Description
Reviews
Sam Kim – Wine Orbit – 95pts/5 stars
Gorgeously complex and enticing, the bouquet shows baked apple, savoury pastry, lemon zest and white floral aromas, leading to a wonderfully weighted palate that’s creamy and flowing. Richly textured and mouthfilling with delectable flavours, finishing persistent and satisfying. Matured on lees for 49 months. At its best: now to 2030. April 2023.
Michael Cooper – Michael Cooper’s Wine Buyer’s Guide – 4.5 stars
Grown and hand-harvested at Adams Gully, south of Bannockburn, the 2018 vintage (4.5*) is worth discovering and drinking well now. Made from Pinot Noir, it was bottle-fermented and disgorged after maturation on its yeast lees. Still very vigorous, it has a deep straw colour, with a strong surge of peachy, toasty, yeasty flavours, crisp and dry, and very good complexity. 4.5 stars. March 2023.
Wine Making
The production of our vintage méthode traditionnelle wine starts in Central Otago where grapes grown on our family’s vineyard are carefully handpicked, pressed before going through 100% malolactic fermentation at our winemaker Debra Cruickshank’s Bannockburn winery.
From there the base wine is sent to the Le Brun family at No1 Family Estate in Marlborough and pioneers of Méthode Traditionelle in New Zealand for 40 years.
No1 Family Estate makes bubbles the méthode traditionelle way. First, our base wine is bottled with liqueur de tirage, before being stored horizontally in a temperature-controlled environment to achieve a thread of tiny and persistent bubbles known as a fine bead. It is this second fermentation that creates the bubbles!
It then rested on lees for 4 years and 1 month before it was riddled, disgorged, capped, labelled and ready to be enjoyed!
Base Winemaker: Debra Cruickshank
Second Fermentation, Riddling & Degorgement: No1 Family Estate
Alc: 11.5%
Vegan Friendly
