What Makes Washington Sparkling Wine So Different w/ Andrew Gerow (Part 1)

Ep 166

The future of great sparkling wine may not be coming from where you think. 

For centuries, traditional method sparkling wine has been defined by regions like Champagne. But a new generation of Washington winemakers is proving that great sparkling wine doesn't have to imitate anyone else. Instead, they're embracing Washington's unique climate, grape varieties, and winemaking philosophy to create wines that are distinctly their own.

In this episode, Andrew Gerow, co-founder and general manager of Tirriddis, shares how he and two of his fellow college classmates launched a winery during the pandemic and why they chose one of the most technically challenging styles of winemaking. He explains what traditional method sparkling wine actually is, why Washington is uniquely suited to produce it, and how their philosophy of being "unapologetically Washington" influences every bottle they make.

If you've ever wondered how sparkling wine is made, what makes Washington sparkling wine different, or why Washington has become such an exciting place for sparkling wine, this episode is for you. 

Connect with Andrew:

Website: https://www.tirriddis.com/

Episode Highlights:

• How three college friends started a sparkling winery during the pandemic
• Why Washington is ideal for traditional method sparkling wine
• How the balance of art and science shapes great winemaking 
• How tirage, riddling, and disgorging create sparkling wine
• How Tirriddis is creating a uniquely Washington style of sparkling wine 
• The philosophy behind making wines that are unapologetically Washington
• Three sparkling wines to try for your first Tirriddis tasting

Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine, but not sure where to start. You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. I'm your host, Hayley Bowlman, and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business, Corporate Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in foreign. Welcome back to the Cork and Fez Guide to Wine podcast. Today we're talking to Andrew Juro. He is the co founder and general manager of Tiridas, a traditional method sparkling winery out of Prosser, Washington. So, Andrew studied viticultural and enology at Washington State University. He earned the Wine Spectator Student of the year scholarship in 2020 and spent his time there working every corner of the industry, vineyards, wineries, and tasting rooms. Now, when the pandemic shelved his plans to work harvest abroad, he and two of his classmates, Gabriel Kroll and Matthew Doughtony, founded Tiridas at just 20 years old. Yeah, 20 years old. Isn't that crazy? We were not even supposed to be drinking wine. And they. They founded their own winery. Their focus is on making sparkling wines that are distinctly and unapologetically Washington. And I actually first met Andrew when he was a panelist for a seminar that I attended back in March of 2026 during Taste Washington. He said a lot of interesting things, like how they approach their hospitality and experience like a brewery and why they're not trying to replicate champagne, but instead want to make a sparkling wine that is unapologetically Washington. The importance of balance between sugar and acidity, and so much more. I don't want to talk too much more. Let's just jump into the interview and talk to Andrew. Okay, well, why don't we get started? This is one of my favorite questions to ask anybody who is in the wine world. And it's basically, what made you fall in love with wine? When and how did you fall in love with wine? Well, it's a great question. I always say I have, I have two answers. I've got, you know, my romantic answer and then my normal answer, sure, okay, I like it. But to blend the two as winemakers do really? I've just always been obsessed with food, art, and science. What's the perfect trifecta of those three is wine and do what I do. And I'm not from Michigan. I have no connection to the wine industry, nor to any of my partners. I ended up growing up in Michigan. Father was a banker, mother was stay at home mother and cancer researcher before she had our brother now. So, yeah, I really had no connection to the wine industry, but I did love art, food, and science. And ultimately, I was trying to figure out what to do with my. For those three things, and wine popped up, and I was like, oh, this is the coolest thing ever. I can study wine. So it's really the catalyst, just discovering that wine can be a career. And then ultimately, when I truly fell in love was when I moved out to Washington. When I moved out to Washington, I started studying and I met the Washington wine community. That's absolutely when I was like, okay, hook, line, sinker, I'm in it. So, yeah, that's. That's really what it is. It's just, you know, getting that natural interest and then all of a sudden moving out, immersing myself and really fueling that passion. Yeah, it