At Bacigalupi Vineyards, Nicole Bacigalupi Dericco and her twin sister, Katey Bacigalupi Row, share duties as the general manager for their family’s vineyard company and winery. Nicole is quick to laugh at her title. “As a family-run business, we wear a lot of hats. Basically, we do anything that needs doing.” Nicole and Katey are the third generation of their family to guide the business that their grandparents, Helen and Charles Bacigalupi, founded back in the 1950s—decades ahead of the grape planting boom that reshaped California wine country. There’s a fourth generation in the wings. Nicole and Katey each have two young children, all of whom are 10 or younger. “We probably can’t count them as the fourth generation to work here yet, but they help out at events, bussing tables, or doing odd jobs. We’re trying to plant the seeds for their future involvement.”

When asked why so many of the great vineyard companies are multigenerational, Nicole considers the question. “Farming isn’t a 9 to 5 job. It’s a way of life. My dad, John, who guides our farming, has pretty much worked every day for the past 45 years. Working the land is his obligation and his passion. The vineyards rely on us to be present.”

The seed that would grow to become Bacigalupi Vineyards was first planted in 1956, when Charles Bacigalupi, who was a dentist, and his wife Helen, a pharmacist, followed their love of the land and acquired the 121 acres that would become the Bacigalupi family’s Goddard Ranch on Westside Road. On the advice of Pam’s father, who believed that premium winegrapes were the future of the Russian River Valley, Charles began planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This included using Pinot Noir budwood from Karl Wente—the first well-documented plantings of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley. Charles and his son, John, worked alongside each other, perfecting their viticulture techniques and expanding the vineyards with the addition of Bloom Ranch in 1973.

In 1976, the Bacigalupi’s caught lightening in a bottle, when Château Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay—a wine that included Bacigalupi fruit—won the famous Judgment of Paris Tasting against a who’s who of the world’s best Chardonnays. “Back then, the California wine industry was in its infancy,” says Nicole. “That win let us know that we were on the right path. It also elevated perceptions of the Russian River Valley. But as farmers, we don’t believe in resting on our laurels. There is always another vintage that needs our attention.”

In the years that followed, the Bacigalupis honed their skill as grape growers, with John taking on the role of vineyard manager, and in the early 1980s, the family partnered with Belvedere Winery to release some of California’s first vineyard-designate Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. This included a 1983 vintage that was served at the White House for President Ronald Reagan. In 1993, the Bacigalupis added a third property, the now-renowned Frost Ranch, to their vineyard holdings, and in 2011, the family founded their own winery and opened their Tasting Room, neighboring MacRostie on Westside Road.

MacRostie’s history with the Bacigalupi family goes back decades to Steve MacRostie’s early relationship with Nicole and Katey’s parents, John and Pam. Over the past decade, this relationship has only deepened, as our winemaker, Heidi Bridenhagen, has sourced grapes from a coveted block (Block 12A) of Frost Ranch to craft our Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay. Fruit from Frost Ranch often also plays a key role in our pinnacle Chardonnay bottling, The Key. “Frost Ranch is a fantastic vineyard,” says Heidi. “It’s in a warmer part of the Russian River Valley and features a combo of plantings of old 1970s heritage clones. It also has a very unique trellising system that’s a hybrid of vertical shoot positioning (VSP) and old-school sprawl, which provides this ideal dappled sunlight to the grapes. We often pick it at lower Brix, and it produces an exquisite standalone Chardonnay, with gorgeous floral notes, amazing acidity, and lovely citrus and tropical flavors.”

In any given vintage, the Bacigalupi family works with approximately 15 to 20 wineries, but only a few—like MacRostie—are allowed to make vineyard-designate wines using the Bacigalupi name. “When it comes to putting our name on a bottle, we are looking for wineries that share our values and our commitment to quality,” says Nicole. “We are not looking just to sell fruit. We are looking for mutually beneficial relationships. When I see my family’s name on a bottle, I want to be proud. Heidi is a fantastic winemaker and a joy to work with. Despite being so accomplished, she has this very humble, respectful approach that is really refreshing. She gets it!”

