#11 on PRIMA's Top 25 Wines of 2025

It’s pretty cool having your own Grower Champagne producer right in the ‘hood! And it’s better still that her Champagnes are REALLY, REALLY good. So good, in fact, that no matter how many times the lovely, demure Alexandra appears as a guest at one of our annual sparkling wine events, her wines are always at the very top of our ‘sold’ lists.

The Sainz family production is very small, and, most emphatically, not in Walnut Creek—the fact that she lives here for part of the year is just a happy accident. The very definition of artisanal family produced Champagne, the farm is in the Pinot Noir-friendly village of Bouzy, and her wines all have a healthy dose of gorgeous Grand Cru vineyard Pinot fruit. Her understated Rose is, in fact, the very definition of Pinot Noir elegance. But Alex’s vintage Brut, currently 2014, shows the magnificent heights Pinot can reach in Bouzy. This is really a stunner—the ultimate combination of fine, elegant bubbles with a heart that beats with a subtle, sneaky richness and extraversion. We love how the wine shows a core of warm toasty brioche and Golden Delicious apple while still maintaining the freshness and lovely yellow cherry-raspberry pastille character of the fruit.

Immaculately balanced and ready to go, we love to open this wine when there’s something to celebrate (like surviving another Tuesday?) and we just want a great glass of Champagne. But where the polished vintage sparkler really shines is when you pair it with richer seafood dishes and salty salumi and the like.