USA – sparkling wine

Sparkling wines produced in the United States can be made in both the traditional and charmat method. Lower cost sparkling wines often employ the latter method with more premium sparkling wines using the former. The history of producing quality sparkling wine in California can be traced to the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County where, in 1892, the Korbel brothers began producing traditional method sparkling wine from Riesling and Muscat grapes. As the sparkling wine industry in California grew, foreign investments from some of the Champagne region’s most noted Champagne houses came to set up wineries in the area. These include Moët et Chandon’s ‘Domaine Chandon’ and Louis Roederer’s ‘Roederer Estate’, both located in the North Coast AVA. Current US regulations ban the use of the term “champagne” on any wines not produced in Champagne except if the label was in use before 2006. No new labels including the term “champagne” can be approved by the US Government for wines produced outside of the Champagne region of France after 2006. There are also traditional method sparkling wines being made from Riesling in the east coast Finger Lakes AVA of New York state as well as producers focusing on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as found in MCC.

Production laws do not really exist for sparkling wines either so there are no specific grape varieties that should be used with no minimum length of time that wines should age on their lees. Wines are often blended from only a couple of years of production meaning wines can still show some vintage variation, even in the house blend. This contrasts with traditional regions, like Champagne, that might use wines from 6 to 8 years of production to maintain the house style.