Domain Ste. Michelle has been making sparkling wines with Washington grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes for thirty years. Headquartered in Paterson, Washington, they are part of the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest wine producer in the state, owners of not only Ste. Michelle, but Red Diamond, Eroica, Columbia Crest, Antinori and a handful of other wineries. While Domain Ste. Michelle is legally required to avoid calling their wines champagne, these lovely sparkling wines are made with careful attention to the traditional méthode champenoise. These white sparkling wines are made primarily with Chardonnay grapes from Washington state's Columbia Valley.
I note that while the two sparklers under review this time—Domain Ste. Michelle Brut, and Domain Ste. Michelle Extra Dry—are both Non Vintage, they also produce vintage sparkling wines, though they can be a little hard to track down since the vintage bottles are snapped up very quickly. In the NV range, Domain Ste. Michelle also offers a Blanc de Blancs, and a Blanc de Noirs, a sparkling wine made primarily of Pinot Noir. Both are dryer sparkling wines, compared to the Extra Dry and the Brut.
Brut
In terms of sparkling wine and Champagne nomenclature, the French adjective Brut (it rhymes with foot) means a very dry wine, one that has little of the original sugar left from the grapes.
The Domain Ste. Michelle Brut NV is not a particularly dry sparkling wine, nor a particularly sweet one. It's right in the middle, and is in fact their "mid range" offering (they used to offer a very sweet sparkling wine, an NV Frizzante, as they termed the wine). This is a light gold in the glass, with active natural carbonation, an aroma dominated by apple and a hint of grapefruit (enough that I wonder about a little Sauvignon Blanc in the blend). I note that the people who know what they're talking about describe the taste as "Citrus," and "toasty"; to me it's quite a bit like pear with something a bit like grapefruit in the finish. I can recommend this with freshly popped buttered popcorn, as well as freshly made French fries with Frank's Louisiana Style Hot Sauce, as well as the more usual pairing suggestions of goat cheeses and soft aged cheeses.
Extra Dry
For those reading labels, you might think "Extra Dry" is drier, and thus has less sugar, than Brut. Not so! In fact it's the other way around; "Extra Dry" is sweeter than Brut; technically, Extra Dry sparkling wine or champagne usually has around 1.2-2% residual sugar. It tastes noticeably sweeter than Brut. At Domain Ste. Michelle, their Ste. Michelle NV Brut is in the middle of their range in terms of the spectrum from Dry to Sweet. In their scale, they rate their Brut as a 5, and the Extra Dry as an 8. It's dominated by a hint of apple in the aroma and the flavor, with a sweet citrus and slightly toasty finish. This sparkling wine is, of course, lovely on its own before dinner, or as a final course, but it pairs beautifully with sushi, and Asian and spicy cuisines of all sorts.
Both of these sparkling wines are individual enough that they work well as ingredients for champagne cocktails, as well.