Don Baumhefner

My Wines

Those of you who know me and my wines mainly through Copeland Creek Vineyards may not realize that I have also been making sparkling wine since 1983, when I was working at Joseph Swan Vineyards. While most of those earlier vintages have been joyfully consumed, I have just released my recently disgorged 1992 En Tirage Extra Brut. So welcome to my new place on the Web and to my new sparkling wine.

En Tirage Extra Brut can be purchased directly from me.

En Tirage in Blind Tasting
with Legendary French Champagnes

Having just released the recently disgorged 1992 En Tirage Extra Brut sparkling wine I have been cellaring for almost two decades, I decided to launch it in a blind tasting with vintage French Champagnes also from the twentieth century. Since I made this wine in the traditional French methode champenoise with Pinot grapes from the Russian River Valley [Hopkins Ranch], this tasting was designed to provide a side-by-side comparison of the California versus Champagne terroirs...

"How interesting..."

When Bartholomew Broadbent told me he enjoyed my 1992 En Tirage Extra Brut so much that he wanted to share a bottle of it with his father, I was extremely delighted. After all, Michael Broadbent is generally regarded as the most unviersally respected wine authority in the world. I have wholeheartedly agreed with this opinion ever since I first purchased Michael's Great Vintage Wine Book when it was first published in 1980.

So after Bartholomew's recent visit to his father's home in England, I was even more excited to receive this video he took of Michael actually tasting the wine. Now I am understandably quite proud to be able to share this moment with you. Thank you, Bartholomew. Thank you, Michael.

 

Related Links:

My recent posts about Michael Broadbent and Bollinger Champagne 

and then information about the Broadbent Family Wine Business

 

Happy 85th Birthday, Michael Broadbent!

I know of no one in the wine trade more universally respected than Michael Broadbent. He is a Master of Wine with personal tasting notes on over 90,000 wines. And, according to Wikipedia, he has tasted more fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world.    

You can imagine my delight when his son and business partner, Bartholomew, tasted my 1992 En Tirage and said he would like to take a bottle to share with his father in London. My dog-eared copy of Michael's Great Vintage Wine Book grinned from cover to cover. Over the last thirty years, I have referred to it often for Michael's considered opinion on many of the 6,000 wines he describes in this classic reference.  

And now some of his detailed tasting notes refer to my 1992 En Tirage! After having so recently written that my all-time favorite Champagne is the 1959 Bollinger RD, I was bowled over when the first thing Michael said upon sipping my sparkling wine was, " Tastes like an old Bollinger RD."  

Then Bartholomew really put the icing on the cake by adding, "Is this the greatest sparkling wine ever to have been made in America?  It truly is a magnificent wine!"

Thank you both. And, Michael, please know that tonight we are raising our flutes in a celebratory birthday toast to your ongoing health and happiness. Your life is such a gift to us all.

Salut! Don

Related Links:
My recent post about Bollinger Champagne 
Broadbent Family Wine Business

 

Heady, bubbly and ebullient...

...That's how I felt after my visit to Domaine Geoffroy now almost a year ago. My wife and our two traveling companions were under the same spell. So on yet another gorgeous spring day during our stay in Champagne,  I studied the regional French map to consider where next?  The choice was immediately clear. It had to be Bollinger. Of course, for almost forty years, theirs has been the Champagne of choice for all the James Bond films. But, more importantly, their 1959 R.D.(recently disgorged) was my favorite Champagne of all time! And, in fact, I do recognize that their wines were one of the main factors in the decision to create my own bubbly. 

A Sparkling Review

From the very well respected newsletter of Allen Meadows,  BURGHOUND.COM

Issue 44     4th quarter 2011   October 2011

En Tirage 1992 Extra Brut Recently Disgorged Sparkling

91 points

“Don Baumhefner, the consulting winemaker for Copeland Creek Vineyards, has released the recently disgorged 1992 En Tirage Extra Brut sparkling wine that he has cellared for almost two decades. The wine was made in the traditional French méthode champenoise with pinot grapes from the Russian River Valley (Hopkins Ranch). Baumhefner has been making sparkling wine since 1983 while working at Joseph Swan Vineyards. For more info contact Don Baumhefner at donbaumhefner@gmail.com or visit www.donbaumhefner.com .

1992 Extra Brut – Recently Disgorged: A highly complex and distinctly yeasty and toasty nose is trimmed in slightly honeyed notes that complement well the equally complex, mellow and round flavors that culminate in a long, delicious and satisfying finish. This is a lovely and very impressive effort and while it is obviously not Champagne, in a blind tasting it would take careful taster to identify this as something other than Champagne. Worth considering. 91/now”

“90 – 94: Outstanding. Worth a special effort to purchase and cellar and will provide memorable drinking experiences.”

 

Celebrating Champagne

What if you were a California sparkling wine producer, and some good friends asked if you wanted to go to Champagne, France with them? To stay for ten days in their friends' apartment in a beautifully restored old chateau. To tour that legendary countryside together. And so you and your wife could celebrate your fortieth wedding anniversary in exquisite style.