Jansz LD 2002

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea.....This afternoon I left town in a summer dress on a balmy autumn morning, by the time I got to the seaside it was 15 degrees and lashing it down. The weather is changing and for me that means it's time for the bubbles to get a little older and a little more serious, so when Nat thrust the rest of the LD 2002 at me this afternoon it was very much a moment of serendipity.Time for the summer dresses to be retired and in their place a heavier knit and in my glass a weightier sparkling.

I really should write an actual tasting note here but after writing my note the old fashioned way, in a book with a pen, I am now enjoying a glass and I feel transported elsewhere. I'm feeling reflective and whimsical and if I close my eyes I can visualise myself staring out at the sea on a winters day listening to the crash of the waves and I am sat warm and cosy by a roaring fire with a good book on the go.

Anyway enough of my daydreaming, the LD 2002 is sublime. Good wine is like good art, it communicates in more ways than the medium it is presented on. At ten years old the colour is not especially deep at medium lemon and the liveliness of the bubbles is impressive, their tiny forms racing to the surface in the glass.

Stone fruits, particularly nectarine, hints of spice and nashi pears on the nose with a velvety smooth mousse, soft and rich in the mouth. Fresh with mere hints of maturity, the palate is ripe but has much development still to come and is soft without being flabby. Sometimes the hardest reviews to write are those for cracking wines and there has been a lot of thought put into this wine with its whole bunch pressing of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that has been hand rather than machine picked. Along with seven years ageing in bottle pre-disgorging, this wine is elegant, beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of drinking Pol Roger.

So if anyone has a beach house with spectacular views of the ocean and a real fire, I'll bring the wine if you let me come and visit for a couple of days, I'll even cook...

Salute Sparkling, Spring Vale, 2008

Produced by Rod and Lyn Lyne out on the east coast of Tassie in Freycinet, the Spring Vale "Salute" sparkling is a blend of 87% Chardonnay, 9% Pinot Noir and 4% Pinot Meunier. Freycinet isn't always at the top of people's minds when one thinks of Tasmanian sparkling wine but it is worth remembering that Spring Vale are in the same neighbourhood as Claudio Radenti who makes some very smart bubbles indeed.

A delicate, pale, lemon-green wine with small fast moving bubbles the Salute is very fresh on the nose with green apple, lemons, white blossoms and biscuits finding their way through. The palate is yeasty and relatively intense with flavours of nectarines, apples, lemons, peach and biscuit. Salute spends 27  months on its lees before release and I would be interested to see how this wine develops as the bottle that I had showed something of a short finish to what was quite the pleasant glass of bubbles, one to re-visit in the future I think.

No.2:Josef Chromy NV

This review must come with a disclaimer. I work here but then again I only work in good places so you'll have to decide for yourself what level of bias I am possibly at!

Josef Chromy is located in the southern part of the Tamar Valley wine route in the little village of Relbia. Josef has been a part of the history of many local wineries including Tamar Ridge but it is here that Josef Chromy wines reside with Jeremy Dineen at the helm.

All the sparkling wines are made traditionally and disgorged on site at our fancy winery across the lake from the cellar door. See below for aforementioned lake and winery peeking around the corner.

I give people the NV to try every day so being the consummate professional that I am I try it frequently to make sure it's at its finest. A citrussy nose with hints of white flowers amongst the fresh lemon and green apple it follows through on the palate to create a racy, clean and crisp sparkling wine.

A good palate cleanser, the fresh vibrancy of the wine is an ideal match for our oysters or a cheeky livener pre-dinner to awaken the palate. The Josesf Chromy NV has a youthfulness about it without tasting under ripe or too green and I would recommend it as a drinker more than a keeper as its sprightly nature is its selling point.

Biased or not? Why don't you pop down and see me at the Cellar door and decide for yourself?

No:63 Salinger 2006, Seppelt (oh and some wedding or other)

So Friday 29th April would normally have been interesting only to me as it would mark the countdown to my birthday. 1 month to go, what shall I open and all that but this year was different. Our future king would be marrying the future queen and shock horror it looks like they love each other. I'm from the generation that witnessed Diana and Fergie's weddings so it's a bit of a novelty this happy royal wedding shenanigans.

