Amista Vineyards Path to Sparkling

Serendipity and Sparkling…

…a story of adventure and gratitude.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, I'm excited to share a series of short weekly posts that take you behind the scenes, revealing memorable moments that have shaped our journey at Amista Vineyards.

A twentieth anniversary is a perfect moment to pause and reflect on the blessings that have shaped our journey. It feels like the right time to share a few stories that capture our deep sense of gratitude, joy, and fulfillment. Here is a story that embodies the spirit of our adventure.
 

Rosé of Syrah – A Happy Accident

I'm convinced that Amista wouldn't be Healdsburg's premier sparkling winery without a series of serendipitous events. In September 2005, we decided to try machine harvesting our Syrah for the first time. My late husband, Mike, was in the vineyard that night (machine harvesting typically happens at night when it's cooler) to supervise the pick. As the machine worked its way down the rows, Mike was captivated. His excitement grew with every pass, and he kept asking the operator to harvest more. He just couldn't stop.

The next morning, still energized from the experience, Mike received a call from the winery. They informed him that he had 10 tons of Syrah grapes packed into a 10-ton fermentation tank. When the wine started fermenting, it would overflow and spill everywhere — and he would have to clean up the mess.

Mike acted quickly, transferring 200 gallons of juice to neutral barrels, which don’t impart oak flavors. His plan was to blend it back with the Syrah in the tank once fermentation was complete. However, when we tasted the wine in January 2006 with our winemaker, Chris Wills, we discovered something unexpected. The juice, having spent little time on the skins, was a rosé instead of a red wine. It was stunning. Right then, we decided to keep it separate and bottle it as our very first Rosé of Syrah. This marked the first step on our path to sparkling wine.
 

Sparkling Syrah from a Class Project

The next twist of fate came two years later. Our Rosé of Syrah had become a favorite among our guests. In 2007, Chris asked if he could use some of our rosé for a class he was teaching at the local junior college. He wanted to show his students how to craft sparkling wine using the Traditional Method, the same technique used for French Champagne. We agreed immediately — with one condition. We had to taste the finished product.

When we finally sampled the sparkling rosé, we were hooked. We knew we had to make more for ourselves and our friends. We sent one barrel each from our 2007 and 2008 vintages to a custom crush winery specializing in sparkling wine production. There, the wine underwent a second fermentation in the bottle, transforming it into sparkling wine. In 2009, we debuted our sparkling Rosé of Syrah at our first Sparkling Holidays party. Mike started a new tradition that night by sabering open the first bottle.
 

Next Stop – Sparkling Blanc de Blanc

Our next sparkling adventure began in 2011 when Ashley Herzberg joined us as our winemaker. One day in the vineyard, I asked her if she thought we could make a Blanc de Blanc from our Chardonnay grapes. Although she had never made sparkling wine, Ashley, a fellow bubble enthusiast, didn't hesitate. "Absolutely," she said.

That fall, we harvested Chardonnay to create our first Blanc de Blanc. When we released it in 2013, it scored 91 points and won a gold medal in the Press Democrat’s “Best of the Best” North Coast Wine Challenge. I fell head over heels for this wine, and it remains my personal favorite to this day.

Cheers to a Sparkling Wine Collection

The combination of personal joy and public recognition fueled our desire to keep going. Today, we have seven sparkling wines in our collection. As a devoted lover of bubbles, I’m thrilled by our sparkling program. But even more, I cherish the unexpected turns and adventurous spirit that have shaped Amista over the past 20 years.