Our Story

Sparkling wine gets put in a box. It becomes a wine for weddings, a wine for milestones, a wine for New Year's Eve. But some of the best bottles we've ever opened had nothing to do with any of that. They got opened around a crowded dinner table, or with friends who showed up unannounced, or next to takeout on a Wednesday night.

We think sparkling wine belongs wherever good food, good conversation, and good company find each other.

No place taught us that more than California.

California is more than where we live and work. It's a way of seeing things. It's sunshine, open roads, and room to try something new. It's dozens of growing regions, each with its own personality, and the fun of finding out what happens when an unexpected grape lands in the right vineyard. It's making wine that respects tradition without getting stuck inside it.

That itch to explore is what brought the two of us together.

Dan learned his craft at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy, one of the most respected wineries in the world, then worked at top wineries across Napa Valley, including one of its great sparkling houses. Jacqueline, meanwhile, was making wine from vineyards all over California and falling for what each corner of the state could do.

We put those two paths together with one simple goal: make sparkling wines that capture the energy, the sunshine, and the sense of adventure that make California unlike anywhere else.

Every Carboniste wine starts with the same question: what else is possible? A different vineyard. A different grape. A different way to put bubbles in a bottle. The result is a lineup that's bright, alive, and unmistakably Californian, made for people who love finding something new and pouring it for the people around them.

But a bottle of sparkling wine isn't finished when it leaves the cellar. It's finished when someone opens it. We put the bubbles in, but the bubbles don't do a thing until you gather a few friends, share a meal, and make an ordinary night a little better than it had to be.

Putting bubbles into life has always been a two-person job. We do the first half. You do the second.

Together, we are the Carboniste.