The drift from summer into the cooler, breathier vectors comprising fall is made ever so obvious by the sudden rise of sparkling wine promotion. Gearing people up for the winter holidays means getting the word out about bubblies several months before and thus I arrive at this bottle of Vilarnau’s Gran Reserva 2012. For those who don’t know the aging brackets, Gran Reserva requires 36 months of sitting on the lees (sparkling wine’s “oak” if you will) prior to disgorging which puts it more or less in line with Champagne’s […]

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