is really an incredible community out here. I remember at Taste Washington, which is where I met you, I asked a bunch of winemakers what, you know, what makes Washington wine so special, and so many of them even just said the community, like the people out here and obviously being able to grow a bunch of grapes too. But the community out here is wonderful, and I love your call out of, like, wine is just this really cool combination of these really amazing things that I don't think you would normally put together. The idea that, yeah, you can do this, you know, the scientific approach, but then there's the art of wine making. And. And then, of course, you always drink wine with food. So it's kind of, you know, it's like, can't really go wrong with that. Absolutely. I think you're kind of hitting it on the nail with the artistic and scientific approach to winemaking. I mean, it's just where the synergy lies and where you really get the opportunity to create great wines is because you can approach winemaking with science, but the wine quality will only be so good. You can approach it 100%. With art, the wine quality will only be so good. You need to have the synergy of the two, where the sun is greater than the two parts. And that is so important for wine and really makes this time exciting for wine. Just the time that we're in where science has come so far with wine that we're really able to take that opportunity and run with the synergy. And that's really, you know, why I loved studying it, you know, high level science. And then with Washington, having the creativity and the freedom that we have here to really do whatever it takes to just be unapologetically Washington and make the best wine possible. Yes. Just a quick reminder, if you are not on my mailing list yet, what are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. Well, let's talk a little bit about the creativity. So what inspired you? So Tiridis is all about sparkling wine. What inspired you to start the winery? Well, starting the winery and why all sparkling will be two different answers. Yep. What's easier? Or I'll start with starting the winery. I never thought I was going to start a winery, especially with two of my best friends. Like, that was not all in my cards, really. It was just something where myself and my two business partners, Matthew Dutney and Gabriel Kroll, all three of us were transplants to Tri Cities Washington for WSU's Viticulture and Ology program. So studying, just hanging out, drinking wine together, whatnot. And when the pandemic came around, the rug was really ripped out from underneath all of us. We didn't have those family vineyards and wineries to go back to, didn't grow up in the industry and have those connections and couldn't travel, do the romantic harvest, hopping abroad and whatnot. So we're trying to figure out what to do. And we were like, man, it would be nice to have a winery. And then we just thought, like, what is a winery anyways? Like, let's make some. Or let's purchase some fruit, make some wine and just see what happens. You know, worse comes to worse, we make some wine and we release, it fizzles out and hopefully the pandemic is slow and we move on with our lives and the career and we've learned stuff along the way or we just move in with our parents, you know, so. But best case scenario, we have a career, we have a project to work with A legacy winery that we can pass on, not necessarily to our kids, but the next generation of wine in Washington State. And fortunately, at the moment, more towards the latter. So doing pretty good and never expected to get this far. But to answer the question about why sparkling? I mean, you don't see sparkling in Washington State, and really, there's not many sparkling producers in the world when compared to standard still wine producers. So what really drew us to it was a. Our affinity for sparkling wines. When we were going through school, what we'd love to do is Tri Cities Washington. So satellite campus of Washington State. Not the most stimulating college town in the world. So we worked a lot while going through school, but we were always sure to celebrate finishing exams and breaks with fried chicken and champagne. That was just our thing. We'd love to drink champagne and we'd love to eat fried chicken. So it's a match made in heaven. Definitely extended past the. The reaches of champagne, but really focused on traditional method sparkling wines around the world. And so we just love champagne and traditional method sparkling wine. So it was a big binder in our relationship. But also it's the most technical and complicated style of wine to make in the world. And it's not just technical and complicated. It's time consuming. There's a huge investment. Everything about it is just the hardest. So we thought if we're gonna do it, might as well do the hardest style. I was gonna say that made you want to do the sparkling where you're like, this is the