onions, blue cheese, and fig pizzettas

Sparkling Syrah with mushrooms stuffed with Italian fennel sausage

Sparkling Syrah with French cheesecake and raspberry coulis

Blanc de Blanc with lemon chive risotto cakes

Sparkling Syrah with seared ahi on a crisp wonton drizzled with wasabi aioli

Blanc de Blanc with Dungeness crab, marinated artichoke, and gruyere tart

Sparkling Grenache with lobster and brie mini puff pastry cups

Sparkling Syrah with cranberry-brie bites in mini pastry shells

Sparkling Mataró with mini brioche, Laura Chenel goat cheese, roasted pear, and pomegranate glaze

Sparkling Fusión with yellowtail sashimi, avocado, pickled red onions, pomegranate, and quinoa

We are looking forward to our 12th sparkling soiree this Saturday. I can’t wait to see our friends, try new pairings, taste the latest cocktail Tara is creating for us and watch someone (else) as they perform the traditional sabrage ceremony.

Cheers to a joyous holiday season filled with good food, good (sparkling) wine and good friends.

9 Sparkling Wineries to Visit in Sonoma this Holiday Season

3 Surprising Reasons Sparkling Syrah and Thanksgiving are the Perfect Pairing!

Add good friends and you have the secret for good times

Let’s drink a Thanksgiving toast to friendship!

 

 

Yes, our Sparkling Syrah, which is a Rosé, will surprise you with how beautifully it goes with Thanksgiving dinner! But more about that in a minute. First, I want to talk a little about giving thanks. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and one of the things I am most thankful for as a wine business owner is the many friends who have shared our wine journey.

Amista means making friends (literally “it makes friends” in Spanish) and we chose it because our friends have always been our best cheerleaders, supporters, and sounding boards. It’s also because we believe that wine is better with friends!

Today I am reminiscing about an unforgettable time we had in Prague four years ago this month with dear friends Traudl, Bertram and their daughter Anina from Germany. My husband, Mike, met Bertram during his time at IBM when Bertram came to work on a post-graduate studies program. We quickly became friends with Bertram and Traudl when we were living in the Silicon Valley, gathering for dinner and, of course, wine.

Traudl and I have always been big fans of bubbles long before we knew we would start a winery and make our own sparkling wines in our new home in Sonoma County. Our friendship has endured over time and distance, even after they moved back to Munich and had a daughter – who was born (three weeks early) while Bertram was visiting us in California.

Our rendezvous in Prague came about because Amista was one of the winery hosts for a wine cruise on the Danube in November of 2017 and we planned to spend a few days in Prague following the cruise. It was an amazing cruise – but more about that in another post! It was the perfect reason to arrange to meet our long-time friends in Prague. The three of them all happened to be in different cities – Brussels, Munich, and Cologne – so it was a happy gathering for all of us.

Bertram was excited to introduce us to U Modré Kachničky, an intimate restaurant in Prague’s old town, that he had discovered on one of his business trips to the city. We went for a late and very long lunch in a cozy room we had all to ourselves. Good thing because there were many animated stories and raucous laughter as we caught up on each other’s lives! The afternoon was extraordinary, first and foremost because we realized once again that despite not being together for several years, it felt like only yesterday.

As has always been our custom, Traudl and I started with a glass of Champagne and Bertram and Mike started with a beer – this time a Czech beer. The food and service were spectacular. The restaurant is famous for its roast duck (the name of the restaurant means “at the blue duckling”), and it was hands down the best I’ve ever eaten. Bertram chose a lovely Czech red wine to go with our meal and all the ingredients for a remarkable afternoon came together. 

The previous evening Bertram, Traudl and Anina came for “cocktails” to our charming old-world apartment overlooking a picturesque plaza that we booked for our stay in Prague. We were excited to surprise them with a toast to friendship with our own Amista Vineyards Sparkling Blanc de Blanc that we had squirreled away after our winemaker dinner on the cruise.

We have gathered in many places over the decades. One year they all came to New Jersey to celebrate the millennium. Another time, Traudl and Anina came to Healdsburg to help us ring in the new year. That occasion also involved duck. Traudl made her famous Duck Breast with Balsamic Raspberry Sauce and the most decadent potatoes au gratin I’ve ever tasted. We introduced her to our Amista Sparkling Rosé of Syrah, which was a beautiful counterpoint to the rich duck and potato gratin.

Sparkling Syrah is also our favorite wine to pair with Thanksgiving dinner and here are my top 3 reasons why:

1. It has the tannins to stand up to hearty dishes

2. Its effervescence and bright flavors cleanse the palate

3. It brings a splash of joyous color to the Thanksgiving table

There are many sparkling moments to mark our friendship over the years, but probably the most heartwarming and wonderful was the day Mike and I flew to Munich to surprise Traudl for her 40th birthday. We made secret arrangements with Bertram to be in Munich for the special occasion and had the neighbors let us into their home just before Traudl arrived back from work. When she came up the stairs and into the living room and saw me sitting there, she screamed with joy – at least I hope it was joy and not terror! Of course, we marked the moment with a bottle of Champagne!

