2007 RD Cuvée

Before discussing this particular wine, we should address what ‘RD’ means.  ‘RD’ stands for Recently Disgorged.  This refers to when the sparkling wine inside the bottle was ‘finished’.  As discussed elsewhere, sparkling wine is refermented inside the bottle, which generates the ‘fizz’ of dissolved carbon dioxide, but also a set of dead yeast cells.  All of that happens within one year of harvest, so that a 2007 sparkling wine could be finished and made available for sale as early as 2008.  However, at Lenz, we typically keep sparklers ‘en tirage’ (i.e. in the bottle, but still unfinished) for a minimum of 5-6 years.

 

However, our RD sparklers are held en tirage much longer: usually for 15-20 years.

What difference does all this make?  Well, as a general rule, the time spent en tirage results in the gradual development of additional interesting characteristics in the wine.

 

 Remember those dead yeast cells?  Well, they gradually break down.  No, they don’t decompose in the ordinary sense - - there are no bacteria involved in the process.  They break down through autolysis, a process by which enzymes in the yeast convert elements of their cells into amino acids, proteins and carbohydrates.  This adds complexity to the wine that is perceived as richness, body and yeasty-bready notes.

And how does that show up in the wine?  Well, here’s what our tasters had to say: “TBD"