hardest. Oh, yeah. Well, because it's like, what else are we gonna be doing with our time? You know, it's the pandemic. So let's just. Let's just do it. Let's test ourselves. Let's see if we can do it. And if we can do the hardest thing, we can do anything easier. But just with the times, it made sense for us to do that and really test ourselves. And how many times in your life do you have the opportunity to do that? So we just leaned into it. Yeah, I love that, and I loved you. Where you're like, there's not a lot of sparkling in Washington. And instead, I feel like some people would say, like, oh, well, there's a reason for that. Do you think it's just an. Like an empty. Like, there's just kind of a gap there, or is it harder to make sparkling wine in Washington? I will keep it easy. And saying it's just harder to make sparkling wine fair. It's not harder to make sparkling in Washington. Washington is actually More conducive for sparkling than other regions such as California. Interesting. Okay. So I would say it's just hard to make sparkling fair. Okay, Very hard. I want to talk. You mentioned traditional method, and I feel like a good way to tie in explaining traditional method. What we're saying. When we are saying traditional method sparkling, we can kind of tie it into your name because it goes into how you guys created or determined the name of the winery, Tiridis. Can you explain where that comes from and why my whole question makes any sense? Yeah, absolutely. So the name Tiridas comes from the three step process that it takes to make sparkling wines. In the traditional method, we named ourselves Tyrdis because A, we didn't want to fight over whose name goes on the bottle, but we also knew that we were going to be 100% exclusively traditional method sparkling wines. So showcasing our devotion with the naming of our brand, we created the word Tiridas. The traditional method is three steps, and those three steps are tirage, riddle, and discourage. So if you take the first three letters each of the three steps, you get the name Tiridus. So the first three letters in our name are tir denotes tirage, which, that's the first step of the traditional method process, where you take a base wine, you add yeast and sugar to it, and you put it into bottle. In the bottle, the yeast eats all that sugar and produces the natural carbonation. So effectively, after the tirage step, you have a naturally carbonated, traditional method sparkling through that secondary bottle fermentation. But there's a problem. There's all that yeast and sediment in it. And it's only a problem when the bottle is opened. In the time that the yeast is in the bottle, it's great because the wine interacts with the yeast, adds to the complexity of the wine, and tightens up the bubbles. So if you've ever heard like, oh, this wine has a very fine bubble, that's typically due to the traditional method process. And so in the bottle, it's great. But if I was to open up that bottle, every single one of those particles of yeast is going to act like microscopic Mentos and Coca Cola. The bottle is just going to gush all over the place. And anything that stays in the bottle is going to go flat quick because every single one of those particles is a nucleation point. So it just. Wow. And if you were a customer and you bought a bottle of bubbles and you opened it up and you lost half of it, that's not gonna leave a great taste on your Palate. So that's where the riddling and disgorging comes into play. The R I D and the D I s in our name. So the riddling is the natural settling process all through gravity. I have a bottle right here. So effectively, you start horizontally with the bottle and over a period of eight to 12 days, you're doing slow turns like this, and then tilting it where the neck of the bottle is facing downwards. And then through that period, all that yeast and sediment through gravity will naturally settle into a condensed puck in the neck of the bottle. And then the disgorging step is you take that riddled bottle of wine, you freeze the neck of it, and then that yeast plug turns into a plug of ice. And then you open up the bottle, shoots out that frozen plug of yeast, and then you're left with a crisp, clean, traditional method sparkling wine. So that's the process again. Very technical, time consuming, complicated, you name it. It's not easy, but it's what it takes to make the highest quality bubbles and the most of them as well. So we're entirely devoted to that process to showcase the fruit that grow well in Washington and styles that reflect our climate. Yeah, I love it. And I love that you took those pieces into your name and it gives you such a great talking point to teach people about the method of traditional method and being like, oh, here it is. Where'd you come up with that name? And it's like, oh, it's actually from the method. Let me tell you about how you get these wonderful bubbles in your glass and all the work that we did to get it