Once relegated to car races and celebratory occasions, sparkling wine has become an everyday drink. It’s the fastest growing category in the U.S., with double digit growth recorded in 2021. Winemakers across North America have taken notice. While the U.S. still imports almost half of all the bubbles consumed stateside, domestic production is catching up. And few U.S. regions better suit the style than New York State. The third largest wine-producing region in America boasts a cool climate perfect for high-acid, early-ripening sparkling varieties. New York also has a rich bubbly history that dates back further than almost any other commercial wine in America. In the mid-1800s, one Finger Lakes winery was even nicknamed the “Rheims of America” after the famed Champagne capital.
Today, New York bubbles are making a comeback. Whether made in the traditional method with Champagne varieties, or as a pét nat comprised of hybrids, delicious Empire State sparklers abound. And many believe that bubbles—just as they did 160 years ago—will play a crucial role in the future of New York wine.
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Once Upon a Sparkling Time
In the year 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot, the Civil War came to an end and 20,000 bottles of “American Champagne” were produced by the U.S.’s first bonded winery, Pleasant Valley Wine Company on Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of central New York. Two years later, that same sparkler, made from American native grape Catawba, went on to win honorable mention at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, making it the first American sparkling wine to win a European award. By 1873, Pleasant Valley’s “Champagne” had nabbed a myriad of top prizes around Europe. Nationally, its success was sealed when Boston’s literati, the “influencers” of the time, declared it “the Great Champagne of the Western world,” which led it to be named “Great Western,” a label still used today by Pleasant Valley, which has gone through several changes in ownership over the years.
Other early (now shuttered) producers like Urbana Wine Company, Germania Wine Cellars, and, on the next lake over, Seneca Lake Grape Wine Company, jumped aboard the sparkling train. By the turn of the 20th century, New York produced more than twice as much sparkling as the other major wine-producing states of the time—California, Ohio and Missouri—combined. Finger Lakes “Champagne” was virtually synonymous with American sparkling wine. That is, until Prohibition put a screeching halt to the industry. Like elsewhere in the nation, America’s “dry years” between 1920-1933 crippled New York’s wine industry. Pleasant Valley, where sparkling sales were at an all-time high in 1919, was left with 70,000 cases of unsold inventory the following year. The company survived, like a small number of others around the state, by selling wine for sacramental and medicinal purposes.
The Finger Lakes Reinvents Itself
Prohibition combined with the Great Depression and two World Wars meant it would take New York’s wine industry nearly 50 years to recover. When it did, its rebirth would happen on the same lake as before, Keuka, but sparkling was no longer the focus. This time, European vinifera varieties, most notably Riesling, would steal the spotlight.
But just as his father, trailblazing horticulturist Dr. Konstantin Frank, pioneered Riesling and other vinifera varieties throughout the second half of the 20th century, son Willy Frank, who was eager to distinguish himself from his father, helped to herald in New York’s modern era of premium sparkling. This time, the wines were made not from native varieties like Catawba but from the clones and varieties used in Champagne (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier), which Willy planted on land next door to his father’s property in 1980. On the same plot stood a stone house with a deep underground wine cellar, built in 1886 for the long-shuttered Western New York Wine Company. The restored building is today home of Chateau Frank (although all wines are now under the Dr. Konstantin Frank label). The cellar houses all of the winery’s sparkling operations.
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To this day, Frank’s sparkling program remains one of the most comprehensive in New York State, with an ever-expanding range of about 10 wines—from complex, mouthwatering Blanc de Blancs; mineral, honeyed-yet-bone dry Riesling Nature; and characterful, more experimental “Art Series” bottlings from varieties like Pinot Meunier and Rkatsiteli. All bottles are made in the traditional method by Frank’s dedicated sparkling winemaker, Eric Bauman, with input from family matriarch Barbara Frank.
The Franks are no longer alone in their bubbly pursuits. In the Finger Lakes region, top producers like Hermann J. Wiemer, Ravines and Red Tail Ridge are also producing world class traditional method sparkling. Many wineries now include at least one sparkler in their range. The majority sell for between $20-40 a bottle, providing excellent value.
“Just like with Riesling, we were the pioneers. It took 30-40 years before other quality vintners followed our lead,” says Frederick Frank, Willy’s son and current winery president. “I think the next big buzz will be premium sparkling because the same thing is happening. We’ve been at it 20-30 years and now our neighbors are doing it, and that’s creating this buzz. One winery can’t do it, but a collection of quality wineries can create that buzz.”
Island Bubbles
The buzz is happening in other corners of New York State, too. Southeast of the Finger Lakes, Long Island is also proving a stellar spot for sparkling wine, not only because they quench the thirst of New York City weekenders and suit the region’s beachy vibes, but also because they’re a good fit with Long Island’s terroir and provide stylistic consistencies year to year.
“Our privileged location and terroir of sandy, loamy soils surrounded by three bodies of water allows us to express through the grapes a rare finesse, with a unique elegance,” says Gilles Martin, the winemaker at Sparkling Pointe, New York State’s only winery dedicated solely to traditional method bubbles.
French expat Martin, who was born “at the gates of Champagne,” has been instrumental in carving Long Island’s burgeoning bubbly reputation. With over 30 years of global winemaking experience, including with Champagne Louis Roederer’s California outpost, Roederer Estate, Martin settled in Long Island in 1997, helped establish many of the region’s wineries and was brought on by Sparkling Pointe’s owners, Tom and Cynthia Rosicki, when it was founded in 2002.
Martin now produces around 10 traditional method sparkling wines, all from Champagne varieties. More than 20 years in, he has proven Long Island can offer a unique yet still-classic style of bubbly, with naturally high acidity and a distinctive maritime saltiness.
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Pét Nat and History on Repeat
New York wineries excel not just with traditional method sparklers. Pét nat, Champagne’s lightly fizzy sibling, has shot to popularity over the past decade alongside the natural wine movement. In a moment of history repeating itself, naturally highacid hybrid and native grape varieties are enjoying a revival, particularly from naturalleaning producers drawn to the environmental sustainability of more diseaseresistant longstanding regional varieties. Producers are also responding to today’s generation of tastemakers—the 21st century’s version of the antiquated Boston literati—as sommeliers and beverage directors in the country’s trendiest wine bars celebrate all things natural, accessible and antiestablishment. Hybrid and native-based pét nats, both in story and in style, are, therefore, perfectly on trend. They allow producers who may not have access to traditional method equipment to craft bubbles and have fun doing it.
“These wines occupy an accessible price point that puts wine back into even the most casual hang with your friends, hopefully democratizing wine after a lot of years of stodginess,” says Ben Riccardi, winemaker and owner of Osmote Wines on Seneca Lake, whose porch-pounding red and white “This is Pét Nat” bubbles, made from hybrids Marquette and Cayuga White, sell for $24 and $20 respectively.
Creative producers across the Empire State, from Channing Daughters in Long Island to Hudson-Chatham and Wild Arc Farm in the Hudson Valley, to Living Roots and Barry Family Cellars in the Finger Lakes, are making hybrid pét nats of all colors, shapes and sizes, from a myriad of varieties that proved New York capable of crafting bubbles that suit a fickle climate and even more fickle palates.
This article originally appeared in the 2023 Best of Year issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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Published: December 4, 2023
