Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Exclusive Bubbles, 4/8/2019

  (NV Full Pull & Friends Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature D19 (FPF-29)) Hello friends. We have the return today of one of the most popular wines we offer each year: our Full Pull & Friends bubbly, made exclusively for our list members. Let’s begin by translating the trio of jargon-soaked acronyms in the wine name: NV means non-vintage (or, really, several vintages), fairly typical for sparkling wines. D19 means the wine was disgorged in 2019, and you can find that information on the label, too (look for a D.2019 near the bottom right-hand corner). We’re believers in the importance of noting the disgorgement date someplace on bottles of bubbly. Otherwise you don’t know if you’re dealing with juice disgorged five years ago or five minutes ago. And FPF-29 means that this is the 29th Full Pull & Friends wine since we kicked this program off in 2013. Okay, so, some background on this project. I’ll begin with something I’ve said before and will say again: sparkling wine plays an integral role in the lives of Team Full Pull. Paul and Kelli decided to embark on Full Pull itself after a handshake agreement about life, expectations, and sparkling wine. Nick and his wife toasted their wedding with Marie Copinet Champagne. I sabered a bottle of Champagne off the roof of Canlis the night my partner and I decided to get married. Universally, these bubbly bottles weave their way into our most cherished memories. The first time Full Pull & Friends sparkling wine became a real, tangible idea was on a visit to Treveri Cellars in May 2014. That was Paul’s first chance to see Treveri’s production facility and to meet Christian Grieb. The facility seemed plenty big enough to support custom bottling, and Christian seemed like a dream to work with (and spoiler alert: he is!). A seed was planted. If there’s one category of wine that unites, it’s sparkling wine. This project was suddenly inevitable. We knew we wanted a 100% Chardonnay blanc de blancs project, and Treveri let us work with specific lots of juice. A majority of our wine comes from a single vineyard: Harold Pleasant’s Pleasant Vineyard in a cool pocket of the Yakima Valley that, according to Christian, “grows absolutely brilliant sparkling cuvee fruit.” There are also 20%-ish chunks from Ramos Vineyard on Snipes Mountain (“great soils and great cool climate for Chard”) and from Hilltop Vineyard, “a site near Zillah that was planted by the great Walter Clore. He recommended that site be planted in Chardonnay, and the vines are 30+ years old. They sing beautifully for bubbles!” We also knew we wanted a very dry style of bubbly. Like the last few years, we settled on dosage of three grams per liter, right at the upper end of the Brut Nature category, and drier, I believe, than anything Treveri releases regularly. I think we all continue to love the alpine fruit and mineral character that are most prominent at the lowest sugar levels. Our bubbly also saw extended time on the lees, a full 24 months before disgorgement and bottling last month. It is ready just in time for spring and summer, rain or shine. It clocks in at 12% alc and begins with a fresh, expressive nose combining orchard fruit, summer peaches, and whole lemons with the leesy niceties of a perfectly laminated croissant. Like previous vintages, there is an innate creaminess and minerality at its ultra-dry core. The mouthfeel is just as vervy and racy as ever—by design, of course. This bottle is that type of truly brazen bubbly that pirouettes across the palate with energy to spare and leaves your mouth watering. While you could certainly put a hard chill on this and drink it as a cocktail, it’s a ridiculously versatile food pairing wine. Consider pairing it with a savory dutch baby topped with locally-caught crab and poached eggs for breakfast; the sloppiest paseo sandwich for lunch; an afternoon snack of fried potatoes dipped in malt vinegar aioli; a perfectly roasted chicken for dinner; and everything in between.