First class fizz - methode traditionnelle (Issue 137 November 2009)
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 Bubbly wine is the great all-rounder. As a festive splash, it can launch everything from an ocean liner to a birthday party for two. In dry apéritif form it’s the perfect pre-meal appetiser, and more robust versions are ideally suited to a broad range of foods and dining options. Sweet wines add a festive air to desserts and life to a party.
Today a vast array of good sparkling wines are produced across the winemaking universe, including Australia and New Zealand.
Increasingly, down-under wineries are successfully combining improved vineyard resources, New World innovation and Old World technique to make excellent sparklers, some of which are surprisingly well priced. Competition is fierce, too, so shop around to knock dollars off your sparkling wine bill.
The sparkling class gave us time to reflect on just how far New Zealand wine has come. Four of the Top Five wines were Kiwi examples, classy wines offering high quality and good value in world terms. Only one Australian wine of a number entered earned a star rating and that came from the cooler vineyards of Tasmania, confirming the island state’s credentials for good sparklers.
Ready-Made
Our wine reviews usually provide an ageing forecast but Champagnes arrive on the market ready to drink. Cellaring recommendations are therefore not given for the Champagnes and sparkling wines reviewed in this issue. A few may surprise with longer bottle age, but most are released with enough age already, so drink up!
Tasting Panel
Our Champagne tasting panel brought together a wealth of experience. Cuisine’s wine panel chair, John Belsham, owner-winemaker of Foxes Island Wines in Marlborough and a respected world wine judge, led the tasting, with a further international perspective coming from Cuisine’s Melbourne-based judge and writer Ralph Kyte-Powell. Senior wine show judge Sam Kim, of Wine Orbit fame, added his expertise and experience, and our associate judge was Jane Boyle, product strategy manager at New Zealand Wine Cellars.
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Cuisine Top 5 NZ & Australian Méthode Traditionnelle
To qualify for TopFive status, wines must be readily available for general purchase. Some wines might rate as high or higher but are hard to find. Wines are listed in order of final scores.
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1 |
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Soljans Legacy Méthode Traditionnelle 2004 (Hawke’s Bay & Marlborough, NZ) |
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2 |
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Montana Reserve Chardonnay Pinot Noir Rosé NV (Gisborne & Hawke’s Bay, NZ) |
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3 |
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Pelorus By Cloudy Bay NV (Marlborough, NZ) |
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4 |
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Deutz Marlborough Cuvée NV |
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4 |
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Jansz Tasmania Premium Rosé NV |
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