Blog contributed by Seth Urbanek, Director of Special Projects, William Chris Wine Company
Thick foam climbed up the wine glasses on an unusually warm winter day in Hye, TX.
Sparkling wine made in the Champagne method is a rare sight in Texas, yet the wine
critic and the winemaking team were watching two years of work bubble to life. William
Chris was on the precipice of launching a multi-thousand-case-per-year lineup of
sparkling wines, and the critic remarked that they would be groundbreaking.
Why is this such a big deal?
Sparkling wine demands an extremely high level of technical precision—especially
considering that the pressure inside a sparkling wine bottle is many times greater than
the pressure in your car tire! Traditional-method (a.k.a. Champagne-method) sparkling
wine is made by picking pristine grapes in a limited ripeness window, pressing them into
juice very carefully, fermenting the wine dry, and adding an exact amount of sugar and
yeast to the wine as it is bottled. The wine undergoes a second fermentation in bottle
from the added sugar and yeast and this fermentation produces the carbonation in the
wine. It’s not hard to imagine what happens if you add too much or too little of any of
that!
On top of that, each winemaking region presents its own unique challenges.
Champagne is a cool-climate region, which results in the longest window for finding the
ideal ripeness for sparkling wine. Here, our hot climate results in a much faster (and
shorter) period. Additionally, we have several other challenges including frost, hail,
excess drought, flood, sunburn, and various pest-related pressures. Lastly there’s no
long-standing playbook or library to fall back on for making sparkling wine in Texas.
And did we mention it’s EXPENSIVE? The specialized equipment alone can cost
hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars to launch a meaningful program. As
the icing on the bubbly cake, traditional-method sparkling wine depends heavily on
extended bottle aging—often 12 to 24 months—before release. That means years of
investment before seeing any return. You’d have to be half-crazy to start a sparkling
wine brand anywhere—much less in the naturally hot state of Texas—so the idea must
come from a place of pure passion.
So why do it?
For one, sparkling wine is a completely new category in Texas, offering producers a
chance to create something truly distinctive. It’s also a growing category nationally,
defying sales trends in other wine segments. And last but not least—it’s delicious.
Nothing hits quite like bubbles on a warm June afternoon in Texas.
My winemaking journey began thirteen years ago in the Finger Lakes of New York, a
cool-climate region. Champagne—the epicenter of sparkling wine—is also a cool
climate, known for its bright Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. In the Finger
Lakes, I fell in love with the crisp Rieslings and delicate Cabernet Francs we crafted,
and I believed the region could become equally known for world-class sparkling wine.
That belief took me to Champagne, where I trained at the legendary house, Bollinger.
Just before leaving for Champagne, I crossed paths with Chris Brundrett, co-founder of
William Chris Vineyards. Chris shared a bold vision: not just building a winery, but
helping elevate the entire Texas wine industry. That meant taking risks—being willing to
fail first, share hard-earned lessons, and push innovation forward, all while crafting
world-class wines. I walked away from that conversation thinking: he might just be
serious. And maybe, just maybe, crazy enough to attempt a sparkling wine program in
Texas.
Fast forward a few years: I joined Chris’s team to help build the sparkling wine program
from the ground up. My first call was to my friends in Champagne to get their thoughts
on the idea. Their immediate response? “You cannot do zis. Zis is impossible!”
Texans, however, have a long tradition of ignoring people who tell them what they can’t
do. So we soldiered on, harvesting roughly 160 tons of fruit across 2023 and 2024 for
sparkling wine. The 2023s have been quietly aging, and we’re rapidly approaching the
first (disgorged) release from William Chris later this year.
So what does the future of Texas sparkling wine look like?
Despite the challenges, more Texas wineries are stepping into the sparkling arena. Only
a handful have tackled traditional-method production so far, but demand is
growing—especially in tasting rooms—leading to exciting collaborations between
established producers and newcomers.
Together, Texas wineries are poised to lead the charge in an unexpected frontier of
world-class sparkling wine. Over the coming years, we’ll refine the best grape varieties
and growing sites through trial and error. There’s a lot of promise around atypical
varietals for sparkling, such as Mourvèdre, Pinot Meunier, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin
Blanc, and even Tannat. As we make these determinations, Texas winemakers will be
known not just for their technical skill, but for their undaunted spirit—embodying what it
truly means to be Texan.
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