Iron Horse Winter’s Cuvée Sparkling

Tasting notes & discussion 29

Typically $75/bottle from Iron Horse
Vintage 2020 from the Green Valley of Russian River Valley
Available for AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Iron Horse: “Iron Horse is one of Sonoma County’s most prestigious, small, independent, estate, family owned wineries located in cool, foggy Green Valley.”

Iridium In The Glass

TASTING NOTES: “By nose: Generous and inviting, with layers of warm cinnamon and delicate toasted brioche. The palate is plush and refined, unfolding with notes of roasted nuts, bright citrus cream, and a whisper of mulberry, all wrapped in the comfort of spiced berry compote. Silky in texture and beautifully balanced, it finishes with graceful length that invites another sip. Crafted for moments of joy—whether gathered around a festive table or by a fire with marshmallows toasting.” (AbV 13.5% v/v, pH 3.15)

VARIETALS: 100% Chardonnay

BARRELS: N/A

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: The dosage.

The 2020 dosage for this wine includes 4 mls of 1983 Special Blend in Magnum — a tiny addition, less than a teaspoon, from a reserve wine that was already seven years old when Predator came out. Four milliliters. That’s roughly the volume of a single blueberry. And yet Iron Horse tracks it, names it, dates it, and adds it with apparent intention. Which got me thinking about the world of incredibly tiny, incredibly precise additions that turn out to matter enormously.

The most famous example might be the smidge of iridium in the geological record. Sixty-six million years ago, a thin layer of iridium — a metal rare on Earth but common in asteroids — shows up in rock strata all over the planet. It’s barely there. But that faint chemical whisper is essentially the forensic receipt for the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Geologists call it the K-Pg boundary. The iridium didn’t cause the extinction, obviously — the six-mile-wide rock did that — but the trace amount left behind became the key that unlocked the whole story. A ghost of something enormous, pressed into stone.

Four milliliters of a forty-two-year-old wine isn’t going to rewrite the fossil record. But there’s something quietly poetic about the logic being the same: you add a vanishingly small thing, and it changes what the whole story means.

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

A tiny trace can hold the whole story. What's your relationship with the small things that turn out to matter?

I notice them immediately — the details others miss are usually the most important

I notice them immediately — the details others miss are usually the most important
I trust them in retrospect, once I can see the pattern they were part of

I trust them in retrospect, once I can see the pattern they were part of
I add them deliberately, knowing their effect even if no one else does

I add them deliberately, knowing their effect even if no one else does
I'm still learning to slow down enough to recognize them in the moment

I'm still learning to slow down enough to recognize them in the moment
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