Drank: Argyle Winery's 2011 Black Brut

A unique dark sparkler, which you won’t find at stores but can buy at the Argyle tasting room.

By Martin Cizmar

Most Champagne includes some pinot noir. We tend to ignore this since French bubbles are a blend, and the red grapes are pressed directly after harvest, before the black skin can ferment and impart its pigment. Which is what makes this lemonade-from-lemons project so interesting. Dundee's Argyle is best known for bubbles, but actually makes a lot of still wine, too. However, in 2011, which, if current trends hold, might go down as the last truly chilly growing season the Willamette Valley sees in a generation, the upper elevation pinot noir grapes from Knudsen Vineyards didn't have the big body people want from a pinot noir. So they turned the red wine to bubbles, making a unique dark sparkler, which you won't find at stores but can buy at their tasting room. The bubbles give the acid extra bite, but as they dissipate you find it's mostly a thin, cherry-centric pinot noir with a little pepper. It does make a very nice pairing for holiday meals—middle ground if you're only going to have one bottle, and a conversation piece besides.

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