I hope you’ll drink a toast to good friends, good wine, and good times, along with me, this Thanksgiving.

 

Meet the Winery Dogs of Amista Vineyards

What’s the Difference Between Champagne and Sparkling Wine?

Only the region where it’s made!

That’s why we call our Amista bubbles “sparkling wines” and not Champagne.

 

 

If your bubbles are not made in the Champagne region of France, you cannot call them Champagne. It’s a regulatory distinction, not a difference in grapes or the method used to produce the wine.

The method used in Champagne is called Methode Champenoise or Méthode Traditionnelle. We use the same method at Amista and that’s what makes sparkling wines extra special! Still wines go through fermentation only once and are then aged in tanks or barrels. Sparkling wines go through an extra fermentation - producing the delicate bubbles - and are aged in their own bottle.

Although we use the traditional method for crafting our Amista sparkling wines, winemaker Ashley Herzberg and I love to use non-traditional grapes. The classic grapes used in Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Since we specialize in red Rhône varieties, we make Rhône sparkling wines. Each one has turned out to be a pleasant and delicious surprise.

Note: Today is International Champagne Day so let’s raise a glass to friendship. You can read more about "The Difference Between Champagne and Sparkling Wines" in Food and Wine.

 

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Why A Blog?

As a woman winery owner, I have been asked lots of questions about what it’s like to be in the wine business and live the wine country life after spending decades in the corporate world. Here are my stories about the wonderful world of sparkling wines – which I love – and owning a vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. I am grateful I get to live near the charming town of Healdsburg, California, in the heart of Sonoma Wine Country. As with any endeavor, there are glorious moments and difficult moments. For me, each of them brings new discoveries and learning, which is why I call them “sparkling moments”.

About Me

I started with an education in psychology - pretty much useless for getting a job - which led me to explore breakthrough leadership and a career as an executive in several global corporations. Following my corporate career, I became an executive coach helping CEOs and their teams build the leadership skills they need to achieve top performance.

Getting into the wine business wasn’t exactly a plan. As I look back, I believe it was a dream that my husband Mike and I didn’t know we had and didn’t know we shared. When we started out together, we never knew we'd end up living in Sonoma's beautiful Dry Creek Valley surrounded by our own vineyards. From planting our first vineyard in Silicon Valley, to tasting our first “garage-made” wine out of the barrel with friends in our basement in New Jersey, to eventually moving to this beautiful property in the Dry Creek Valley, the creation of our winery, Amista Vineyards, unfolded over many years and in several locations.

Owning a winery has catapulted me into a leadership role that is both challenging and exhilarating. I love crafting our business strategy, meeting our guests, and nurturing the growth and development of our team. I also love living the wine country life – farm fresh foods, beautiful wines, good friends – all in a stunning setting surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills.

About Amista Vineyards

We are dedicated to crafting distinctive wines that inspire you to celebrate the special moments in life and experience the friendly spirit of wine country living. We are proud to produce the best sparkling wine and Rhône varietals in Sonoma wine country, the perfect collection of wines for making everyday moments special and special moments extraordinary.

We are Michael and Vicky Farrow, co-founders of Amista Vineyards. Since we released our first wine in 2005, our goal has been to provide an exceptional wine country experience of Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley.  It is a dream come true to live in this special place and we’re excited to share it with you. We will remain small, and family operated, offering our wines through a personal connection with each guest, whether in person or on-line.

We are local. Our grapes come from our estate vineyards just outside the charming town of Healdsburg, California, and from our neighbors in Dry Creek Valley and Rockpile. We want to be able to walk the vineyards, taste the fruit and have a personal relationship with the people who grow our grapes.

We are sustainable. In August of 2018, our estate Morningsong Vineyards became Certified Sustainable by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.  This certification is only one part of our commitment to our land and people. We were part of project to restore the incredible beauty of Dry Creek and at the same time recreate a vibrant habitat for endangered Steelhead trout and Coho salmon. We built our tasting room with energy efficient insulated concrete forms (ICF's) and constructed a solar structure that powers the tasting room and vineyard irrigation. We believe a vital part of our business is to provide extraordinary learning experiences to people on our team who aspire to be leaders and innovators in the wine business and to impact others in lasting and significant ways.

We are friendly. Amista, loosely translated, means making friends in Spanish and we want your experience to be welcoming, engaging and fun. If you visit us in person, you can look forward to a friendly welcome in a beautiful setting surrounded by vineyards. We are also known as the best dog friendly winery in Healdsburg, California.

