2005 Korbel Natural Sparkling Wine

I've seen this bottle around, it's a few dollars more expensive than regular Korbel and is actually a vintage bottle....on sale it was $12 and I felt like it may be worth a gamble.

I get some sort of peach jam on the nose...candied peaches perhaps.

The bubbles keep flowing even 45 minutes after the pour – impressive. I'm getting stone fruit and tart apple – not much yeast and no toast. There's a syrupy sweetness as well.

The finish lingers for some time and brings some interesting floral and citrus notes, as well as more of that sweetened peach that presented on the nose.

Big fat meh. This is certainly more interesting than regular Korbel, though I'm not sure that translates into “better.” It's a simple, sweet – though not overpoweringly so – and an easy quaff. To be fair, most $12 sparkling wine isn't much better.