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A FAVORITE FIRST stop for a first sip and first bite in Sonoma wine country, Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards was founded by the Ferrer family of Spain as Sonoma Carneros’ first sparkling wine house. Today, the winery is California’s most awarded sparkling wine house with more than 500 Gold medals and 50 outstanding 90-plus point ratings in the past five years.
But it’s more than wine that attracts guests to this splendid property. The treelined drive leads them to a festive and gracious Spanish-style manor where they are warmly greeted. When guests walk out to the winery’s Vista Terrace overlooking the vineyards and beyond, many are content to stay put and sample the wines, while others have planned ahead and booked more immersive experiences. For example, there’s Bubbles and Bites, a private tour followed by a guided pairing of seasonal bites and wines, and Gloria’s Wine Country Picnic, a private, intimate picnic experience overlooking the vineyard.
Here’s another interesting thing to note: Gloria Ferrer, for whom the winery is named, has a passion for collecting wine glasses. The winery has an amazing display of just some of her glass wine flutes, and there’s even a Glassware Exploration experience that demonstrates how a glass can enhance the flavors of a wine.
An interview with Director of Winemaking Steven Urberg
"Our estate here in Sonoma Carneros is the ideal place to grow excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for sparkling wine." —STEVEN URBERG
As a winemaker for an iconic sparkling wine brand, how often does your background in chemistry come in handy? The traditional (méthode champenoise) process of making sparkling wine is more complicated and chemistry intensive than making still wine, so my chemistry background is helpful there. But more importantly what I’ve found is that my chemistry background contributes a rational approach. This comes in handy when we need to address challenges and solve problems that are part of any winemaking operation.
The Gloria Ferrer winemaking team has a great range of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay coming from the estate vineyards. Are there any new projects you and the team are especially excited about these days? We are excited to have just released two new Gloria Ferrer wines: Anniversary Cuvée Brut and NV Brut Rosé. The Anniversary Cuvée Brut is a vintage sparkler with 67 percent Pinot Noir and 33 percent Chardonnay with five-and-a-half years of aging on the yeast. The NV Brut Rosé is a blend of 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay with 25 percent of the base wine saignée of Pinot Noir (there was brief skin contact to extract color and fruit character). Both of these wines are available in national distribution, and they’re getting great reviews.
The winemaking team at Gloria Ferrer is said to have created more award-winning California sparkling wines than any other. Why do you think this is? Our estate here in Sonoma Carneros is the ideal place to grow excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for sparkling wine. We have been farming the estate for 35 years and over that time we continually are learning more about the site and applying that knowledge to fine-tune our vinicultural practices to produce outstanding fruit. This translates into beautiful wines.