This Sonoma Winery’s New Sparkling Wine Is as Good as Your Champagne

Known for years as a rock-solid producer of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel, Sonoma’s Hartford Family Winery just released the first of its sparkling wines—a project years in the making. Their Hartford Court 2014 Far Coast Vineyard Blanc de Blancs, 2014 Fog Dance Vineyard Blanc de Noirs, and NV Seascape Vineyard Blanc de Blancs (a cuvée of 2008-2015 vintage base wines) are a stunning tribute to founders Don and Jenny Hartford and their team’s long-term vision to create world class sparkling wines from the far west of Sonoma County. When Don and Jenny first planted vineyards here almost 30 years ago, they were told that it was way too cold to get the ripeness required for still wine, and having proven their critics wrong, they let the idea of making bubbles germinate for years.

While most sparkling wine, especially Champagne and non-vintage Champagne in particular, is made from a wide variety of vineyard sites to showcase a regional expression, only a small percentage shines a spotlight on extraordinary vineyard sites. Taking inspiration from grower-producers in Champagne, the Hartford family set out to explore the possibility of sparkling bottlings from vineyards that they purchased and planted in the 1990s. “For almost as long as we’ve been making wines from our Seascape, Far Coast, and Fog Dance Vineyards though, we have dreamed that they would make stunning traditional method sparkling wines,” says Don and Jenny’s daughter Hailey Hartford Murray, president and owner of Hartford Family Winery. “When we first purchased and developed these vineyards, we were advised by experts that they might be too cold and maritime influenced to properly ripen grapes for still wines.”

Making sparkling wine is not just different in the winery; the entire process starts in the vineyard. Grapes destined to become bubbly are picked with lower sugar and ripeness levels than those meant for still wines, which winemaker Tiann Lordan says, “will highlight the characteristics of these sites in a unique way, perhaps more subtle, pure, and elegant.” In the winery, base wines from different harvests are stored for the non-vintage bottling. While their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are originally aged in wood, over time they are moved to stainless steel before they become too oxidative or over oaked. “We taste all the components individually and try to learn what they have to offer, then start blending them and see how they all contribute to make a complex, dynamic sparkling wine,” Lordan explains.

Hartford Murray explains that the far west Sonoma vineyards chosen for their first sparkling releases offer mineral-laden, low vigor soils with extreme marine influence, a prerequisite for maintaining acidity. “They are some of our favorites in our still wine portfolio and such great examples of the regions they are growing in,” she says. While these three releases are distinct, there is a throughline of fresh lemon and green apple flavors backed by notes of crème brûlée and brioche.

With a non-vintage program that includes base wine held for almost two decades and vintage offerings from their best vineyard sites, it is obvious that the team at Hartford Family Winery has been laying the groundwork for this stunning debut for quite some time. All hyperbole and cliché aside, it has definitely been worth the wait.

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