Oh my giddygod, the FedExing. I raise my glass to you, my comrade. And there’s a pretty good chance it’s beer. After all, it takes a lot of beer to make wine.

Me too! I did basically what you did, but for a little bitty winery here in Northern California. They basically said, “Look, nobody wants to do social media or compliance or manage the wine club. So, uh, could you?” Five years and a LOT of time on the phone with the lovely folks at every state’s department of revenue,…

Well I hope you get a chance to go back to visit as often as you can — it’s such a magical place (though I confess I only know it through the eyes of a summer camp kid/staff member, which is a pretty idealized view of ANYWHERE). And congrats on grad school! Best of luck to you, internet stranger.

No problem! I used to work for a sparkling wine producer, so I did a lot of talking about the méthode champenoise, and this is definitely one of the most commonly asked questions. It took me ages to figure out a simple way of explaining it that wasn’t so wine geeky that it bored or irritated people.

Seasonal workers of the San Juan Islands unite! I worked on Orcas for for summers. Heaven on earth.

It wouldn’t make it more bubbly; the residual sugar (the 140 grams mentioned) is added after the second fermentation is complete (and the yeast is removed, or disgorged) in a step called “dosage.” The higher or lower the dosage, the sweeter or dryer the bubbly.