The coming of fall brings many things. One of our favorite fall things is the Korbel fall champagne club release. Cool weather, autumn foliage, and the prospect of a case of Korbel’s latest. A great way to say goodbye to summer!
We are Diamond Club members at Korbel. That means that we receive one case of champagne in April and again in October. This release included Special Edition Korbel Natural, Le Premier, and Rouge champagnes. The “Special Edition” moniker refers to the festive standing lion wrapper on the bottle, while the champagne inside is nicely dry and popular with a broad audience. The Le Premier has a bit more assertive fruit notes, making it ideal for pairing with, say, Thanksgiving turkey. The Rouge packs a lot of flavor to go with its deep ruby color. Possibly too much for fowl, but great with a steak. All in all, a wonderful autumn assortment. We were excited to taste everything!
We entered the tasting room to find that Thanksgiving was on clearance and Christmas was front and center. We found some space at the tasting bar so that we could consider the champagne offerings not in our club pack with an eye toward purchasing a second case for the upcoming holidays. We met our very capable wine guide Brandon, who embraced our approach and poured the Blanc de Noirs (Master’s Reserve and “regular”) for me and the more blonde champagnes (Chardonnay and Extra Dry) for Judi.
After careful consideration and quite a bit of wine glass trading, we selected their Blanc de Noirs for the bonus case. That freed us up for some serious miscellaneous shopping. The elaborate and wide-ranging selection of holiday decorations was quiet engaging, so we strolled around the tasting room, wine glass in hand.
So much to see! Holiday decorations of every size, wine accessories, candles, trinkets and even an artisanal balsamic vinegar vendor tasting his wares. We considered it all, and chose judiciously from the bounty, selecting just a few bits for our Christmas tree. We spent some extra time on the Thanksgiving clearance tables and made an addition to our turkey day decorations. Bet you can guess what we chose, just from the photo.
Purchases in hand, we queued up at the register to claim our club pack and order our additional case of Blanc de Noirs. Korbel has a fantastic system where they deliver your champagne purchases directly to your car by golf cart, so no heavy lifting for this guy! We strolled the manicured grounds a bit and socialized in the parking lot with other tasters until our golf cart arrived laden with our lovely cases of champagne. One critical component of a successful holiday season has been assured!
About the Author: John grills a mean steak and is always in the market for another wine fridge. Believes that if a winery has more than 10 employees, it's probably too big. Buys wine faster than he drinks it, but who cares?
