How We Make It
The method.
The long way, on purpose.
Bottle-Fermented
Sparkling, made in the bottle.
Every bottle of Ebullient sparkling is finished in the bottle, not in a tank. We work in two bottle-fermented methods, both treated with equal care.
Méthode ancestrale (also called pét-nat) is a single fermentation finished in the bottle. Undisgorged, slightly hazy, alive. It is the older sparkling method historically and the one the fruit speaks most honestly through. Méthode traditionnelle is the Champagne method: a base wine made carefully, then a second fermentation triggered in the bottle by tirage, long aging on lees, riddling, hand-disgorgement, and low or zero dosage.
Both reward time. Both demand discipline. Both refuse shortcuts. We chose bottle-fermented sparkling before we chose anything else.
Why PIWIs
Built for this climate.
Floreal, Voltis, and Itasca were bred with stacked disease-resistance genes, Rpv against downy mildew, Run against powdery, and others against black rot and anthracnose. In Missouri humidity, that genetic armor is the difference between a vineyard you can farm regeneratively and one that needs constant spray to survive. PIWIs are the keystone of our approach. Without them, the rest of this method does not work in this place.
Pruning
Simonit & Sirch.
We prune by Simonit & Sirch guyot methodology. The cuts respect the vine's vascular flow. The trunk stays alive and continuous, year after year, decade after decade. Trunk diseases are held at bay. Vines that would die at 20 years on conventional pruning live to 60 and beyond. We are training the vines our grandchildren will harvest from.
Regenerative Organic
Animals in the rows.
Sheep graze the cover crops. Goats clear the brush. Their manure feeds the soil. We do not till. We do not spray synthetic herbicides or insecticides. We do not use synthetic fertilizer. We compost. We watch.
Regenerative organic farming is harder in Missouri than in California. It is hard everywhere, but in our climate, it requires the immune-gene buffer that the PIWIs give us, the slope drainage of our site's slope drainage, and a willingness to let the system do the work the chemistry would otherwise. We are aiming for Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) once the program is built.
In the Cellar
Minimal intervention.
The same philosophy that governs the vineyard governs the cellar. Native fermentations, not commercial yeast (unless rescue is genuinely needed). Neutral vessels, no new oak. No modern micro-filtration. Minimal SO₂. Long lees aging. Slow disgorgement. Low or zero dosage. Time as a tool.
The cautionary tale, told decades ago by Kermit Lynch in Adventures on the Wine Route, is the producer whose son takes over and modernizes the cellar, new oak, new filtration, "improvements", and the wines lose their soul. We are reading that tale carefully.
"The wine had been alive. After the changes, it was correct. It was clean. It was nothing."
For a measured, science-grounded perspective on what minimal intervention actually means in a modern cellar, we recommend Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop's Authentic Wine: Toward Natural and Sustainable Winemaking, and Goode's ongoing essays at wineanorak.com. He is also one of the few critics writing seriously about PIWIs.
Vine to Bottle
Demystified.
Hand-harvest. Whole-cluster pressing. Cool primary fermentation in neutral vessels. Tirage, the bottling with sugar and yeast that triggers the second fermentation in the bottle. Long aging on lees in the bottle, gathering complexity. Riddling, turning the bottles slowly to collect the lees in the neck. Disgorgement, freezing the neck and ejecting the plug. Low or zero dosage. Cork. Cage. Time. Open.
The Cider
Apples, treated like wine grapes.
Cider has been the longer endeavor here than wine. This is how the house starts.
Most American hard cider is made from juice concentrate or culinary apples, sweetened, force-carbonated, and shipped. That is honorable work, but it is not what we are doing. The Ebullient orchard is being planted the way a serious winery plants its vineyard, as a blending system, not a monoculture, not a seasonal farm beverage.
The orchard as a blending system.
Each variety has a role. The cider is structured the way Champagne is structured, with high-acid base, complex middle, persistent finish, and that comes from the blend, not the bottle.
- GoldRush, acid and longevity. The bones.
- Dabinett and Yarlington Mill, tannic structure. The English bittersweet tradition.
- Harrison and Franklin, American heritage cider apples. Pre-Prohibition varieties that almost disappeared.
- Stayman, Grimes, and Golden Delicious, balance and aromatic lift. True to this place.
Crusher and press are style decisions.
We rejected hammer mills. They are fast, that is their only virtue. They over-pulverize the fruit, risk damaging seeds (which release harsh phenolics into the must), and reduce press-fraction control to almost nothing. For this house, every piece of cellar equipment is a style decision, not an efficiency decision.
Two methods, both bottle-fermented.
We will release cider in both méthode ancestrale (pét-nat, a single fermentation finished in the bottle, undisgorged, slightly hazy, alive) and méthode traditionnelle(the Champagne method, base cider, tirage, long lees aging, riddling, disgorgement, low or zero dosage). Different products, same orchard, same discipline.
The ancestral cider will most likely be our first release. It comes online faster, demands no riddling program, and lets the orchard speak honestly while the traditional-method bottles are still aging on their lees. It is not the easier path; it is the path the fruit can sustain right now.
We are building an American sparkling cider program that treats apples with the seriousness of wine grapes. The goal is not sweet cider, not commodity hard cider, and not a seasonal farm beverage. The goal is structured, dry, age-worthy sparkling sidra made with Champagne-level discipline, with the Missouri limestone grip shining through each bottle.
This is how we will become the best sparkling house in America.
From the Journal