2021 Cast Blanc de Noirs, Napa Valley, California (750ml)
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A Quarterly Sparkling Wine Club Selection
Remarkable rose gold hue. Aromas of fresh red berries and hints of pie crust. The palate is bright, vibrant and fruit-driven with flavors of red apple, Rainier cherry and Melba toast.
Co-founded by John Miller, his wife, Jacki and Jim Demuth in 2012, CAST is a boutique Sonoma County winery offering a variety of hand-crafted wines. It is also a winery with an unconventional business model, adopting a distributed ownership approach where numerous stakeholders invested in the vineyard and became shareholders. This not only secured the necessary capital but also fostered a sense of shared ownership and support within the community.
The estate is located in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley, an area lauded for its distinctive qualities, and produces Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. They source their grapes from their certified organic estate vineyards, Grey Palm, as well as from sites in Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley. CAST is committed to sustainability, and has been a member of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance since 2014.
Winemaker Ashley Herzberg has over 15 years of winemaking experience. She started as a Lab Technician at Owl Ridge and then moved up to Lab Manager, where she received mentoring from top Pinot Noir vintners in California. In 2007, she became an Enologist and then Assistant Winemaker at Mauritson Winery. In 2011, she started her own consulting winemaking business, making wine for small family-owned wineries in Sonoma County.
The 2021 CAST Blanc de Noirs is made 100% Pinot Noir, sourced from Napa Valley. Ashley took three press fractions (cuvée, taille and hard press), but only used the Cuvée cut for this wine. The base juice was cold fermented for about three weeks. The wine was then stored until the dosage in early 2023. The dosage was 6 g/L and included Chardonnay and 1/4 of a percent by volume of Cognac.