 

Amista Winemaker Ashley Herzberg Tells Why She Loves to Harvest for Sparkling Wines

Sparkling Wine Harvest – The Best of Times at Amista Vineyards

It can also be a challenging time

This harvest turned out to be one of the best!

 

Since we first started visiting wine country, I have always loved harvest. It’s an exciting time of year. There’s a palpable energy in the air with tractors rolling down the roads pulling containers loaded with grapes, empty harvest bins rumbling like thunder across the valley and the aromas of fermenting grapes wafting on the breeze. Add warm, sunny days with bright blue skies and crisp nights with a sky full of stars - what’s not to love?

In 2008 we made our first sparkling wine at Amista Vineyards, a Sparkling Rosé of Syrah, from two barrels that we turned from still wine to sparkling wine using the classic Methode Champenoise. In 2009, we harvested some of our Syrah grapes early to purposely make a sparkling wine. That’s the year harvest went from exciting to sparkling for me.

Grapes for sparkling wines are harvested early to ensure a lower alcohol level because of the secondary fermentation that sparkling wine undergoes in the bottle. If the alcohol is too high the yeast does not ferment in the bottle - the alcohol kills it. And it’s that reaction of the sugar and the yeast that creates the bubbles in a sparkling wine. Harvest was already my favorite time of year and starting harvest early for sparkling wines made it even better!

During the last several years, harvest has been more challenging in Dry Creek Valley, although we don’t like to talk about it because wine people are an optimistic bunch. In 2017 we had the Tubbs fire that destroyed hundreds of homes, filled the skies with smoke, and shut down our tasting room for power outages and evacuations. Over the next two years we had more fires and evacuations. In 2020 we had the dual impacts of COVID and wildfires in the hills just west of us that brought days of shutdowns, smoke, and evacuations.

Fortunately, the 2020 fire started after the grapes for all our sparkling wines and Chardonnay had been picked. But the red grapes had yet to be harvested and we were worried about the possibility of smoke taint because grapes for red wines spend time fermenting on the skins. The skin contact increases the possibility of taint. How could we make wine from red grapes without any skin contact? The answer was a Rosé because the juice is pressed off immediately and doesn’t stay on the skins.

As the smoke rose over the hills behind us, we stood in the vineyards with winemaker Ashley Herzberg and made the decision to pick Grenache for our first Rosé of Grenache. It turned out to be a sensational wine! As has been the case so many times during our wine journey, adversity made us more nimble, more flexible, and more creative.

Despite the challenges of the last several years, our club members and customers supported us every step of the way – reaching out to see if we were all OK and remaining in our club and buying wine over the internet when they couldn’t visit us in person. And our team stuck with us, supporting each other, working in new ways, and gathering for a virtual weekly wine tasting during the shutdown so we could stay connected. It was heartwarming. The challenges have also made us more grateful.

One thing that endures is the excitement we feel with every harvest. There’s something deeply gratifying about partnering with, and sometimes overcoming, Mother Nature to bring in another crop. And we’re always doing something new that is invigorating. This year we foot treaded the grapes that go into our Sparkling Tres, a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.

We also stomped Grenache for our Rosé of Grenache - in the vineyard! Everyone pitched in - our winemaker, Ashley Herzberg and her kids, our team, and our club members! And most exciting of all, we are fermenting some of our estate Chardonnay in a brand-new concrete egg – an Oeuf de Beaune – so we can add another style to our Chardonnay offerings. We tasted a sample today and we can’t wait to release this wine!

As with any endeavor, there are glorious moments and difficult moments. For me, each of them brings new discoveries and learning, which is why I call them “sparkling moments”. Harvest will always be a sparkling moment!

Sparkling Wines from Bubble City - First Up - Amista Vineyards!

5 Reasons to Love Sparkling Wine

My top 5 reasons to pop the cork!

...but it doesn't seem fair to have just five!

 

 

1. I love the sound of a cork being popped. It's joyous! Champagne experts advise that the cork should sound like a sigh when it's removed properly. I say, "no way". I like to hear the pop!

2. I love to see sparkling wine being poured into a glass as the tiny bubbles bring the wine to life. I tilt the glass slightly to preserve the bubbles rather than have them dissipate into foam.

3. I love the sensation of the bubbles tickling my tongue like little stars exploding on the tastebuds. All the more reason to preserve those bubbles!

4. I love to see the bubbles rising from the bottom of a Champagne flute. It's trendy these days to drink sparkling wine from a larger glass. I know it enhances the aromas, but it can kill the bubbles.

5. I love that sparkling wines go with such a wide array of foods. We often have a bottle of sparkling with dinner, especially with spicy foods that are hard to pair with other wines.

