sparkling

Honey Moon Vineyard Rose Brut 2011

/ Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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I promised you some more bubbles before the new year kicked in and I’m only just managing to squeeze this in. Appalling form but I suppose that at this time of year it’s to be expected (unless I were one of those people who wrote blog posts months in advance and scheduled them all … maybe one day!).

A few weeks back we were out for dinner vaguely near Belair Fine Wines when Andy suggested we drop in to have a look. While having a little wander, my eyes lighted on these Honey Moon bubbles. I am a HUGE fan of the Honey Moon Shiraz and Pinot Noir so I was keen to try this out.

The Honey Moon wines aren’t cheap – they all (bar the still rosé) seem to hover between $40 and $50 so you may need to save them for special occasions. When it comes to bubbles, in my opinion, ‘special occasion’ is generally ‘day with a “y” in it’!

After the experience of both this and another rosé sparkling, I really think these are wines I am going to have to drink more often because I’ve really enjoyed them, perhaps a little bit above and beyond white bubbles.

This wine is predominantly Pinot Noir – just 13% Chardonnay. The wine is also disgorged on demand – on the side of the bottle it notes that it was disgorged for Belair Fine Wines in September 2014. The theory is that while the wine rests on the yeast lees it remains fresh, vibrant and young and takes on aged characteristics much more slowly Once disgorged, the ‘regular’ sparkling wine ageing process kicks in. Indeed, Bollinger, one of Champagne’s well-known houses, has trademarked ‘RD’ (neatly, ‘recently disgorged’ in English but really ‘récemment dégorgé’ in French), which it uses on one of its (more) premium wines.

Another good thing about this wine is that it arrives in your hands topped with a crown seal. You won’t have to spend time messing with the muselet and lacerating your hands and then breaking the Ming vases when the cork explodes out. Just locate the bottle opener and you’re good to go. I really wish that more sparkling wine came under crown seal – after all, it is what most of these wines are sealed with while they’re ageing, AND it’s easy to open.

So – ticks all round for this wine. If you can find it – it’s definitely worth investing in.

The wine

Salmon pink in colour, with a reasonably pronounced nose showing strawberries and cream, a hint of talciness and citrus.

On the palate, the mousse is incredibly fine and mouth filling. The citrus character is a little more dominant and I suspect it is beefed up by the wine’s excellent, and very persistent, acidity. But this wine is all about strawberries and cream and mixed red berries.

Delicious.

Honey Moon Vineyard Rosé Brut, purchased from Belair Fine Wines for $45
Crown seal.
12.5% abv.

Jansz Vintage Cuvee 2010

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After doing a relatively good job of keeping up weekly posts I’ve dropped into an unplanned hiatus. I blame (in part) the fact that some contractors near home cut through a big chunk of telecommunications cable, leaving us without phone or internet for over a week. Of course, if you’re kind that excuses just one week (sort of) …

Anyway, ’tis the season to be jolly and drink bubbly so I’ve got a couple of sparkling reviews lined up for you. I’ve decided to start with this, the Jansz Vintage Cuvée 2010, in part because it was a sample and I do try to review samples promptly but also because Jansz’s NV offering is such a well known wine. I suspect many people will not even be aware of the other wines in this range.

You may be aware that a vintage sparkling wine (or Champagne) is made from grapes from a single vintage (that is, the grapes are all picked in one year, the year that appears on the bottle). This means that you should see variation in the wine between one vintage and the next (whereas with a non-vintage – NV – wine it is likely to follow a consistent house style). Vintage wines are often (necessarily) made in smaller quantities and this is reflected in their price. Indeed, in France, Champagne producers are obliged to age the wines for longer so this increases the price further.

This wine has had four and a half years ageing on the yeast lees so you should see plenty of yeast character in the wine. It is 51% Pinot Noir and 49% Chardonnay.

The wine

Pale gold in the glass, the nose is quite pronounced and shows apple and citrus, some smoke and spice and even verges towards a talcy character. There are, unsurprisingly, yeasty notes.

In the mouth, the mousse is beautifully fine and mouth-filling – straight away you feel like you’ve got a mouth full of teensy-tiny bubbles. The wine is very apple-y, with green apple skin but also some good yeast and brioche characters. The acidity is good (always essential in sparkling wine – it’s what makes it refreshing!) and the wine has good length.

