Home > Drinks > Sparkling Solera, 2018

Sparkling Solera, 2018

by: Maître de Chai

none

Available bottle sizes:

Other vintages and/or formats available

Sonoma Valley - United States

Wine

White, Sparkling

Sonoma Coast

none

Sulphites

<10 mg/L

Grape Certification

Organic

Suitable for

Vegans

vegetarians

Technical Information

Vineyard

Organic (certified)
Grape Percentage: 100%
Average age of vines: 13
Soil type: Loam, Stones

Cellar

Fermented spontaneously using low-intervention
Sulphites: Low sulphites: <10 mg/L
Fining (clarification): Unfined
Filtering: Filtered (.6 microns)
Suitable for Vegans and vegetarians
Alcohol: 12%
Residual sugar: <1 g/L
Vessel type: Wood - Old oak
Bottle weight: 793

Additional Information

The Michael Mara Vineyard — planted in 2006 by Steve & Jill Klein Matthiasson — is a beautiful Chardonnay site just west of the town of Sonoma. This Traditional Method Sparkling Solera is a reserve blend of Chardonnay with components dating back to 2012 — our first vintage. What started as the “Intern Project Chardonnay” in 2012 has culminated into a sparkling wine that is a blend of every vintage we have produced. This will be our second bottling of the Sparkling Solera to date. This blend is predominantly from the 2019 vintage, while about 40% of this bottling is our perpetual reserve from vintages dating back to 2012 — which is why we refer to this wine as a sparkling Solera.

The 2019 vintage itself was a beautiful and bountiful vintage from the vineyard. Notoriously rocky soil is what characterizes this vineyard from others in the area -- when Steve and Jill Matthaisson planted this vineyard in 2006, they encountered what they called to this day, the rockiest soil they have ever worked with. Given that characteristic, they decided to plant the most naturally acid-driven clone of Chardonnay, Wente clone 4.

In this iteration, we have a wine that is bright, unctuous & textural. Over the years, making this wine as a still Chardonnay has provided us with a lot of insight on how the wine ages and what kind of textures it brings to the bottle, even with a few years of age. If both of us were to describe the wine with one word, we would say power. The acidity is only matched with the density of this vintage, making for a structured and delicious sparkling Chardonnay. This bottle could easily age for 10+ years.

Download Pdf

About Maître de Chai

Maître de Chai translates to keeper of the cellar, or the person responsible for the development and aging of wine. By extension, the humble cellar master is the person responsible for the management of the winery. Established in 2012, Maître de Chai is the personal project of Marty Winters and Alex Pitts. Together we look to make wines of high quality in a way that best showcases the sense of place where the grapes are grown and the personality of the vineyard. From the ground to the bottle, the character of the wine is the focus of our endeavor. We source grapes from unique and distinct single vineyards that are impeccably farmed here in California. As our name implies, we care for the wines in the cellar. We defer to nature, limiting our intervention. We taste and we wait, allowing the wines to develop and speak for the places in which they are rooted.

California, United States
5 wines on RAW WINE - View All

Continue Shopping