2020 Black Spark

Norton

VA - Loudoun - Middleburg

$55.00 / 750 mL Bottle

Alcohol 10%
pH 3.31

Bottling Date 12/2020

Mark Squires 89

WINEMAKING NOTES Our Black Spark sparkling wine is made from 100% Norton grapes from our estate produced in the Méthode Champenoise winemaking style. After hand-harvesting and sorting in the vineyard, our grapes were gently transported into small lugs and then stored for one night in a cold room. The day after, the grapes were sorted again on a sorting table before being pressed with a specific sparkling pressing program: only the “tails” (final, and strongest press fraction) from the press was used to make this sparkling. Cold-settling occurred for three nights and then alcoholic fermentation began in stainless steel tank. This base wine was fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel. In October of the following year, the base wine underwent secondary fermentation in bottle after the addition of yeast, nutrients for the yeast, and sugar. The bottling was done by hand and the bottles were stored in layers via wire cage to be aged on lees. 5 weeks later, we proceeded to manually disgorge (or “remove”) the yeasts precipitate (or “lees”) from the bottles and then added a dosage liquor to each bottle (the dosage liquor contained a high concentration of sugar to result in a final product at 15 g/l). We then completed bottling by replacing the capsule closure with natural cork and wire by hand on the estate on demand. TASTING NOTES deep red color – candied red fruit – velvety texture – silky bubble structure – candy nose – purple blossoms FOOD PAIRING anything chocolate! – sharp or hard cheeses – pizza – sweet and salty combinations

Notes

Our Black Spark sparkling wine is made from 100% Norton grapes from our estate produced in the Méthode Champenoise winemaking style. After hand-harvesting and sorting in the vineyard, our grapes were gently transported into small lugs and then stored for one night in a cold room. The day after, the grapes were sorted again on a sorting table before being pressed with a specific sparkling pressing program: only the “tails” (final, and strongest press fraction) from the press was used to make this sparkling. Cold-settling occurred for three nights and then alcoholic fermentation began in stainless steel tank. This base wine was fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel. In October of the following year, the base wine underwent secondary fermentation in bottle after the addition of yeast, nutrients for the yeast, and sugar. The bottling was done by hand and the bottles were stored in layers via wire cage to be aged on lees. 5 weeks later, we proceeded to manually disgorge (or “remove”) the yeasts precipitate (or “lees”) from the bottles and then added a dosage liquor to each bottle (the dosage liquor contained a high concentration of sugar to result in a final product at 15 g/l). We then completed bottling by replacing the capsule closure with natural cork and wire by hand on the estate on December 10, 2020.

Maker Name

Katie DeSouza Henley & Tyler Henley

Vineyard/Orchard Name

Casanel Vineyards