N/V L Mawby Talismon

This thirty dollar sparkler came in our wine club shipment. We had it at the tasting room but it didn't leave much of an impression. Will it now?

Caraway on the nose with something vaguely savory Asian, ginger maybe.

Here's an interesting thing to know about sparklers. Cheap, crappy ones are often quite good served ice cold and consumed within 20 minutes of opening - I mean, pop open a bottle of ice cold Cook's and it's probably pretty drinkable. Good quality ones are often fairly mediocre until they warm up a bit and get a bit of air. I was at a loss, but this came into its own. Some citrus notes along with pear, a slight bit of toast, lots of crisp acid, a bit of caramel - all while being quite dry. Very nice.

Ripe red apple, rye toast, and something of a citron quality linger on the finish.

Pop it cold, let it sit for an hour, and dig in. All that being said, for thirty bucks I'm more inclined to snag a couple other bottles from this producer, but then again, I'm cheap. If presented to me as a gift, I would cheerfully imbibe.

Score: 87