Villbrygg Skog 03

SKOG means forest in Norwegian, and Villbrygg isn't being metaphorical.

The base is young spruce shoots, wild-harvested and fermented with lemongrass, yarrow, and birch leaves from the Norwegian highlands. The color is pale and bright, and the nose goes somewhere unexpected: citrus and stone fruit up front, then something resinous underneath, like walking into a pine forest right after it rains. It's the spruce doing that, and once you know it's there you can't un-smell it. 

The palate is dry with good grip. Yarrow and birch add tannin structure that most sparkling drinks don't have, and the whole thing has a brightness that tracks closer to a Grüner Veltliner than anything you'd expect from a bottle with no grapes in it. Crisp, herbal, a little wild.

Pair it with seafood, smoked fish, anything off the grill, or the sushi order you were going to have with white wine anyway. It handles acid and delicate proteins the way a good white does, which is the point.