Will it get here in time for New Years? Down to two bottles of their Ocean Reserve, and I’d love to have the Russian Cuvee for NYE.
Iron Horse is always fantastic. Would have loved to have some of their Brut LD in here too, but oh well. At this price you’re basically getting a bottle free.
What are the thoughts on the Brut X? That might be the only one of their bubbles I can’t place offhand.
I agree that it isn’t productive for posters to disparage wines that simply don’t match their tastes, and I suspect that your observation about the Woot business model is dead on as well. But…
In all fairness, I strongly suspect that most (by a very large margin) of the United States residents who drink sparkling wine prefer the sweet styles. I’m not one of them, but it’s perhaps because of this that I’m so aware of my own status as a minority.
Basically, your “at least 4 other people in the nation” comment is off-base to the point of being ironic.
Sounds like we have another WISE Wooter!!
OR… Mom may pop the stoppers thinking about how gracious her very thoughtful daughter is!!!
OR… Ship it here to Ohio and come to the neighborhood NY Eve party. Anyone bringing alcohol is always welcome! 
I’m fairly new to sparkling wine. I know certain types are made to age and drink only after 10+ years. What is the aging potential of these or are they even designed to age?
Hopefully Joy will chime in (Hi Joy!), but most sparkling wine is ready to drink upon release and even vintage sparklers such as these may not improve much with age - though they might hold their own for some number of years. Iron Horse has a whole stash that they are aging until they finish them, cork them, and release them.
Again, I defer to Joy and others.
Gosh, I couldn’t disagree more. The brut is a bone-dry sparkler, and if your tastes run to the sweet side then it is not for you. But as a brut, this wine is gorgeous! I have several bottles from last year’s sale, and they just keep getting better. In for one! (I’d do more if only I had more cellaring room…)
Ship it to your house. When you get the tracking number, you can check to see its delivery date - if it’s going to be delivered while you are still at work, you can request to have it held at a FedEx location for you to pick up after work. The location doesn’t have to be a FedEx hub - any FedEx Kinkos location should work just fine.
Also, RPM, check your messages if you haven’t in the past few days.
I’m actually worried about these, according to the website, the disgorgement of these started only this November. To ship a sparkler with 3 and a half years on the lees a month after disgorgement seems somewhat risky. Good deal if you like California sparklers, but I wouldn’t touch these until February, at the earliest.
in reply to #2, Chardonnay is the sole white grape used in traditional champagne. Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are both red grapes. Most champagne is a blend of the two.
Your usual Pinot Noir wines are red because the vintners leave the skins and seeds in with the mix to draw the flavors and tannins from them. If you do not use the skins and seeds, you get a rosé wine. Champagne uses this latter method as well. So, your observation was essentially correct - they do not use the skins, which is why champagne appears white (or slightly golden-pink).
And now some trivia: Blanc de blancs is a style of champagne that uses only Chardonnay grapes. Blanc de noirs uses only the two Pinot grapes. So you can take your pick.
Definately to each his own. If it’s not Brut or a Blanc de Blanc I can’t touch it. Most Asti or Spumante make me sick to taste.
Good Morning from Sebastopol! Great to “see” you on Woot. And thank you! Brut X is the new name for Ultra Brut. Our friends at Laurent Perrier say they “own” Ultra Brut" so …
Hi! I completely agree. These bubblies are already aged three plus years on the yeast in the bottle. I do my best to pop the cork almost as quickly as our winemaker David Munksgard puts it in. I love that fresh taste. BUT they do age beautifully, if you have more willpower than me. Two years adds weight and comlexity. After that you really want to be sure the bottles are stored properly, but another two to three uears and these wines become real knock outs.
I just tasted them all at our winery Holiday Party last night and they are perfectly delicious. We wouldn’t release them if they weren’t drinking well.
Joy,
What is your suggestion on how to properly store the bottles?
Happy Birthday! How great to turn 21 and get your first legal Iron Horse on Woot!
For me, the most important is that they be kept at a constant temperature … preferably cool, but mainly no wild temperature swings.
Thanks! Makes sense now
Right on. Sweet wine sells, though wines marketed as dry that are ultra-fruit and/or off-dry do quite well, too. There’s no issue in principle with this.
But what often seems to happen is sweet wine fans take a reverse snob angle and bash all dry wines as being not good. There also seems to be a tendency for sweet wine drinkers to settle for mediocre wine. Inexpensive sweet wines can be made reliably these days, but there are certainly objectively better sweet wines that aren’t industrially engineered. Sweet wine drinkers seem to become dependent on one or several brands instead of being curious to explore, even within the sweet wine realm.
Please do come visit. I would love to welcome you here. I’m not quite sure what “wootlegging” is, but it sounds like something I’d do.