Not Champagne, Not Pet-Nat
From the porch in Jenner where salty sea air and wild lupine filled her senses, Courtney Humiston created a new category: California crémant. Méthode Champenoise, disgorged, but following the laws of Crémant de Loire — shorter time on lees, more freshness, zero dosage. A sparkling wine that tastes like the Sonoma coast itself.
From Restaurant Floor to Jenner Porch
Courtney Humiston spent years on the restaurant floor — as wine director at Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, Petit Crenn and Maybeck's in San Francisco, and later as director of hospitality for Idlewild Wines. She ran all-Champagne wine pairings, wrote a wine column for 7x7 magazine, and developed a palate finely attuned to sparkling wine [^254^][^256^].
But the constant grind wore her down. "It was pretty draining, and I felt like I kind of lost myself after years of running other people's projects," she says. The pandemic brought a forced pause. She was living in Jenner, a tiny coastal Sonoma County town, and for the first time in years, she had space to breathe — and to taste [^256^].
Sitting on her porch, she experienced what she wanted her wine to capture: salty sea air, tiny spring wildflowers, heady lupine, the specific sensory imprint of the Sonoma coastline. She was "almost manifesting terroir" — imagining a wine before she knew how to make it [^256^].
Her opportunity came through a job with a California winery that afforded her the chance to make her own wine. She jumped at it. Delphinium was born — named for an endangered species of larkspur flower native to Sonoma and Marin counties, a fragile beauty that embodies the project's connection to place [^254^][^256^].
She has since left that winery and is focusing full-time on Delphinium. She is also now a critic for JamesSuckling.com, reviewing wines from Sonoma, Mendocino, Oregon, and Washington — a full-circle return to the analytical side of wine, now informed by her own production experience [^256^].
"Something that I learned during COVID living in Jenner was just how to live with all your senses engaged. That's why Delphinium exists."
— Courtney Humiston
California Crémant, Not Champagne
Courtney Humiston did not set out to make Champagne. She was not trying to emulate the rich, long-aged style that defines the French region. But she was also not making a fizzy, lighthearted pet-nat. What she wanted was something in between: bright and fruity but with the precise bubbles of the Champagne method [^256^].
Then she found her model: crémant, the French sparkling wines made by méthode Champenoise but outside the Champagne region. Crémant de Loire, Crémant d'Alsace, Crémant de Bourgogne — each incorporates the signature grapes of its place, spending less time on lees than Champagne (minimum nine months vs. Champagne's one year minimum), resulting in fresher, less toasty, more fruit-forward wines [^256^].
"I wanted methode Champenoise, disgorged, but more following the laws of Crémant de Loire," she explains. "Shorter time on lees, more freshness." The wine spends 9–10 months on lees — the standard for European crémant — rather than the 12–36 months typical of Champagne [^254^][^256^].
The winemaking is informed by the natural wine movement but with a careful hand to weed out any flaws. Native yeast fermentations in stainless steel. No sulfur added until just before bottling — and then only 15ppm, a fraction of the conventional standard. The result is a textured, fresh, fruit-forward but salty sparkling wine that captures the Sonoma coast in effervescent form [^254^].
Traditional secondary fermentation in bottle, hand-riddled, disgorged. Not tank method, not ancestral method — the same labor-intensive process as Champagne, applied to California fruit with crémat timing.
9–10 months on lees — the European crémant standard. Less toasty, less brioche, more fruit, more freshness. Shorter aging preserves the primary aromas of the grapes rather than masking them with yeast-derived complexity.
No sugary solution added at disgorging. The wine is bone-dry — 0g/L dosage. Despite this, the 2023 Delphinium has a sweetly fruity side, reminiscent of candied grapefruit, from the ripe California fruit and musque clone aromatics.
Fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel. Only 15ppm sulfur added at bottling — a careful, minimal approach that protects the wine without masking its character. Natural wine philosophy with technical precision.
Mendocino Fruit, Musque Clone, Coastal Soul
Courtney is adamant about sourcing pristine fruit from organic vineyards farmed by people who understand what she is trying to do. The search for the right grapes took several vintages of experimentation — Riesling, Tocai Friulano, various vineyards — before she found the combination that captured her vision [^254^][^256^].
The breakthrough came with the 2023 vintage: 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Chardonnay, both from Mendocino County vineyards. The Sauvignon Blanc is the musque clone — an increasingly rare planting in California that is extra-aromatic, smelling more tropical and less grassy than typical Sauvignon Blanc. The Chardonnay provides structure and backbone [^256^].
The 2022 vintage was different: 60% Riesling, 30% Sauvignon Blanc, 10% Friulano — also from Mendocino, also organically farmed, also native yeast. The blend shifts with vintage and availability, but the criteria remain constant: organic farming, coastal proximity, aromatic intensity, and growers who share Courtney's commitment to purity [^257^].
All fruit is hand-harvested, gently pressed, and fermented in stainless steel to preserve freshness. The base wines are blended, bottled with yeast and sugar for secondary fermentation, then aged on lees, hand-riddled, and disgorged — the full méthode Champenoise, executed with crémant patience [^254^].
The Musque Clone
The Sauvignon Blanc musque clone is the secret weapon of Delphinium's aromatic profile. Increasingly rare in California, this clone produces wines that smell tropical — mango, passionfruit, guava — rather than the grassy, citrusy character of standard Sauvignon Blanc. In sparkling form, amplified by lees aging and zero dosage, the musque clone creates a wine that is resoundingly floral, sweetly fruity despite being bone-dry, and unmistakably Californian. It is the grape that makes "California crémant" possible [^256^].
Woman-Owned, Sensory, Expanding
Courtney Humiston is the sole owner and winemaker of Delphinium Wine Co. — a woman-owned business in an industry where women winemakers remain underrepresented, especially in sparkling wine production. Her background as a sommelier, wine director, writer, and now critic gives her a 360-degree perspective that few producers can match [^254^][^256^].
The project is growing rapidly. In 2023, she made 500 cases. In 2024, she ramped up to 1,500 cases — a threefold increase that signals confidence in the "California crémant" category she is creating [^256^]. Production takes place at Brick & Mortar Wines in Healdsburg, a custom crush facility that provides the technical infrastructure for her vision [^256^].
Courtney's approach to marketing is as sensory as her winemaking. She hosts special, intensive events — early-morning seaweed foraging at Sea Ranch Lodge, excursions to Rancho Meladuco date farm in Coachella Valley — that engage all five senses and connect drinkers to the landscapes that inspire her wines. "Something that I learned during COVID living in Jenner was just how to live with all your senses engaged," she says. Delphinium is not just a wine; it is a way of experiencing the world [^256^].
"I can't say I've ever had the pleasure of inhaling a delphinium flower, but the wine does smell resoundingly floral."
— Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle
The Delphinium Crémant
Delphinium produces a single wine — California Crémant — with the blend shifting by vintage to reflect the best available organic fruit and Courtney's evolving vision. All wines are made by méthode Champenoise, fermented with native yeast in stainless steel, aged 9–10 months on lees, disgorged with zero dosage, and bottled with only 15ppm sulfur. The style is consistent: textured, fresh, fruit-forward but salty, floral, and bone-dry [^254^][^256^][^258^].