You asked, and we delivered: We are ecstatic to announce Bright Cellars' first sparkling wine selection! These sparkling wines hail from Washington’s Columbia Valley, where exceptional soils create the world’s best aromatic wines.
Aromica Sparkling Wine
Aromica sparkling wine is nuanced and complex. Its bright, uniquely delicious tasting notes are influenced by the world’s most famous aromatic terroir – Washington’s Columbia Valley. This sparkling wine embodies the fusion of Old World and New World flavors. New World notes of green apple, citrus, and honeysuckle mingle with Old World brioche and toasted almond flavors. Our signature Aromica sparkling wine offers the perfect balance of bubbly acidity, structure and opulence, elevated by the traditional Méthode Champenoise.
Stigma Sparkling Wine
Embrace the Stigma. This elegant, evocative wine reminds us that traditional isn’t always better. Aromatic floral and bold fruit flavors are immediately noticeable on the nose of this complex sparkling wine. Daring flavor notes of peach, citrus fruits, and lychee harmonize with the subtle classic sparkling aromas of fresh baked bread. Made using the Méthode Champenoise, our signature Stigma sparkling wine celebrates risqué twists on age-old techniques.
Méthode Champenoise
Also known as the Traditional Method, this is the most appreciated sparkling wine making method, due to the complexity and high quality the Méthode Champenoise method gives the wine. With this method the bottle is under pressure at 5–7 atmospheres or ~75–99 psi. This pressure will help create the sparkling wine's bubbles. One of the most interesting parts of this method is that the wine goes from still to sparkling inside the bottle. Producers store the bottle on a 45-degree angle with the cork facing down. This is a time-consuming technique and must be done with careful precision. Workers rotate the bottles throughout the process, but only by a little bit each time. This helps build the pressure and the carbonation inside the bottle while also keeping the wines aromatic flavors and quality.
Columbia Valley
Washington’s Columbia Valley is located across central and southern Washington State. It's famous for its aromatic whites and bold reds. Its dominant aromatic wines are Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay. Columbia Valley is a world-famous aromatic terroir that plants a variety of different wines that have bold floral and fruit flavors This is Washington’s largest wine region with about 8,748,949 acres of vineyards. This region crosses the border into Oregon and in total is about 11,308,636 total acreage.
Due to the area's size there are multiple meso- and micro-climates. During the growing season (180-200 days), the region gets on average 6 to 8 inches of rainfall. This does seem like a low amount of rain when it comes to Washington State. The reason there is less precipitation? The region lies in a rain shadow due to the Cascade Mountain range. Since there isn’t much rain and the region is hot and dry growers must use irrigation. Due to this challenge, farmers have a lot of control over their vines and each year vintages are relatively similar to the last.
Columbia Valley Aromatic Wines
What does it mean when a wine is aromatic? Aromatic wines are white wine that have dominated floral and fruit flavors. This is caused by an aromatic compound called terpenes. This is a natural compound and is also found in many strong-smelling flowers. Grapes that have these aromatic qualities also have high levels of a certain subgroup of terpenes called monoterpenes. This subgroup gives the grapes the aromas of rose, geranium, and orange flowers. During the fermentation process these smells can also be brought out more along with the added aromas of fresh baked bread. Columbia Valley aromatic wines have strong floral and fruit flavors. Their flavors range from orchard fruit, like green apple, to stone fruit, like peaches. Some of this region's wines even have slight tropical fruit flavors.