So what to drink on the big day? Well Pol Roger is pencilled in for my own personal visa celebrations so I have continued on a Commonwealth theme and gone for Seppelt's Salinger 2006. 

A blend of 54% Pinot Noir, 42% Chardonnay and 4% Pinot Meunier from fruit sourced in the Grampians the base wines are fermented separately before being blended and fermented in bottle. The Salinger goes on to spend another 3 years on its lees before being released.

So as the bride slipped into her armoured vehicle to head to the church I cracked open the Salinger. A delicate lemon green in appearance with plenty of sprightly fast moving bubbles. A complex and interesting nose with honeysuckle, leesy characteristics, dairy and apples coming through.

Honeyed flavours abound on the palate with cashews, fresh bread, lemon, crisp apples, white blossoms and yeasty autolytic notes coming together. With a creamy mouth feel and a real complexity on the palate this wine was hard to fault until the end. I would say that the Salinger is 'at peak, drink now' as the finish is more abrupt than one would expect with so much complexity on the nose and palate. 

An enjoyable glass of bubbles and a pretty good pick for unexpected celebrations over the coming months. Maybe a post-wedding royal bump?

No.101 Bird in Hand Sparkling Pinot Noir 2010

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!

No:27 Trillians 2007, Paulett Wines

As regular readers of my sparkling wine shenanigans will know I am currently in the midst of a love-in with sparkling riesling. Luckily for me this also coincides with the 100 Aussie sparklers that I am currently gleefully wading through. 

Number 27 is Trillians a sparkling riesling from Paulett Wines.  I tasted it on what has turned out to be one of the last hot days of summer. We had the barbecue fired up and even the small one had her own little burger so she could join the party before her folks went out. So with the child in bed, the parents dispatched to their date night I sat back with what was left of the Trillians.

I stand by my current love-in of sparkling Riesling, this was a real treat. Four years old and made in the charmat method with fruit sourced from the Polish Hill River area in the Clare Valley this is a ripe and juicy treat. Trillians is the name of the hill where the winery sits.

On the nose apples, pears, limes and orange blossom abound to be mixed with honey, papaya, apricot and guava on the palate all wrapped up with a fine yeastiness. With a rich and creamy mouth feel this had a hint of residual sugar that made the wine ripe and fruity in the mouth rather than sweet. It went really well with the home made burgers loaded with beetroot and cheese but also hit the spot on its own as I relaxed once everyone had gone.

Another triumph for the sparkling Riesling, hurrah!

Te Hana Sparkling Reserve Cuvee NV

Te Hana means To Shine in Maori and with a pretty little label like this, one would hope that it does. An 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir sparkling with the fruit sourced from the Marlborough region Te Hana is a relatively new product in Lion Nathan's attempt at a chunk of the sparkling wine market.   

Ripe and tropical this sparkling shows characteristics of pineapple, honey, apricot, fresh lime and papaya with a floral note which is all wrapped up with some medium sized bubbles which are relatively creamy in the mouth. Generally though this is good, simple, enjoyable sparkling wine which is really nicely presented.

The Te Hana range also has a rose and a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc, which is this years cool kid in New Zealand. Overall the range is an interesting addition to the New Zealand sparklers selection, sitting between the Lindauer's and the Palliser Estate's and Daniel Le Brun's available, it will be interesting to see how it performs over the long term.

No:65 Yellowglen Perle 2006

I had high hopes for the Yellowglen Perle 2006 as a quick Google brought awards and glory but generally Yellowglen seems to lurk in the supermarket aisles looking a little bit girls on tour. However if you are looking for something a little different to the disco divas of White, Pink, Yellow and Red then the 2006 Perle is an elegant little gem.

Toasty and rich with flavours of hazelnuts, quince, honey, lemon, biscuits, pineapple and a hint of yeasty fresh bread the 2006 is chock full of complexity with a tight bead and a real creaminess in the mouth. Although this is coming up for 5 years old there is a real youthful feel to the wine and would be interesting to taste over the next few years to see how it continues to age.  

The Perle was a real treat, we enjoyed it with the traditional fish and chip combo and it kicked off a great night seeing Mara and the Bushkas which ended far, far later than anticipated. Maybe I should have had the disco diva Yellowglen after all....