This wine is lovely and would work really well with seafood – think oysters, scallops, prawns – fresh and not messed with too much! For me the highlights were the lovely mouthfeel – the explosion of fine bubbles – and the extra complexity.

Definitely a step up in the sparkling wine stakes and if you’re going to splash out over Christmas then this is worth a look. While the RRP is $46.95 the chances are that if you do some research you will find it more cheaply. I spotted it at under $40 – a very compelling price point.

And props to the marketing people for the “méthode tasmanoise” strapline!

Jansz Vintage Cuvée 2010, sample. RRP $46.95.
Cork (standard sparkling wine closure).
12.5% abv.

Deviation Road Altair Rose Brut NV

/ Alex Prichard 1 Comment

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I do not receive so many samples that the novelty has worn off and one of my favourite packages to receive comes from lovely Adelaide Hills winery, Deviation Road.

I am still yet to visit the cellar door (I feel like I may have already written this earlier this year) which I feel is terribly remiss of me. But I do champion these wines and the Loftia (the winery’s vintage white sparkling) makes a regular appearance in my classes.

I did feel vaguely bad about tasting this wine on my own, as I know that it is a favourite of a friend of mine. But, I do find that if I don’t look at samples sharpish they end up waiting quite a while for their turn on the tasting bench. Plus, it’s been a hot weekend and we’d had a big sushi dinner, and sparkling rosé seemed like just the biscuit … (let’s be honest, that’s the real reason).

The wine

Pale salmon pink in colour. The nose shows off vibrant strawberries and cream, with a zip of citrus and touch of yeastiness.

On the palate the wine comes across as bone dry – the accompanying notes say that the dosage is 9g/L but the excellent acidity means that you don’t really pick this up. The strawberries and cream are there, cut with fresh lemon juice and the wine has a pleasant, almost savoury, finish which has good length.

I don’t drink a lot of sparkling rosé (maybe I need to address this) so I can’t benchmark this wine against anything I’ve recently tasted.

However, against my general tasting background (and I taste/try/drink a reasonable amount) this wine stacks up very favourably. The strawberries and cream character is both very pleasant and what I have come to expect from a pink sparkling. With an rrp of $32 a bottle, this also delivers sound value. It is 50:50 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which accounts for the very attractive (and necessary, in my opinion) citrus. 24 months on lees delivers the savoury complexity. It’s lovely that a lot of this (inherently interesting) wine making chit chat shows up in the wine.

Yet again, Kate and Hamish Laurie deliver the goods.

Deviation Road Altair, sample. RRP $32.
Cork.
12.5% abv.

Oakridge 2009 Chardonnay Pinot Noir

/ Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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Oakridge is a brand with which I’m a little familiar – mainly by reputation but I’m pretty sure I’ve encountered the wines at at least one tasting.

As it feels like a while since I’ve had some bubbles, I popped into East End Cellars and pretty much picked up the first thing I saw that I hadn’t tried (and wasn’t crazy money!). It was the Oakridge 2009 Chardonnay Pinot Noir. In typical fashion, I took it up to the counter and said “is this nice?”. The guys assured me it was, so I took it home and put it in the fridge, so it would be all ready for a bubble emergency.

Something like 24 hours later, the bottle was duly opened. As soon as the cork was phutted (I open bubbles properly … there’s no crazy popping here!) a gorgeous yeasty aroma was released and I was hopeful I was in for a treat.

I wasn’t disappointed.

In the glass, the wine is very pale straw in colour – almost lemon like, which surprised me given its age and the fact that it’s spent 3 years on lees (the same legal minimum as vintage Champagne). The nose is quite pronounced, with beautiful toasty and yeasty notes, accompanied by vanilla and citrus.

On the palate, there is some very good, persistent acidity, and a very pleasant phenolic grip which really adds to the mouth feel. Lovely lemon and lemon sherbert flavours, with great length and flavour development, so you end up with lemon pith. There is also some brioche character but the palate isn’t nearly as bready as the nose might suggest.

An absolutely lovely wine – one I’d definitely buy again. It’s a shame I can’t find it on the Oakridge website …

Mountadam High Eden NV Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay

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Quite often Andy is dispatched on a wine buying mission for me. I don’t think he enjoys this experience so I always try to pick out at least one thing for him to buy (more than one just in case option 1 is not in stock). Wine stores – this is why you need to have an up to date and comprehensive list on your website.