there. Absolutely. It creates the dialogue. Wine is already foreign, so it's already a learning opportunity for consumers. So really, it's just a way for us to educate. And then also, yeah, people's name on a bottle is not good for anybody's ego. So just showcasing our devotion and having an education opportunity is important for. I like that. I did. I did have to ask you, since you did find this, you founded Tieredis with your, you know, your friends. How did you guys decide on the roles within the company? Was it a pretty natural selection or was it, you know, you ended up kind of, we need someone to do this, we need someone to do this, and here's the best fit. Yeah, natural selection, for sure. I mean, it kind of just like goes in waves, you know, ebbs and flows to whatever needs to get done. And then, like, when we first started, we were pretty much attached to the hit, doing everything. I mean, our first vintage was 250 cases. So three people working on 250 cases. That's a breeze. So there's just stuff to do and it's, you know, oh, I'm busy with this. Can you do that? Perfect. You know, and then it cycles. But then maybe next time I do that step instead. And then we, we learn, oh, maybe I'm a little bit more proficient at this, so maybe I'll stick to this and kind of continue to pigeonhole my role that way. But it was very much just a matter of time and just the skills that we, we have as individuals and you know, it's a three, three legged stool. The, the most structural seating device ever. I love it. Okay, let's talk about with the sparkling wines. And you mentioned this earlier about being unapologetically Washington. The grapes that you use in the sparkling aren't the most common that people would see in sparkling wine and they're certainly not the Champagne blend. And you're not trying to replicate Champagne. Why is that? How did you decide which grapes to to use? Wait, I know you think this is an ad, but it's not, so don't hit Skip. I have a small favor to ask. Here's the truth. I will never charge you to listen to this show, but every episode takes time and money to create. So if this podcast has helped you pick a better bottle, learn something new, or just kept you company, would you consider becoming a paid subscriber? You can show your Support for just 3, 5, 8, or $10 a month to say thanks. Every single supporter gets a shout out on the next episode I record. And if you choose the $10 tier, you actually get to pick a future episode topic. Setting up a subscription is a great way to show your love for the show. Just click the link in the description right now. Thank you for listening, supporting, and being part of my wine loving community. Now let's get back to the show. Well, you know, the really cool thing is we're entering the wine industry at a place in where the Washington wine industry has developed, but it's not fully discovered or explored. So there's still changes. We aren't defined in the world of wine quite yet, so it's still very exploratory. But there are grapes that are established, so. So one of our goals is to look at what's planted and see if we can make it into sparkling wine, a great sparkling wine, but in styles that reflect the climate as well. You know, our climate, we have a warm growing season. It's a long growing season. It's hot. Much different than Champagne and classic traditional method regions that are shorter growing seasons, cooler climate, stormier. Right. So we just have this totally different climate, totally different geography, all of that. So really, we're not planting those first vines. We're looking at those vines that are established and be like, ooh, how can we make this into the best sparkling possible that represents Washington? And that's. That's literally all we're doing. It's recycling. You know, traditional Methodists established. There are grapes that are established. How can we make the most representative sparkling in Washington? Are there any, like, easy to explain? Easy ish. To explain, like, ways that you've had to make changes based off, like, you know, like you said, traditional method. It's been going on forever. They've been doing it in Champagne. They have a very different climate than Washington. And so when you guys find grapes that you want to use, and we were just talking earlier about how hot it is that last week it was already 102 and it's not even, you know, close to the warmest season. Are there any big things that jumped out and, like, changes you had to make when making this traditional method sparkling with Washington grapes and our terroir? