Elk Cove Vineyards was featured in an article on The Vintner Project, titled: What’s All the Buzz? – Honey in Wine and Alternative Dosage.

If you need a refresher, dosage is that little bit of sweetness added to a bottle of sparkling wine after it has fermented in the bottle and the yeast has been removed. While most Champagne producers use sugar or a mix of sugar and wine to bring a bottle to the desired level of sweetness, anywhere from “extra brut” (very dry) to “doux” (sweet), alternative dosage avoids the use of granular sugar altogether:

“While Champagne, as with other Old World wine regions, has always been steeped in tradition when it comes to expected practices and required production methods, experimentation is not only common but encouraged in the New World. This is especially true when it comes to sparkling wines. Without rigid restrictions and adherence to ancient laws of production, United States vintners can take some liberty with their sparkling winemaking processes, resulting in unique wine expressions that often tell their own story.

Campbell utilizes their estate Ultima for dosage, a dessert wine made of Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Muscat from some of the oldest vines in Oregon, dating back to the 1970s. Ultima not only adds richness and body, but also adds an aromatic enhancement to their sparkling wines in a way that cane sugar can not. “It’s a little bit over-the-top and makes the math a bit more complex, but we love the results we get with this method,” says Campbell, noting that the complexity from older vines so present in the dessert wine is part of what drives the complexity in the resulting sparkling wine.” – Tamara Turner

Thank you to The Vintner Project for shedding light on our approach to sparkling wine dosage. You can view the full article here.

What is the Vinter Project? Click to learn more.