Palate
Light salmon in color, the wine leads with ripe strawberry, passion fruit, and pineapple. Méthode Champenoise adds aromas of bread and toast. The taste is crisp and clean. The high acidity balances the sweetness perfectly, seemingly light in body. The flavors are persistent, finishing with honeycrisp apple.
Harvest
The grapes for our sparkling wines are located on separate plots on our Keuka Estate vineyards. These vineyards were planted by Willy Frank in the late 1970s with the sole purpose of producing sparkling wines.
Winemaking
The grapes were hand-picked into small 40kg crates with careful bunch selection in the vineyard. The whole cluster grapes were immediately pressed. From harvest to pressing, extreme care is used in handling the grapes to avoid any excessive crushing or bruising. Only the first most delicate pressing, called the Cuvée, is used.The base wine was bottled the following Spring after harvest.
Secondary fermentation took place in bottle as per the traditional Méthode Champenoise. The wine was left in bottle with the lees for a minimum of one year in the underground cellar at Chateau Frank. Each bottle is individually disgorged, corked, crowned, and labeled by hand. The month of disgorgement is listed on the back of each bottle.
Food Pairing
Pan Asian Cuisine (especially spicy), Sushi, Lamb, Pork, Salmon (Grilled), Slightly Sweet Desserts with Berries.