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. When you define your palate on Champagne, you're kind of looking for that palette when you're approaching the winemaking. So kind of getting the confidence to take a step away and be like, oh, our fruit is naturally a little bit riper. So it's like just kind of taking those steps. Like, no matter how hard we try, we will never produce Champagne style wines in Washington. That's just a pill that we have to swallow. So when do we achieve that perfect balance of physiological maturity and acid? So that's really been our thing just over these past few years, just kind of maybe testing the boundaries of richness, fruit purity, but maintaining acidity. So that was definitely a pill that we had to swallow very quickly. Yes, yes. Can you tell us? So looking at your website, you make a lot of different sparkling wines. I'm curious because I think when we think about non sparkling or still wines, they're often differentiated by, like, you know, it was from this vineyard or it's from this region, or it's this grape variety or this. How do your sparkling wines differ? If somebody's looking at the website, are they different regions? Are they different grapes? How do you kind of think about your selection of sparkling wines? I love to describe Tyrannos as the philosophy of Washington sparkling wine. We purchase our grapes and we work in A shared facility. So we're not a terroir driven or facility driven place. We're just trying to explore the different styles that could exist in Washington and trying to define them. So, like I said, looking at the grapes that grow well and producing them in styles that reflect our climate. So what are those styles? That's the question that we're asking ourselves every day. What are those grapes that grow well? How can you translate that into a style that you can present and have the dialogue surrounding? So I say our wines are just very philosophical. And so just depending, it could be focused on a certain grape, or it could be focused on a certain dialogue, or it could be focused on a certain color of the wine as well. So there's just all these different approaches, but they are philosophically focused wines. It's not single vineyard. Very rarely do we do single varietal. And even when we do single varietal, it's not the name on the label. So it's just a very interesting approach, kind of, again, recycling sparkling wine nomenclature and applying it to Washington. I like it. Would it be fair to say they're almost like, kind of looking at them as, like, different experiments and then some of them stick, like, you'll do that again. And then some of them are just like, hey, we tried this. Here's what we made. Oh, absolutely. You know, you don't hit every ball out of the park, that's for sure. Luckily, we've kind of got a little strategy for experimentation at Tiridas. So we. We have our. Our standard wines that we usually have sequentially at all times. So, you know, that would be like our Blanc degree, our Washington blend, or Brute red or barrel fermented Blanc Blanc. But, you know, we are still Willy Wonka and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. You know, there's still all these different great varietals. There's still all these different regions. Washington is still in that exploratory phase. So we can't stop being creative. We need to continue to be creative and exploring these different grapes from different regions. And that's where our single vineyard series comes from. Very limited productions. They're almost always one and done. And so, for example, couple single vineyards that we've done is Pinot Blanc coming from the Columbia Valley, but it's actually like Western Yakma so far that it's at, like, the base of the Cascades. So super cool climate, mountainous Pinot Blanc. So we've tried stuff like that. The other year, we did a sparkling dry Muscat just Testing aromatics in Washington sparkling, and those are wines we've released. Semillon is another single vineyard that we've done kind of testing that richer, fuller bodied grape varietal on Washington. So we still have the opportunity for creativity and don't have to commit to it year in, year out through this experimental series. Oh, it's so fun. I love the idea of, like. And I think that's what's so cool about New World and especially Washington is such a great spot for it because of all the grapes we can grow here. Of that you're not limited to. Just, you have to do it this way. You can have so much more fun with expanding and exploring what the grapes can do. I have a friend who just went to Champagne last summer, and he ended up bringing a bottle of our sparkling and gifting it to one of the Champagne winemakers who was touring him around. And he pretty much left with the test, or the Champagne winemaker pretty much left. The sentiment of it is so cool that they have that blank slate. The opportunity for full creativity is something that he dreams of, and it's just having that full flexibility. It's so cool just going back to that creative aspect and the synergy of wine. Yeah. All right, I'm gonna. This is a hard question. I feel like it's gonna be one of those where it's like you're asking a parent their favorite kid. So if someone was interested in trying Tiridus wines, they go on the website and this is gonna be released in, like, end of July, in case that makes any difference for what's available. Could you pick out three wines that you would recommend they try that you feel like would be a good representation of Tiridas and a good place for them to start? Yeah, absolutely. I'd say it's pretty simple. The Washington blend, the Blanc degree and the barrel fermented blanc de blanc. Those are the three that I would try for a great representation of Tirdis. Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about each of those three and. Yeah. What makes them different and what makes them special? Absolutely. I'll start off with the Washington blend, and if you only had to try one wine from Tyrdis, that would be it. Just because I said, you know, we're Washington sparkling. The philosophy exploring that and the Washington blend is where we're not just walking the walk, but we're talking the talk too. Not just the approach to winemaking, but the dialogue surrounding wine in many regions is very Eurocentric. So even in Washington, you'll be Wine tasting in here. This is our Bordeaux blend. This is our Rhone blend. And we're like, screw that. Let's make a Washington blend. You know, what makes Washington Washington is diversity and climate, ability to grow so many different grapes and produce so many different styles of wine. So leaning into it with that wine, it's a blend of Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling. So five different grapes all together, and it's a vacation in a bottle to Washington. It's accessible, approachable, super bright, aromatic, energetic. So that's the wine that you bring to the beach with your friends, the wine you pop when you're celebrating coming back from a hike. You know, it's just a vacation in a bottle, and that's always been a really big goal for us. As I mentioned, none of us are from Washington, so. So none of us are even from wine growing regions. So my first exposure to wine was walking into a wine shop and seeing those thousand bottles on the wall and being like, wow, those are the thousand most representative bottles of wine in the world. If you are to pick one of those, that bottle was selected because it represents that region better than any other bottle. That's what we want to do, and that's why it's named the Washington blend. So if there is one bottle of sparkling for somebody to try, that represents Washington, it's a Washington blender. So I love that wine just because of the dialogue surrounding it, the nomenclature, and then also, it's just so wildly delicious as well. Then the Blanc de Gris, I love that wine because it's really focused on showcasing Pinot Gris as a sparkling varietal in Washington State. And typically, a lot of New world wine regions are defined by single varietal wines. So we thought, oh, we should probably try to make a single varietal. But what would be a varietal in Washington that could hold its own and just showcase itself better than anything else? And we thought Pinot grape, just the beautiful pink skins of the grape really protect it from the harsh sunshine. So when cropping a little bit higher for traditional method sparkling to preserve acidity and prolong flavor development, we're able to thin the fruiting region so there's a bit more airflow, so it keeps down microbial pressure, fungal pressure, all that. So really beautiful grapes and Pinot Gris. I mean, everybody's familiar with Pinot Gris, but in the United States, it's kind of fallen to this. Just, you know, it's simple. It's it's crisp, it's a porch pounder, it's a pool party wine, you know, but there's a whole world of Pinot gris that's really uncharted and unseen in the United States. I mean, King Estate in Oregon, they do a really good job with some higher end Pinot gris, but really outside of them, it's few and far between. And we really want to showcase richer, more textural expression of Pinot gris as sparkling is synonymous with celebration. We want that richness and elegance from our Pinot gris to complement that. So very, very elegant expression of Pinot gris is a sparkling varietal in Washington state. So that's definitely one of my favorites. And then barrel fermented blanc de blanc. If anybody's ever just slightly looked into sparkling, everybody is familiar with the term blanc blanc. It's a classic style that you see all over the place. So this wine is us trying to be as, as traditional as possible on paper, but as far from traditional as possible in expression. So a barrel from Lent to Blanc to Blanc, it's all about richness and opulence. And sparkling wine that is almost counterintuitive to what sparkling is. Just going back to champagne. Cooler climate, you know, shorter growing season, the fruit, naturally, it's gonna be tighter, it's gonna be zesty, it's gonna be mineral driven. So there are some vinification practices that you can do to make it a little bit richer and more opulent. But we are trying to get the ripest possible fruit. We're testing the boundaries of the physiological ripeness while