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Central Coast AVA: The bubbly list, Salinas to Santa Barbara

"One of the things that Champagne did wrong when they started putting out their marketing," says Jenna Congdon, the manager of The Station wine bar in San Luis Obispo, "is that they really put it out there as a special occasion wine."

That marketing message has worked better than those 19th century French producers could ever have imagined. 

More than a century later we still think of sparkling wine as reserved for special occasions like weddings, but especially for Christmas and New Year's when the lion's share is sold. Today's producers would like to shift that perception and remind us that sparkling wine is as seriously good as wine and appropriate for any time of the year.

Champagne is still the measuring stick for great sparkling wine but Americans are bringing the same ingenuity to bubbles that they brought to varietals which elevated California wine to world class levels.

Ali Carscaden, owner and manager of the 15c Wine Shop and Bar in Templeton, California.

"There's all these cool local guys doing really good quality sparkling wine, things that you wouldn't think of," comments Ali Carscaden, the owner and manager of the 15C Wine Shop and Bar in Templeton. "Nobody else in the world makes a sparkling wine from Grenache Blanc," she adds, referring to Clavo Cellars' Corazon.

In this edition of Central Coast AVA, a chat about sparkling wine, Champagne and a list of where to find the bubbly made by wineries from Salinas to Santa Barbara. Some of these makers employ strict traditional French techniques and others use novel materials like bottle caps.

Jenna Congdon, manger of the The Station wine bar in San Luis Obispo, California.

There are a wider variety of grapes used in sparkling wine production in California compared to France. Many producers on the central coast are looking forward to an exciting era of sparkling wine development.

This list contains all the producers we could find. Let us know if there's a winery we left out. Some wineries might be sold out and others might be holding their sparklers for club members. As of today all these links work but, of course, in such a list over time some are bound to be rendered ioperable by the website owners.

 

 

Monterey County

Caraccioli

ChateauSinnet

McIntyre Vineyards

Scheid

 

San Miguel

J&J Cellars

Four Sisters

 

Paso Robles East Side

Bianchi

Clautiere

Pomar Junction

San Antonio Winery

Tobin James

Le Vigne

Vina Robles

 

Paso Robles West Side

Carmody-McKnight

Castoro Cellars

Chronic

Clavo Cellars

HammerSky

Jack Creek Cellars

Opolo Vineyards

Wild Coyote

 

Paso Robles In Town

Arroyo Robles

Derby Wine Estates

Rabbit Ridge

 

Morro Bay

Chateau Margene

 

SLO/Edna Valley

Baileyana

Biddle Ranch

Claiborne & Churchill - call for info

Domaine le Mieux

Kelsey See Canyon

 

Avila Beach

Alapay

 

Arroyo Grande

Laetitia

 

Santa Maria

Cottonwood Canyon

Presquile

Riverbench

Scar of the Sea

 

Lompoc

Brewer-Clifton

Clos Pepe

Fiddlehead

Flying Goat

Kessler-Haak

Loring

Palmina

Sea Smoke

Stolpman

 

Los Alamos

Municipal Winemakers

 

Buellton

Alma Rosa

Mosby

 

Santa Rita Hills

Sanford Winery

 

Solvang

Lucas & Lewellen

Lucky Dogg

 

Los Olivos

Artiste

Blair Fox

Dreamcote

Fess Parker

Roblar

Sarloos and Sons

Solminer

Tessa Marie

 

Santa Ynez

Kalyra

Sunstone

Vincent

 

Summerland

Summerland

 

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