After harvest, grapes are delicately pressed as whole clusters in a Coquard press. This specialized machine-the only operating one in the United States-keeps the clusters stationary during press, rather than the more
common rotating/tumbling bladder press. As a result, the juice comes into less contact with the grape skins,
resulting in pure wine of delicate fruit characters. Sparkling wine goes through two fermentations. The
first-alcoholic fermentation-takes place following press at cool temperatures, and produces wines of about
11% alcohol. These wines are blended, cold-stabilized, and filtered. At this point, we bottle them with
additional sugar and yeast, a process called tirage. We seal the bottles with cup-shaped plastic
inserts and metal crown caps, then stack them horizontally for the second fermentation, called the
prise de mousse, or the setting of the sparkle. Following this fermentation, the wine ages on its
yeast lees, becoming softer and more complex. At J Vineyards & Winery, we age our sparkling wines for
as long as three to eight years on the yeast lees, allowing them to develop incredible richness and depth.
After aging, the sparkling wine is riddled, an operation that gathers the yeast sediment in the
bottle and traps it in the cup-shaped plastic insert near the mouth. We then place the bottles neck-down in
a freezing solution, so that the liquid in the neck-including the yeast sediment-freezes. Once an ice plug
has formed, the bottles will be uncapped, and the plug-with the yeast sediment trapped inside-will shoot out
as a result of the pressure in the sparkling wine. Finally, during dosage, we add a small amount of a
sugar and wine solution to the disgorged bottles as a final artistic gesture to add one more layer of smoothness and complexity. The wine will be ready to be sold six months to one year later.