preserving acidity and just turning all the dials up to 11. We want it full bodied, we want it rich. And so it's just crazy. It's a barrel fermented, so 43% American oak on it, which we're really proud of doing American oak, just because, you know, we're way too young for an unsustainable program. It's not sustainable. Shipping vats of air across the world. Right. And trying to make Washington sparkling, we should be looking for most local possible sources. So it's actually a single forest from the Ozarks white oak. So we're super excited about that. But 43% new oak barrel fermentation, so slight oxidation, a lot of spice on there, and then put into bottle for the secondary bottle fermentation. So it's the perfect marriage of oak, spice and fruit profile. It's rich, it's full bodied, it's opulent, it's complex, and it opens up a world of pairing sparkling with foods that you wouldn't traditionally pair it with. And just as we continue to grow and entering new markets and collaborating with chefs and stuff all around, every chef is so stoked to pair with the barrel fermented blanc to blanche. It is just. It is. Yeah. It's the Swiss army knife for wine pairing. Interesting. Those are the three that I would recommend if you were to try Tierdisk, because you got that unapologetically Washington, Washington blend, then you've got that really elegant, focused, single varietal focus, traditional method sparkling in Washington. And then the barrel fermented blanc blanc, you have that rich, opulent Washington expression of that traditional style. You know, with all things subjective, it's important to show your understanding and takes on the classics before taking those steps forward. So that's kind of. That's kind of our first approach on that classic style. Yeah, I love it. Well, I have to ask you then, with that, the rich and opulent, the blanc de blanc, the barrel fermented, what do you pair with that? What is your go to food pairing for that wine? My go to food pairing is pretty simple. Pulled pork sandwich with Mac and cheese and coleslaw. Really interesting. Yeah. And you can definitely up the meat on the pulled pork sandwich too, because, you know, a lot of times if you make the sandwich too big, get halfway 3/4 of the way through, you're starting to get the meat sweats a little bit, but bubbles are like the energy drink of wine. So that acid, it brings vitality and lightness to everything, and it just gives you that lift to finish the sandwich. And. But the. The smokiness of the pulled pork, the intense fattiness of pulled pork. The flavors complement each other, but also the acid in the sparkling wine cuts right through to keep the. The meal bright. Yum. Oh, that sounds really good. There has been, like, amazing other pairings with it as well. Like, I'll name drop Chef Aaron from Sorrel over in Seattle. Yeah. He's featured it on his tasting menu alongside, like, dry aged duck breast with a red wine demi glace. So, like, you can really do a lot and had a. A master class over in Calgary and where it was featured alongside, literally, a five wagyu steak. So you can really do just about anything with the barrel fermented blanc Blanc. Wow. Cool. That's such a great example of, like, the whole, like, you know, like, you talk about white wine with fish and red wine with, you know, with steak, and it's like champagne with oysters. Would probably be like your go to and it's like you don't have to. You don't have to stick with that. If you have the right wine. It just, you know, depends on how it's made. Exactly. Yep. I love it. There's more than one type of sparkling wine in the world. Yes, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. If you want to learn more about Tiridis and or try their sparkling wines, you can purchase their wines online@tiridis.com it is T I R R I D D I S.com or of course request them at your local wine shop and be sure to visit their tasting room. If you're ever in the Tri Cities or in Prosser, Washington. If you love this episode as much as I did, I'd love it. If you take a quick second rate it, leave a review if you know a wine lover in your life, especially a sparkling wine fan, be sure to share it with them. And if you'd like to show additional support for the show, you can become a paid subscriber, click the link in the show notes and become a monthly supporter. For $10 or less a month you will get a shout out in the next episode I record. Plus, if you choose the $10 a month option, you get to choose a topic for a future episode. It is a small thing that makes such a big difference for me as I am creating these podcasts for you. In next week's episode you'll hear part two of my interview with Andrew where we talk about why they designed their tasting room to be more like a brewery, the importance of sweetness in sparkling wine, the future for Tiridas, and so much more. Thanks again for listening and if you want to learn more about wine, come follow me at corkandfizz on Instagram. Cheers.