The Scheid Family is Monterey's largest family-owned grape grower and winemaker.
Although you may not see their name in person, their grapes are used by many of the region's leading wineries.
The Scheid Family is one of the few wineries in the United States that has its own wind power generation system and is also committed to sustainability. The Scheid Vineyards Series is a rare wine that can usually only be purchased by visiting the tasting room.
<Limited quantity> If you are familiar with the process of making champagne, you will understand that it is a special wine that is made with great care.
That's why our sparkling cuvée is named after Isabel Adolphine Pierce, the beloved mother of our founder Al Scheid.
Just like the Méthode Champenoise (traditional method) used to make this sparkling wine, which does not allow for any cutting corners, Isabelle was an old-fashioned person.
To her, "store-bought" things were never worth as much as something lovingly handmade, whether it was an intricately crocheted afghan, a faux-red fur coat for her granddaughter, or a melt-in-your-mouth block of braised meat.
She firmly believes that staying busy and using her hands makes the heart happy, and she has lived it by working hard and taking care of people.
The 2018 Isabel Sparkling Wine is an elegant and complex cuvée with aromas of green apple, pear, citrus, brioche and rising yeast.
It has a refreshing, balanced acidity, bright fruit aromas and a delicate lingering finish.
Dedicated to the memory of Isabel, who was so loved and sadly missed.
Isabel's Vineyard is a small vineyard of about 1 hectare, named after the founder Al Scheid's mother, Isabel.
Located south of Salinas at the foot of the Santa Lucia Mountains, the cool, sunny terrain is the perfect location to grow tightly structured Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The 2018 growing season was one of the mildest vintages in recent years.
Timely rainfall at just the right time and a cooler than average spring meant flowering was slightly delayed until June.
Then, with temperatures rising properly in August, fruit growth and pigment development caught up.
Autumn conditions were perfect with mild temperatures and no heavy rainfall, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly and steadily.
The result is a winemaker's dream: amazing fruit with incredible quality and flavor potential.
Isabelle is made using the Champagne method.
The primary fermentation was carried out slowly and at low temperatures to enhance the varietal aromas and preserve their natural delicate characteristics.
Next, sugar and yeast are added and the wine is bottled, where it undergoes a second fermentation.
During the second fermentation in the bottle, carbon dioxide that would normally be released is trapped, creating sparkle and bubbles.
After 36 months of ageing on the lees, the wine is slowly tilted and rotated at increasingly increasing angles to allow the lees to settle in the bottleneck.
The sediment that settles is then frozen to create a "plug" and drained.
The sparkling wine was quickly corked to maintain its effervescence, and Isabel was born! Scheid Vineyards founder Al Scheid first purchased 15 acres of land on the outskirts of Greenfield, Monterey County, California in 1972.
At the time, wine grape growing was in its infancy in Monterey County, but Al was attracted to the region's winemaking potential.
So they consulted with Professor A.J. Winkler, an authority on grape cultivation at the University of California, Davis, who had created a climate region distribution map for grape cultivation in 1960, and gradually purchased land within Monterey County, which covers regions from Region I to Region IV, and planted grape varieties suitable for each region.
Founded by Al, Scheid Vineyards grew steadily and continued to grow with the addition of his son Scott in 1986, grape growing specialist Kurt Gornick in 1988, and his daughter Heidi in 1992.
The company now owns 12 vineyards (totaling 1,600 hectares) in the Salinas Valley, which stretches 112 km from north to south, from Region I to Region IV.
The company also built a state-of-the-art winery with a production capacity of 1.8 million cases, as well as a smaller winery for handcrafted wines, and continues to produce world-class Monterey wines.