Bird in Hand winery sits atop an old gold mine in Woodside, South Australia. Back in 1997 Andrew Nugent decided that the Adelaide Hills was where he wanted to be to create something in what was then an emerging wine region.
The sparkling Pinot Noir rose has a pretty quick turn around from vine to glass as I was treated to the 2010 vintage when I tried it at Capri in Wellington. A pretty, pale salmon-pink rose the nose is a soft, ripe confected hullabaloo. Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, vanilla, red apples, strawberry laces, play-doh and a touch of candy floss abound in a whirligig of ripe red flavours. From that I was expecting something far sweeter than the palate actually delivered.
The very ripe flavours on the nose are there but more muted and a slightly more serious side emerges with crisper redcurrants and rosehips with darker notes of cocoa and liquorice making their way into the fold. Bird in Hand is an off-dry sparkler which I think would work well with some spicy nibbles such as satay pork and sweet chilli chicken. The mousse is creamy in the mouth and the acidity is balancing but not overly racy so the sweetness would easily take the edge off a spicy dish.
From the nose I was expecting a fluffy flibbertigibbet of a wine but the palate has a well structured seriousness that contrasts yet enhances those flighty flavours.
It's not officially on the list of 100 Australian sparkling wines to try but to be honest it really ought to be so No.101 it is!
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