Taittinger Domaine Carneros - bubbles and a view

One great thing about the wine country is that there are many little wineries, tasting rooms, and chateaus that offer wines by the glass. Some are by appointment only (more on this later) but many are open to the public. On our way through from Novato we stopped by Domaine Carneros, founded in 1987 by famed French wine house Taittinger. 

The building is in the style of a French Chateau and is quite large, with an extensive indoor tasting area. We did a quick stop, and rather than find out if they did tours, we grabbed a seat on the wide veranda - sans reserves - and grabbed a cheese plate and ordered a few glasses of wine. But since this blog is about education first, I should talk a little bit about sparkling wines and what their labels mean.

You may see the words "brut" or "extra brut" on Champagne or sparkling white wine before, and may equate that with strength of the wine. That's not quite it...those words have to do with the amount of sugar in the wine, and therefore, the sweetness. There are several classifications, each associated with a particular amount of sugar. I have created the following list, in order from dry to sweet,  to help you in your travels:

• Brut Nature - the least sweet. Practically no sugar at all, and super dry. I have never seen one of these for sale before as it's probably too dry for the average consumer.
• Extra Brut - one step sweeter, containing roughly one gram of sugar per glass.
• Brut - perhaps the most common, and double the sugar of Extra Brut. Still not that much though - each glass contains less than two grams of sugar.
• Extra Dry - don't let the name fool you; it's sweeter and less dry than most of the sparkling white wines you've had so far. 
• Dry - One step sweeter, and has .75 to one tablespoon of sugar per glass. 
• Demi-sec - Probably my favorite. Translating to "partially dry" in French, it's one of the sweetest, with roughly 8 grams of sugar.
• Doux - this is the sweetest, and I can say I've never seen one for sale. It means "soft" in French, and each glass has two teaspoons of added sugar. 

There are other technical qualities to each of the above classifications, but mostly it's about the sugar. Adding sugar is part of the winemaking process, and in Champagne production this is called "dosage" (French, so dough-sazh). WineFolly.com has a great analogy - it's like adding sugar or milk to your coffee to round out of the flavor. Drinking Brut Nature is like drinking coffee black; drinking Doux is like taking it with six Splendas and a quart of whole milk.

So armed with this knowledge, let's get tasting. The by-the-glass tasting menu was limited and tourist-friendly; mostly the usual suspects like sparkling whites and some assorted reds (with the majority of the whites being Brut). I am not a huge fan of Bruts, generally, since I like it a bit sweeter. Demi-sec, however, is totally my jam, and that's what I went with: a 2013 Vermiel Demi-Sec.

The Demi-sec is a nice greenish-gold color with an off-white foam. Initial flavors are of green apple and white grape skins; not much in the way of tartness, and overall pretty clean and crisp actually. The sweetness mostly comes through on the finish and the aftertaste. It has that white sugar aftertaste and a residual sweetness you don't get with some of the tarter wines. So quite good! I think it was $14 per flute. 

Having had their regular sparkling white wine, I figured I'd see how they did a dry rose. I tried the 2015 Brut Rose:

This was much tarter and more acidic - definitely more of an "edge" versus the Demi-sec. I don't recall which red grapes it was made with; probably pinot noir. Very clean finish, though, and lacks any caustic aftertaste. If you're a fan of crisp, dryer roses, this is the way to go for sure.

Overall, a nice visit. Although it had a large corporate feel to it, the service was quite prompt and the pours generous, plus the vista can't be beat. The Chateau is located at 1240 Duhig Road in Napa, CA, so give it a try if you're in the area.