Domaine Carneros: Le Reve

Living the Dream

There will always be people who feel that California sparkling wine isn’t “real Champagne.” While they’re obviously correct, the sentiment is silly, since the differences have more to do with style rather than quality. Given that the major California sparkling wine producers are joint ventures with Champagne houses, however, comparisons are inevitable.

The world of French sparkling wine ventures in California began in 1973, when Moët et Chandon established Domaine Chandon. This was followed by Mumm Cuvée Napa (1979) and Roederer Estate (1982). The idea was no longer novel by the time Domaine Carneros came along in 1987, but they had several things going for them. The Taittinger name was familiar to many Americans, and the graceful style of the wine was comfortable to them as well.

They also had Eileen Crane. After studying at the Culinary Institute of America and taking courses in enology and viticulture at U.C. Davis, Crane took a job as a tour guide at Domaine Chandon in 1978 and worked her way up to assistant winemaker. She was hired away by Gloria Ferrer in 1984 to supervise the construction of their sparkling wine facility in Sonoma. Three years later, the Taittingers selected her to build and supervise their operation in Carneros. In addition to good judgment, the family also had a level of wealth that was stunning—even by California standards. The winery they built turned out to be a monumental, European-style chateau that would not be out of place as the home of a First Growth in the Gironde. Their resources also allowed them to purchase a 138-acre vineyard that provided the last piece of the puzzle: the ability to produce high-quality California sparkling wine from estate-grown fruit.

Crane is still there nearly 40 years later, although she has stepped down as CEO and now works in a consulting capacity. Today, Domaine Carneros makes 95% of their wine from estate vineyards in the Carneros AVA. The operation is also a joint venture with Kobrand, a multinational distributor of wine and spirits that has placed the product in fine dining establishments across America. The bulk of the 60,000 cases consists of the vintage-dated Brut Cuvée. Just as Taittinger in France has Comtes de Champagne as the apex of their portfolio, Domaine Carneros makes a tiny amount of their own luxury cuvée, Le Rêve (“the dream”).

Le Rêve ($128) is a Blanc de Blancs consisting of 100% estate-grown Chardonnay. The nose is clean and fresh, with floral tones and notes of vanilla and almonds. In terms of taste, this wine is the gift that keeps on giving. It is vibrant and assertive on entry, with classic Chardonnay flavors of citrus, melon and pear. In the mid palate, the bright acidity takes those flavors and magnifies them, leaving a lush core of green apple on the finish, with hints of lemon cream pie on the extreme length. In a word, Le Rêve is simply luscious.

For most consumers, Le Rêve Rosé ($150) doesn’t really exist: it’s only sold at the winery and to mailing list members, and availability is limited to “a brief time each holiday season.” It has a very pale salmon color and a racy nose with faint aromas of red fruits. The wine is rich and full-bodied on the palate, with expansive flavors of wild strawberries and red currants resting on a firm mineral backbone. The fruit lingers, resolving into an essence of red berries that echoes on a succulent finish. Elegant and memorable, this is a wine that would compete with some of the best rosé Champagne on the market.

And so we come back to the question of differences between California sparkling wine and Champagne. The products were never intended to be comparable: it was always assumed that the California versions would be riper, softer, and lower in acidity. There’s a significant difference in latitude (38 degrees in Carneros, 49 degrees in Champagne). Despite large temperature variations, we can dismiss global warming as a factor, since both regions are getting warmer by the year. Preferences are personal, as always, but remember that Champagne has a head start of 300 years or so, not to mention an oversized prestige factor. At $128, Le Rêve is comparable in price to vintage-dated bottles of Moët et Chandon. Clicquot, Delamotte, Lanson, Billecart-Salmon, etc. As mentioned, it is also a hedonist’s delight.

A Conversation with Eileen Crane

I had the opportunity to chat with Eileen Crane several years ago. Although she has been called the doyenne of California sparkling wine, I found her to be down to earth and charming, with a notable sense of humor.

Why did Claude Taittinger want to make sparkling wine in California? What was he trying to accomplish?

Claude had come over on a business trip as early as the 1950s, and he fell in love with the undeveloped landscape of California wine country. The Taittinger family had many businesses, and wine was only one of them, but I believe he was inspired by the lush and verdant land he saw here.

Why did they choose you?

They were looking for someone who understood the Taittinger style, which is more elegant and less oaked than other French Champagne houses. I was a friend of Jim Allen at Sequoia Grove, and he recommended me for the job. For the interview, they asked me to bring examples of wines I had made previously. Within the first 15 minutes of speaking with them, it was obviously a match. They never imposed an outside winemaker or blender on me. Claude told me, “We are of Champagne, you are of Carneros.”

Female winemakers aren’t unusual now, but they were outside the normal pattern in 1987. Did you experience any static from the old boy’s network?

Not really. Remember that being a sparkling winemaker is a very small club, and it was even smaller 30 years ago, so they didn’t have a large array of options. If they were skeptical about anything, it was about the fact that I was an American, not a woman. Within three or four years, we had transitioned from skepticism to trust. The Taittinger family is very appreciative of what we’ve accomplished.

There’s a great culture of drinking Champagne daily in France. Why hasn’t that translated to the U.S.?

I think drinking Champagne or sparkling wine here is perceived as snobbery: you have to know how to open the bottle, and most people think you need special glassware. There’s also a lot of very bad Champagne and sparkling wine that’s served at weddings and other occasions, so the average person doesn’t have a positive experience with it.

Is the popularity of Prosecco helping or hurting you?

I think it will become the White Zinfandel of the sparkling wine category, but hopefully it’s convincing people that sparkling wine can be easy to drink. There are so many Italian restaurants out there that we couldn’t possibly compete with its popularity. Most of the California sparkling wine houses are half French, so it’s a different approach.

When you make wine, do you have a target audience in mind?

Not really. After all this time, people have found us. We’re a small winery with a large visitor’s center, and we have an established clientele, along with a Wine Club that goes back several decades. We attract consumers who want a more elegant style of sparkling wine.

Where are things heading five or ten years from now?

We’re 90-95% estate grown, and that will increase to 100% over time. When dealing with estate vineyards, there’s a huge difference in quality. You can control the planting, pruning, clones and every other aspect of winegrowing. You have the luxury of having the same people working the land over a long period of time. When you buy fruit, you don’t have the same connection to the vineyard.

One of the important aspects of what we do is that I’ve been here so long. If you’re a chef, you make the same specialty dish 2 or 30 times each night, but a winemaker only gets to make wine once a year. So it takes a long time to get it right, and hopefully that’s what we’ve done.