Roederer Estate

First stop in California wine country was the Roederer Estate in the Anderson Valley AVA in Mendocino County. Roederer Estate focuses on making sparkling wines in the methode classique style, which is how champagne is produced. We were fortunate to be able to do a full tasting including their vintage 2004 Rose L’Ermitage and the 2006 L’Ermitage. All of the sparkling wines that we sampled were wonderfully balanced with excellent representations of wines made in the methode classique. In my opinion, the best value was the Brut Rose, which would go perfectly paired with food or as an aperitif. The still Pinot Noir we tasted had wonderful hints of porcini mushrooms with raspberries and bright cherries and also happened to be a fantastic value. In Mendocino County, and potentially in all of the North Coast Super AVA, this could be, in my opinion, one of the best sparkling wine producers.