Dunites Wine Co. Sparkling Wine in Downtown SLO

If you love Champagne, try the new Méthode Champenoise Sparkling Wine in downtown San Luis Obispo at Dunites Wine Co. The crystal-clear Blanc de Noirs, means a white wine from red graped, sourced from Chêne Vineyard. This 7-acre site is planted on a gentle hillside in the Edna Valley AVA, and is thoughtfully farmed following the tenets of biodynamic agriculture that utilizes specific preparations that promote soil biodiversity and a healthy farm ecosystem.

Méthode Champenoise is how sparkling wine is made in the Champagne region of France, also called méthode traditionnelle or classique. This is the highest-quality and most labor-intensive way to make sparkling wine. It involves bottling the still wine with additions of sugar and yeast after a first fermentation, ensuring a second fermentation happens in the bottle, trapping the bubbles inside. It then goes through aging (and periodic turning of the bottles to force the lees to the neck of the bottle), until it’s ready for dégorgement (to get these lees out) and dosage (to finish the wine).

Pinot Noir for this wine was hand harvested, then gently pressed. It was fermented by native yeast in neutral oak. After 8-months of ageing in barrel, a liquer de tirage and yeast culture were added to encourage the secondary fermentation in the bottle. Utilizing this Méthode Champenoise allows for the wine to age on its lees in bottle, where it gains aromatics of toast or brioche that are famous in the Champagne style. After 15-months en tirage this sparkling wine was riddled and the yeast deposit was disgorged, leaving behind a crystal-clear wine. No dosage was added in the Extra Brut style.

Dunites also makes a Pétillant Naturel, a sparkling wine made in the Méthode Ancestrale.

Pétillant Naturel, or Pét-Nat, is an even more ancient way to make sparkling wine than the widely-used méthode champenoise (also called méthode traditionelle) originated in Champagne, France. In the méthode ancestrale, the wine is bottled with a crown cap before it even finishes its first fermentation, so it develops carbon dioxide as it goes. It’s not disgorged, often unfiltered, and can be made from any grape variety.

Pét-Nats are fun and popular, because they are easier and cheaper to make than traditional sparkling wines made in the Champagne method. Winemakers can try new varieties and experiment with different styles using this method, and it produces some very different and interesting sparklers. Pét-Nats have a unique taste, and can be unfiltered and cloudy, with fruity, tart and cellar flavors. Some are even a little funky!

But at Dunites Wine Co, owners Tyler and Rachel Eck make beautiful, traditional-style ancestrale method sparkling wine. They are a blend of traditional Champagne grapes: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, both fully from the San Luis Obispo Coast AVA. This is a perfect place for sparkling wine grapes, as the weather here is much colder than that of hotter areas like Napa Valley or Paso Robles.

Tyler has been making wine many places, most recently Fess Parker Winery, which has its own superb Fesstivity Sparkling Wine program, and Rachel is a viticulturist with many vineyards and harvests under her belt. They source grapes from some of the top vineyards throughout the SLO Coast, and now produce Albarino, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache, and Syrah.

But don’t forget the Bubbles! Head to their bright and airy tasting room in downtown SLO before they’re all gone.

See more! There are over 80 sparkling wine producers in San Luis Obispo County.