As a reflection of how closely aligned MacRostie is with the Bacigalupis, the two wineries share the fruit from Block 12A. In fact, Block 12A is the same section of the vineyard that the family used to make their winery’s debut Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay. “We are neighbors in Block 12A,” adds Nicole, “and our tasting rooms are right around the corner from each other. When we talk about our roots in the Russian River Valley and our love of this region, that’s something that Heidi and the MacRostie team understand.”

Called Champagne in France, Prosecco in Italy, Cava in Spain, and sparkling wine throughout California and North America, the history of the world’s best sparkling wines may have begun with a very happy accident in the cellar of Blanquette de Limoux in Languedoc, France almost 500 years ago. This happy accident was likely very cool winter weather that resulted in a “stuck fermentation,” which then woke up the yeast as the temperatures warmed, creating significant levels of carbon dioxide (the source of sparkling wine’s effervescence), and the world’s first sparkling wine was born.

In the early 17th century, a monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon who had tasted the wines of Limoux, brought the style to Champagne and began planting vines, though he passed away before commercial production could begin. In the decades that followed, several great Champagne houses were established, including Moet & Chandon in 1745 and Veuve Clicquot in 1772. At Veuve Clicquot, the legendary Madame Clicquot (one of the original great women winemakers) invented the riddling process to remove yeast after secondary fermentation—which today is universally known as the méthode champenoise.

The history of sparkling wine in Italy goes back almost as far, with the first written reference to it in 1754. In 1895, Prosecco became much more affordable to produce, and therefore more popular and available with the invention of the Charmat method, where wine undergoes secondary fermentation in a pressurized tank, prior to being filtered and bottled under pressure.

Sparkling Wine in California

The history of Russian River Valley and Sonoma County sparkling wine goes back to at least 1892 when the Korbel brothers began crafting wines using the méthode champenoise. Originally made from grapes like Riesling, Muscatel, and Traminer, the quality of Californian sparkling wine improved with the planting of the more traditional sparkling wine grapes, most notably Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. As the quality of California’s sparkling wines increased, so did investment in California from some of Champagne’s most revered houses, including Roederer (Roederer Estate), Moet & Chandon (Domaine Chandon) and Taittinger (Domaine Carneros).

Today, California sparkling wine is going through a renaissance in quality and prestige. This has been driven by several factors, including California winemakers taking inspiration from the grower Champagne movement in France, great plantings of top-quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in true cool-climate wine regions, and even the record-breaking cool temperatures of the 2011 vintage, which led several innovative winemakers to pivot to sparkling wine production when their still wine grapes did not fully ripen.

Sparkling Wine at MacRostie

The genesis for our sparkling wine program began when our winemaker, Heidi Bridenhagen, was sharing a glass of Champagne with a co-worker in early 2016. After discussing how much they both loved French Champagne and the best Sonoma Coast sparkling wines, it naturally led to the question, “Why aren’t we making sparkling wine?!” As a winery that has spent almost 40 years focused on cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir—the two key sparkling wine grapes—it was a natural decision for our team and something that we were excited to try.

After consulting with numerous winemakers in Champagne and California, Heidi blended Chardonnay from the famed Sangiacomo Vineyard with Pinot Noir from our own beloved Thale’s Estate Vineyard to create our debut 2016 MacRostie Sparkling Brut. In the years that followed, our sparkling program grew to include a Brut Rosé, which like the Brut, is crafted from both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In 2020, after several vintages of refining our approach, Heidi decided to do something new and showcase the character and complexity of our Chardonnay on its own by crafting a Blanc de Blancs, with a Blanc de Noirs (sparkling wine made from red grapes) following soon after.

Now in its second vintage, we will be releasing our 2021 MacRostie Blanc de Blancs this month (September 2024), and we couldn’t be more excited. Crafted using Martini Clone Chardonnay from a prized block of theSangiacomo family’s Kiser Ranch and aged for 30 months en tirage before being disgorged and bottled with a dosage under 6 grams per liter (Extra Brut), it is a joyful sparkling wine. While it’s a serious and sophisticated Sonoma Coast Blanc de Blancs by any measure, it is also beautifully energetic and playful in a way that beckons fun! Not only is it perfect for celebrations, but it’s also the kind of radiant sparkler that brings the celebration with it.