Bold, rich, and unapologetically Californian — ripe peach, apple, and citrus with a creamy texture from barrel aging, but enough acidity to keep it lively. This isn't trying to be Champagne, and that's the whole point.

Dan and Jacqueline Person founded Carboniste in Sonoma County as a dedicated sparkling wine project with a simple premise: stop forcing California fruit into French frameworks and figure out what actually works with it. Dan trained at Schramsberg and staged at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti before building this out with his wife. They don't commit to a single production method — pét-nat, méthode traditionnelle, ancestrale — each wine gets handled differently depending on the fruit. The "V23" is just their shorthand for the 2023 vintage. Worth noting: the wine is officially called "The Whale" — "Modern Sparkling Wine" is their brand tagline, not the wine's name.