One Friday he was dispatched on such a mission and I randomly picked the Mountadam High Eden NV Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay. I’d love to provide you with a link to the actual wine but either the Mountadam website is really out of date or the horrible Flash monstrosity that appears to be the “Wines” page doesn’t render correctly in my browser of choice. I’ve actually really struggled to find you any other information about this wine on the internet although if you have a subscription you may care to check out The Wine Front, which at least is relatively recent and not trying to sell you the wine.

So now you’re just going to have to trust me.

In the glass the wine is quite gold in colour, with lots of bubbles*. The nose is not particularly pronounced but there’s Granny Smith, rose and strawberry. The palate has plenty of crisp acidity but I did feel there was perhaps just a touch too much tart/bitter lemon action. All these tart flavours dominate: Granny Smith and citrus but not enough sweetness (as in flavour sweetness, not actual sugar in the wine) for me. I’d like some of that strawberry that was on the nose to come through on the palate. The wine does have good length but it’s clean and simple, rather than offering complex and developing flavours. I also didn’t get any of the bready, yeasty notes that I like to find in bubbles, but more I was disappointed by the lack of fruit sweetness on the palate.

I paid (well, Andy, as my proxy) paid $24 for this wine. At this price point, I think there are better and/or more interesting wines you can buy. However, if you could pick this wine up sub $20 I’d definitely give it a go.

Given its flavour profile, I’d recommend drinking this as an apéritif wine, rather than trying to pair it. Maybe it’d work with oysters though.

This wine was purchased from East End Cellars for $24.
Closure: cork.

* Yes, I’m aware this is more to do with the glass and how clean it is and less to do with the wine. If this type of wine geekery interests you, check out this piece from The Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog.

Brown Brothers Patricia Pinot Noir Chardonnay Brut 2006

/ Alex Prichard Leave a comment

As it’s getting close to the weekend it’s time to think about celebratory, weekend wine and for me that means bubbles! I’ve had my tasting note for the Brown Bros Patricia hanging around for a while so I figured it was time to commit it to the internet.

Patricia Brown was the matriarch of the Brown family and the wines that bear her name are the winery’s flagship wines. The sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay comes from the winery’s Whitlands vineyard in Victoria’s King Valley. The 2006 is 79% Pinot and 21% Chardonnay and was made the same way that Champagne is made (you’ll see this on bottles as méthode traditionelle or méthode champenoise). Amongst other things, this means that the wine has spent its entire life in the bottle you pick off the shelf – including the five years it has spent on lees.

This time on lees, where the sparkling wine lies in the bottle with the dead and dying yeast (oh, right – that sounds so attractive) is what gives good sparkling wines from around the world their complexity. As the yeast runs out of sugar in the wine it starts to eat itself and this process, known as autolysis, gives vintage sparkling wines their characteristic yeasty, bready notes.

With vintage sparkling wine it’s important to remember a few things. Firstly, it will usually cost more than a non vintage because it’s taken more time to put together, and often uses better fruit and production techniques. The wine is much more likely to be savoury than its non vintage counterpart. If you’re not a fan of yeasty, bready, nutty and perhaps even Vegemite like characters in your sparkling wine then proceed with caution. But because of this savouriness, vintage bubbles often work brilliantly with food.

In the glass, this wine is pale gold in colour and I note comparatively few bubbles (although this depends so much on the glass that I’m almost reluctant to write that down!). The nose is all about toasted brioche and bread and butter pudding with a touch of vanilla.

On the palate, the Patricia is very savoury. There’s very good acidity which is softly persistent. There’s a little bit of lemon that comes through, and a slight nuttiness, but this wine is really all about those savoury characters – it’s yeasty, brioche like and has a slightly meaty flavour which is perhaps best described as umami or Vegemite (think just a hint of Vegemite smeared on buttered white toast, rather than slathered on!).

I enjoyed this wine – this style of bubbles is definitely my thing. If you’re interested in exploring vintage sparkling wine this also represents a reasonable, and reasonably priced, introduction before you start delving into the considerably more expensive Champagne.

Jeremy, over at Wine Will Eat Itself, also enjoyed this wine, back in May.

This wine was purchased from Dan Murphy’s (Marion), $40.
Closure: cork.