Café Metropole Sparkling Wine

On December 31, Anna King over at KUOW News aired a story about Allan Pangborn, a producer of sparkling wine called Café Metropole in Washington State. The number of Washington wineries making the bubbly can practically be counted on your free hand, so I thought it was great to see one get a little attention, especially on New Year’s Eve.

While it was a short, radio-friendly interview, I was surprised that nowhere does she mention the winery Pangborn makes the sparklers for. Not one to take this sitting down (figuratively, of course), I did a quick Google search, and discovered that it is Moonlight Sparkling Wine Cellar in Kennewick, Washington.

According to their website, the Café Metropole sparkling wine is named after a weekly publication in Paris, which Pangborn discovered while touring around France studying the winemaking process and purchasing equipment and supplies. Now, Moonlight Sparkling Wine Cellar is even a sponsor of the Café Metropole club.

In the abbreviated interview aired on KUOW, Pangborn says that after working for larger producers, he really enjoys the autonomy of doing his own thing. He said, “It’s not like having to deal with a larger corporate structure. I can buy the bottles I want, the corks I want, the wire hoods I want. I don’t have to work with budgets, or purchase orders. I can just do what I think is best.” Cheers to that.

Making sparkling wine is a labor-intensive endeavor; you’re only half done at time of bottling (the first time). My hat is off to Allan Pangborn for going where few wineries dare to tread. And, I’ll be looking forward to finding a bottle of his Café Metropole.