 

Still Thirsty?

My top five reasons to love sparkling wine probably need no further explanation, however for those of you who have just popped the cork on a bottle of Champagne or other sparkling wine and want a little more detail while you’re sipping your bubbly, here are the answers to your burning questions.

What is the professional way to open a bottle of sparkling wine?

The professionals say that when removing the cork from a bottle of Champagne or other sparkling wine it should sound like a whisper or a sigh. This is the most controlled way to open the bottle and ensures no precious bubbles are lost.

Of course, I love the sound of a cork being popped. You can still open the bottle safely and treat yourself and your friends to that celebratory “pop”. First, make sure the bottle is chilled, and after removing the foil, hold your thumb over the wire hood while you untwist the cage. Then holding the bottle in one hand, tilt it 45 degrees, and with the palm of your other hand grab the cork and cage. Twist the bottle – not the cork - until the cork comes out with a pop.

If you want your friends to think you’re a sommelier or don’t want them to know you’re opening yet another bottle, follow the same steps as above but hold you palm very firmly over the cork and twist the bottle very slowly to achieve the “whisper” or “sigh”.

In all cases, be sure to point the bottle away from anyone. No matter how careful I am, every so often, the cork comes bursting out before I’m ready for it. Other times, the bubbles start overflowing from the bottle – I never know why because our bottles are always well chilled – and my first instinct is to stand the bottle upright, so the wine doesn’t come bubbling out. Wrong! It’s counter intuitive, I know, but the best way to keep too much wine from spilling is to keep the bottle at 45 degrees until the foaming stops.

Why do you tilt the glass when pouring sparkling wine?

Tilting the glass allows the sparkling wine to flow gently down the side of the glass as it is poured slowly out of the bottle. It’s also helpful to pause for a few seconds after pouring a small amount into the glass before resuming a slow pour. This allows the effervescence to subside preventing excessive foam.

How do I preserve the bubbles after opening a sparkling wine?

Opening the bottle carefully (#1) and pouring it gently into the glass (#2) are key to preserving the bubbles. Did you know that for every carbon dioxide molecule that turns into a bubble, four others escape into the air? So, pouring gently is very important. Once I’ve poured my bubbles, I put a champagne stopper on the bottle and put it back in an ice bucket or in the refrigerator.

People often tell me they don’t drink sparkling wine because they don’t want the whole bottle at one time and it goes flat (I say, invite more friends!). Now I will confess that a bottle does not last long in our house, especially now that my beer-drinking husband has decided to replace beer with bubbles. Nevertheless, I have found that a bottle of bubbles will keep for as long as a week with a proper stopper. The only time it doesn’t work is when there is less than a glass left in the bottle.

What is the proper glass for Champagne or any sparkling wine?

The answer is that the proper glass has changed over the centuries, partly because Champagne and sparkling wine have changed – becoming more effervescent, dryer and more aromatic. Tastes has also changed. In the 17th century, “most of the wines made during this time were only lightly effervescent and pink. For the English, the coupe was the ideal glass to show off the charms of their favorite beverage,” according to Vivino News, Tips and Tricks.

Later the flute, or flûte à Champagne became the proper glass. Scenes of tall, elegant glasses being raised in a toast come to mind and evoke celebration. Flutes are usually notched inside the base causing that beautiful stream of bubbles rising in the glass. I must admit, I love flutes, the taller the better, and I love watching that stream of bubbles ascend and create a little ring on the top of the liquid.

Lately, I have come to appreciate a glass more closely resembling a white wine glass, with one condition – it must be notched. I want to see, and I want everyone around me to see that it is sparkling in my glass! If you can’t tell it’s sparkling wine by the shape of the glass, then you must have the telltale stream of tiny, elegant bubbles floating up through the wine.

What kind of foods go with sparkling wines?

Probably the most surprising thing I’ve come to appreciate about sparkling wine over the years we’ve been making it is that it can be enjoyed with a variety of foods and can be the featured wine for the whole meal. Before we started crafting our own sparkling wines, I assumed it was something to drink at weddings or brunches – although that was usually cheap sparkling wine mixed with orange juice. How else could a restaurant afford “bottomless mimosas”?

I could write a book on all the wonderful meals that go with sparkling wines. We now make six different sparkling wines, and we have fun trying them with specific dishes. We continue to experiment. Here are a few of my current favorites:

• Amista Blanc de Blanc with fried chicken
• Amista Sparkling Syrah with Sushi
• Amista Fusion with Spicy Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry
• Amista Sparkling Grenache with Pumpkin Gnocchi in brown butter sauce
• Amista Sparkling Mataró with Chicken and Sausage Paella
• Amista Sparkling Tres – stay tuned; we release this in February 2022

Great Tastes at Amista Vineyards