TASTINGS ... with DAVID BRAY
Fizzy seems to be the way to go for an increasing number of wineries, particularly as summer sweeps us into the “festive” season. So here are five new sparklings, different, interesting and well worth a look:
Windowrie Family Reserve 2010 Sparkling is made from chardonnay grown on a 920metre vineyard on the slopes of Mount Canobolas in the Orange region. Winemaker Anthony D’Onise says the Orange region “has a great future as a producer of sparkling wines. The long cool ripening season and the natural acidity in the fruit are perfect”. And more. “Over the next decade, I imagine Orange will give Tasmania a run with its chardonnay and pinot noir based sparklings”.
His team picked the chardonnay “early, when the fruit was showing a pristine green apple and lime flavour – and luckily before the rain came. We wanted a vibrant style and so whole-bunch pressed and fermented in stainless steel”. They then matured the wine on lees to build plate texture. Good fizz this. Around $25.
Over the ditch, there’s innovative work from Waipara Hills which is sending over two new wines, Southern Cuvee and Marlborough Cuvee. The names don’t tell you much, but the former is apparently one of New Zealand’s first sparkling rieslings and the Marlborough makes use of the region’s strength being made from sauvignon blanc fruit grown in the Awatere and Wairau Valleys.
“The aromatic varieties from Marlborough and the emerging Waipara Valley regions work beautifully as a sparkling style,” says Hills winemaker Simon McGeorge. The riesling is such a versatile variety it gives us great opportunity to play around with number of styles.
“What we find here is plenty of interesting aromatics. Look for apple and melon flavours.” McGeorge fermented both wines in stainless steel and matured them off lees. Well worth a look, both of these, at around $22 in the local shop.
Renowned for producing a spectacular range of vintage sparkling wines, Blue Pyrenees is releasing its new Luna, the non-vintage, yet method champenoise crafted addition to the stable. In light of the company’s flagship sparkling being named Midnight which reflects the company’s philosophy of harvesting sparkling wine grapes during the cool of the night, Luna “seemed the apt name for the new release NV which adopts the same theory of harvesting at the ultimate time of day”.
The 2007 Vintage Brut, also just out, and Blue Pyrenees’ largest-selling wine, has developed a following over 20 years with its due fine pedigree, estate grown fruit in ideally grown conditions, methode champenoise production and French winemaking heritage. The brut is around $25 and the Luna $18.
And so we come to the very appealing Ballabourneen Moscato Blush 2010. Persons in this reporter’s household who had resolutely refused to consider moscato were converted by this one, which proved to go particularly nicely with Thai tucker.
It uses Muscat of Hamburg grapes, the traditional variety used in Northern Italy to make the sparkling d’asti DOC. The grapes were cold soaked on skins to extract the subtle rose petal and musk stick aromas then cold fermented and bottled to retain the pink blush colour and effervescent frizzante finish. The makers reckon, and I quote directly “with its strawberries and cream/Turkish delight palate this is a fresh aperitif style, low alcohol wine, ideal for any joyous occasion or just to relax and enjoy”. It’s around $26.
Just to round things off, Windowrie unveiled two new whites. They join the sparkling in what the owners, the O’Dea family, see as the best way for smaller family-owned wineries to survive and prosper by focusing on increasing quality. They looked to the vineyards within 100 miles of their winery which include the Orange, Mudgee and Hilltops regions. And here are Windowrie The Mill 2010 verdelho and 2010 semillon sauvignon blanc, well made, flavoursome wines from quality fruit at a sensible price. It’s $16.99 or thereabouts.
